Potato Crusted Spinach and Ham Quiche

Potato crusted spinach quiche | Delicacious

Potato crusted spinach quiche – just because I was too lazy tired to make a proper shortcrust pastry for the quiche. Why? Last weekend was a crazy weekend. I was coordinating a wedding on Sunday, my girl was the flower girl for the wedding and hubby was coordinating a Children’s Day carnival at the same time, somewhere else. By the time we were all done with our various engagements and responsibilities, it was 4pm, and we were ready to hit the sack. There was still dinner to plan for though. Neither of us wanted to eat out, and I was too tired to prepare anything complicated.

Since I had spinach and ham, a quiche sounded like a possibility but no way was I making the crust from scratch at 4pm. I recalled seeing a potato crusted quiche somewhere on Pinterest and so I decided to use potatoes in place of the crust. Whoever thought of that was brilliant.

Potato crusted spinach quiche

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Baked Asparagus and Spinach Risotto

This simple risotto is great for nights where you feel like something fast and “meatless”. Though it is almost vegetarian (just switch the chicken stock to vegetable stock), it is chock full of flavour. A risotto dish typically requires one to stand in front of the stove patiently stirring and adding ladles of hot stock. This one does not require much patience as you just need to pop it into the oven. Both my husband and 18 month old daughter loved it!

Ingredients:
Serves 4
Adapted from Patricia Well’s Trattoria

1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 cup Arborio rice
2 cups low sodium chicken stock (or vegetable stock if preferred)
1 cup thawed, chopped frozen spinach, packed
10 spears fresh asparagus, cut into thin diagonal slices
salt to taste
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 200°C.
  2. In a deep skillet, saute onion in olive oil until translucent.
  3. Add the rice, stirring to coat with the oil.
  4. Add chicken stock, spinach and asparagus and bring to simple over moderate heat.
  5. Stir in half the cheese.
  6. Add salt to taste (I don’t usually add salt)
  7. Transfer to casserole and smooth out the top.
  8. Sprinkle remaining parmesan on top.
  9. Cover the casserole
  10. Bake in the centre of the oven for 35 – 40 minutes, or until rice is cooked through.
  11. Serve immediately.

Crustless Spinach Quiche

I had bought a packet of frozen spinach last week, meaning to cook creamed spinach some time this week. When this did not materialise, I decided to do something else with the spinach.

I was too lazy to roll out a crust, and so I decided that this quiche was going to be crustless. To save the trouble of having to cut it up, I decided to bake the quiche mixture in a cupcake tin. I used some aged pecorino cheese in place of gruyere cheese, the typical choice for quiches.

The quiche turned out nicely, though I think it was a tad bit salty, as I forgot that pecorino is saltier than gruyere, and forgot to cut down the salt.

Crustless Spinach Quiche
(Makes 10 mini quiche)

Ingredients:
1 packet of chopped frozen spinach
1 red onion, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups of cream or half and half
1 cup of cheese (gruyere/pecorino/mozarella etc)
1/2 tsp of salt (or less)
1/4 tsp of ground black pepper
1/8 tsp of ground nutmeg

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 205°C.
  2. Fry the chopped red onion in olive oil until fragrant and translucent.
  3. Add drained spinach until it wilts and is dry.
  4. Remove from heat to cool.
  5. In a large bowl, combine eggs, cream, cheese and seasonings.
  6. Add in cooled spinach and mix to combine.
  7. Fill 10 cupcake molds.
  8. Bake for 20 minutes or until tops of quiches are golden brown.