Vegetable Quiche
I had never made a quiche before, but it was a perfect dish to prepare for a family picnic we were planning to have. Quiche is oven-baked with eggs and milk in a blind-baked pastry crust base. Blind-baking is simply pre-baking, either fully or partial, before putting any filling. The filling can be anything you want, I combined some of my favourite vegetables and cheese to make my filling. This was a bit lengthy, but an exciting journey as I decided to make the pasty from scratch, though you can always pick it up from your local store.
Serves 6; Total time: 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours.
Ingredients:
1/2 pack shortcrust pastry (freeze the rest for another time)
1 courgette, sliced
8-10 medium size mushrooms, sliced
1 large or 2 medium onions, sliced and caramelised
8-10 cherry tomatoes, halved
100 g goats cheese, sliced circles or crumbled
handful of basil leaves
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp olive oil
2 eggs
2 tbsp of butter
250 ml milk
25 g plain flour
Salt and pepper to taste
1. You can make your pastry by scratch as in instructed in these making and rolling videos. Otherwise, you can speed up the recipe by buying the shortcrust pastry. Roll pastry to 3-5mm thick or use the ready-rolled sheet. Gently place into a 24cm pie dish (or loose-bottom cake tin) being sure to push the pastry into the corners. Don’t worry if the pastry tears as you can easily cover up by putting a pinch of pastry to cover it up. Once the dish has been lined with pastry, blind-bake it while you prepare your filling.
2. To prepare the filling, melt butter in pan over medium heat. Cook mushrooms and courgettes for 5 minutes, stirring until starting to soften. Tip the milk and flour into the pan and stir until it thickens to a smooth sauce. Cool for 5 minutes or so.
3. Meanwhile cut onions and caramelise by heating olive oil in a pan on medium heat and cook onions until transparent (5 mins or so). Now add balsamic vinegar and cook for a few minutes until brown (not burnt). Set aside.
4. Whisk eggs, season generously and mix with the cooked vegetables from Step 2.
5. Assemble the quiche as follows: spread the vegetable and egg mix, layer the basil and caramelise onions, scatter the goats cheese and cherry tomatoes. Bake in the oven at 170C/335F for about 25-30 minutes.If you are serving for a dinner party, you can cook it for 15-20 minutes ahead of time and cook for the remaining time when ready to serve.
In my photo, the onions look a bit burnt (though they didn’t taste it), but if you have better photo after making yours, I would be happy to put it up so go ahead and cook this then get in touch with me :).
Strawberry & Goat Cheese Salad
This is one of my favourite salads because I love strawberries and goats cheese. It truly is a great combination and plus its a good way to get your daily serving of fruit in. I first made it when I invited friends over for dinner in the States. I had no idea that the friend did not like goat’s cheese (what a bad friend I am!), but after having it, she loved it. When summer comes around, you can whip up this vibrant amazingness in minutes. Below are my approximate measurements and so there is no need to measure it out exactly.
Serves 4:
a bag of your favourite mixed salad leaves, 1/2 cup of crumbled goats cheese, 1.5 cup of sliced strawberries, 1/4 roughly chopped glazed walnuts (pecan nuts would be great too), 1-2 tbsp balsamic, 1-2 tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper to taste
Here is what you do:
It’s not rocket science (pardon the pun!). Combine all of it in a bowl and devour. I guarantee you, it will be all gone. If there is any left, I’ll have it please 🙂
Tip: You do not have to buy glazed nuts, simply roast them on low heat in a frying pan until golden, then just add a bit of maple syrup or honey, cool and voila you have aromatic, glazed pecans!
Stuffed Mushrooms with Goats Cheese
- Preheat the oven to 180 c. Brush the undersides of the mushrooms with olive oil, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. place on a greased baking tray.
- Roast for 8-10 minutes, or until the mushrooms softens, then remove from the oven and set aside.
- Spread a quarter of the paste inside one of the mushrooms and top with a slice of the goat’s cheese. Repeat with the remaining stuffing mixture, mushrooms and goat’s cheese.
- Placed the stuffed mushrooms back onto the baking tray and cook for 5-6 minutes, or until cheese is golden brown and bubbling.
- To serve, mix the greens in a bowl and dress with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Divide the salad among four serving plates then place a stuffed mushroom on each and serve. If you like, can also sprinkle some pine nuts to finish it off.
VegDelights 