Non-Soup post – Spinach and Goat Cheese Whole-Wheat Quiche

March 14, 2014 by Soup Guru 6 Comments

Spinach and Goat Cheese Whole-Wheat Quiche

I know this recipe has nothing to do with soup, but I was cooking it the other day for lunch and being one of my “specialities “I felt like sharing it with you as well.

A quiche is a great option to take to gatherings and to cook when entertaining at home; I’ve been cooking this for years, but when I first served it for a birthday brunch some years ago everybody liked it so much that I started doing it for this sort of events since then too.

There are two phases in its making: the pastry crust and the filling. As for the pastry you could also use a bought one when in a hurry and as for the filling it can be whatever you wish, I usually cook this one along with a quiche Lorraine. However, when it comes to the pastry crust, I hardly recommend to try the home-made, you’ll see how easy it is to make and how much healthier, the bought ones usually contain high percentages of hydrogenated fat (the worst kind).

Quiches are big in Argentina, my home country, they are part of everyday menus in most families and restaurants; in fact, my grannie Dina (my mum’s mum) used to cook a ham&cheese one very often that the whole family loved and she was the one who taught me the pastry dough that I’ve been using for around 20 years already. I have no idea where or from whom she got the recipe, and of course, there is no need to say that although I like my results, I could never make it taste exactly like hers.

In today’s version I used whole-wheat flour instead of white for the pastry, but you can easily switch them using the same measurements. I created the filling using a classic spinach filling formula with a French inspiration twist. Shall we try it?

Servings: 4

Preparation time: 20 minutes.

Cooking time: 20 minutes for the filling and pre-cooking the pastry crust (to be done simultaneously) + 15 minutes grilling the quiche. These times are approximate and will depend on your oven.

Ingredients

For the pastry dough (the following quantities yield for two quiches, I used half of the dough and freeze the other one, because halving them make it to difficult to knead and adjust the right proportions. Or you can always make two quiches at once!)

2 cups* (wholewheat) flour
1 small cup* (espresso coffee cup size) of:

sunflower oil**/canola oil
(skinny) milk
warm water

* Here’s a picture of the kind of cups I use:

**I’ve tried olive oil as well, but the pastry turned out harder, so I came back to the original recipe that uses sunflower oil. This oil doesn’t have the good fame of olive oil, but a good quality one, cold pressed, is packed with vitamin E and high in polyunsaturated fatty acids and is great to eat cooked.

For the filling

a dash of olive oil
1 onion, chopped
300 g fresh spinach, roughly chopped (you can also use frozen)
2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour
1&1/2 cup skinny milk
salt, white pepper and nutmeg to taste
ca. 120 g goat cheese, sliced. I used this kind:

Preparation

Start by preheating the oven at 200ºC and continue by the dough: in a big bowl add the whole-wheat flour and pour the oil, milk and warm water. Combine with a fork at first and then knead the mixture with your hands until the dough bun is formed.

Put a baking sheet in a tart pan and extend the dough to form the quiche crust, prick the base all over with a fork and pre-cook it in the oven while you prepare the filling. This time may need to be adjusted depending on how crusty you like your quiche and on your oven.

In deep frying pan (I use a wok) heat the oil and sauté the onion over medium heat until translucent, add the spinach and a pinch of salt and stir till they soften. Add the white flour and mix a few minutes, then pour the milk and blend until the mixture becomes creamy. Season with salt, white pepper and a pinch of nutmeg to taste.

Take the tart crust off the oven and fill it with the spinach preparation. Put the goat cheese slices on top of it and grill until the cheese has slightly browned.