Welcoming spring with quiche


Looking out of my window, last week I saw the most beautiful scene to eyes that had been deprieved of sunshine for three months of winter. The sun peeped out last week after months of hiding behind clouds. Trees began sprouting spring buds, myriad colored flowers began blooming on the wayside and the song of spring was in my heart. I wanted to make something special to celebrate the occasion. Quiche sounded so exotic and different so I decided to try my hand at eggless quiche with spinach and cilantro as an ode to the coming green months. The recipe I used is from all recipes
Except for a few small changes. To start with I made the crust myself. Using a recipe for winter fruit pie with walnut crumb from epicurious iPhone app. 
Additionally,  I found this site very helpful for handy hints on baking the perfect pie
  
Also, I substituted cooked instant oats for tofu, and used low fat cheddar cheese. Both of which upped the health factor without hampering the taste or texture in anyway

To make quiche
Ingredients
For pastry crust
1 cup plain all purpose flour (I substituted with 1/2 wholewheat and 1/2 all purpose; but if this is your first time making a pie crust it's best to do it with all purpose)
1/2 cup unsalted butter diced into 1/2 cm pieces
Ice cold water
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp sugar

For filling
2 tbsp instant oats
1 bunch spinach
1 bunch cilantro
1 medium onion chopped
Salt to taste 
Pepper to taste
1/2 cup milk

Method. 

Combine all dry ingredients in a pan and place in freezer for 15 min. Cut butter into the flour with a food processor or with your hands, until the whole thing resembles coarse cornmeal or bread crumbs. Mix lemon juice with 
water and sprinkle enough on the flour mix to get a straggly looking dough. Gather dough together and dump it onto a well floured surface and press into a 6 inch disk. Cover with plastic wrap or foil and chill in refrigarator for an hour. Take out, place on a lightly floured surface and using a rolling pin,  roll into a 14 inch disk.  Roll the dough from the center outward using even, firm strokes. Turning the dough as you work, about an eighth of turn per roll, will help to keep it round. Carefully wrap the rolled out dough around the rolling pin and transfer to pie plate by unrolling it. Make sure the pastry covers the entire plate, trim off any overhanging edges and place pie plate in refrigarator for half an hour. Meanwhile prep the filling

For the filling
Wash spinach and cilantro leaves and cook covered in a pan with just the water hanging to the leaves after washing. Do not add any additional water. Simultaneously place oatmeal in a pot, add enough water to cover, bring to boil and simmer till all the water is absorbed. In a bowl, combine, oatmeal, cooked spinach and cilantro,  onions, milk, cheese, salt and pepper and mix into a smooth thick paste. 

Putting it together
Preheat oven to 375 F .Take pie plate out of refrigarator. Fill with spinach mixture. Bake for 15 to 20 min until crust is golden brown. Reduce oven temp to 350 F and bake for an additional 15 min till the cheese turns brown. Time consuming and tedious yes, but it's been totally worth it at the end of the day, when I put my baby to sleep and curled up with my favorite book on my lap, a hot mug of coffee in one hand, and a piece of warm quiche in another. Knowing this wasn't store bought, but made from scratch in my kitchen.


   

Comments

  1. Wow.. thats one healthy quiche.. Never thought of adding oats, sounds delicious.

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  2. My daughter is a big fan of Quiche.

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  3. looks delicious and well prepared!

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  4. Hi Pavani,Srimathi and Suparna, thanks for stopping by and leaving your encouraging comments.

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  5. Lakshmi, Quiche looks good. To answer your question, no these muffins were not that sweet and were a little dense that they probably won't make good cake. That being said, there is a vegan orange cake recipe mentioned in my blog in my first couple of posts. Try that. It comes out really nice. Its from Vaishali of Holy Cow. I do make small changes, but follow that recipe. If you are trying to torte it into thin layers, that recipe won't work very well since it crumbles. All vinegar based egg less cakes do. Hope this helps.

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