This is my brother’s favourite quiche. Full of delicious spinach, and a surprise ingredient, cottage cheese. I’ve added a few extra ingredients to the traditional recipe we originally used, this is to add a little extra fibre diversity, but also gives a little more depth of flavour.
The surprising use of cottage cheese in this dish means that some of the cream is replaced by this lower-fat dairy product. Cottage cheese is a low-fat cheese made using both curds and whey, meaning it retains some of the protein found in some dairy products. The little curds stay whole in the quiche so you get delicious nuggets of soft cheese throughout the quiche, giving an amazing texture and taste to the dish. No wonder it has been a favourite of my brothers for such a long time!
If you don’t have a 9″ flan tin, you can make smaller quiches using cupcake or muffin trays. Growing up my mum would always make these for birthday parties, so making mini individual quiches is perfect for hungry little fingers! It also freezes really well; if you want to serve them hot from the freezer, only partially cook them the first time round so you can re-crisp the pastry in the oven after defrosting.
This is perfect as a light dinner, or even served cold at a picnic or to take to work for lunch. I love serving it simply with a salad.
If you don’t want to make your own pastry then shop bought is fine. I use a full butter recipe in my shortcrust pastry recipe, but for those who need to watch their saturated fat intakes, using shop bought vegetable fat based shortcrust pastry is an option here. If you need to make a gluten-free version, use a gluten-free pastry, or alternatively if you want a crustless quiche butter the sides of a cake tin.
Serves 4 as a main, 6 for a lighter lunch or starter
Ingredients
- 260g shortcrust pastry
- 1 onion, finely diced
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 400g spinach, fresh or frozen
- 1/2 nutmeg, grated
- 300g cottage cheese
- 3 large eggs
- 50 parmesan, grated
- 90ml double cream
- 100g tomatoes, sliced
Method
- Roll the pastry out to a thickness of 2mm and line a 9″ flan tin, leaving excess pastry overhanging the edge. Chill in the fridge.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C fan, 190°C convection, and once up to temperature, prick the base of the pastry with a fork and blind bake the pastry case using non-stick paper and baking beans or dried rice for 15 minutes.
- Remove the baking beans and paper and return the tin to the oven for a further 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, gently fry the onion in the oil till soft before adding the spinach and cooking until all the water evaporates. Turn off the heat and allow to cool slightly.
- Mix the cottage cheese, eggs, parmesan and double cream together and season with nutmeg and pepper to taste.
- Once the spinach has cooled, add to the wet ingredients and mix before pouring into the pastry case.
- Top with sliced tomatoes and bake for 30-35 minutes till puffed up and golden brown*^.
Per sixth of a quiche: 376kcal/ 22.9g fat/ 13.5g saturated fat/ 24.9g carbohydrates/ 2.0g fibre/ 16.4g protein
*If freezing, part bake for 15-20 minutes till puffed up but without a golden brown colour. Allow to cool fully before storing in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months. To reheat, pre-heat the oven to 180°C fan, 190°C convection, place back into the tin, and bake for 15 minutes till golden brown.
^If making mini individual quiches cook for 15-20 minutes.