Quiche Lorraine (+ Spinach)

A favourite for Australians, this French savoury, egg-based tart is flavoured with onions, bacon and cheese. An easy way to get kids to eat veggies is to put it in something that they already like, you really taste the spinach in the quiche but it adds some extra veg to the recipe! Traditionally made with shortcrust pastry, however, I like the flakiness that puff pastry adds. As a meal, I normally serve this dish with a simple side salad made with a mixed salad bag, avocado and dressed with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, fleur de sel (sea salt) and finished off with a balsamic glaze.

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Quiche Lorraine (+ Spinach)

Ingredients:

          1 sheet puff pastry (you may need to 'stitch' on extra depending on the size of your tart
          tin)
          1 tbsp. cooking oil
          1 large onion
          200g bacon, diced (I used short cut)
          125g chopped frozen spinach, drained
          3/4 cup grated tasty cheese (substitute for your preferred hard cheese)
          3 eggs
          1/2 cup milk
          300ml thickened cream
          Salt (to season, I used approx. 2 pinches)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius
2. In a frypan, cook the onion until translucent and slightly brown
3. Add in the bacon and cook until fragrant. Set aside to cool
4. Microwave the spinach for 1 minute to thaw and drain thoroughly
5. Whisk egg, milk and cream and season with salt (remembering that the bacon and cheese will add some saltiness to the quiche)
6. Line your tart tin with the pastry making sure to push it in the corners gently to create a nice edge to your crust and cut off the excess (keeping in mind that the pastry may shrink a little in the oven so perhaps leave 0.5-1cm above the tart tin)
7. Place the onion, bacon and spinach into the base of the tart, ensuring that there is an even distribution the ingredients
8. Top with the grated cheese
9. Pour in the egg mixture
10. Bake until the top is golden brown
11. Remove from oven and cool until ready to serve
12. Serve with a side salad

    

    Quiche served with an avocado mixed salad with balsamic dressing

****Tips: 

- Leftover grated cheese can be stored in the freezer for use in your next recipe!
- I found that quiche doesn't cook in the oven for long enough for the base to get soggy so blind baking is not necessary.
- If you have remaining egg mixture, just use it for scrambled eggs the next day! It makes a lovely creamy breakfast dish.
- You can also choose to make the quiches in muffin pans for a picnic or to take as a packed lunch!
- Leftover puff pastry can be used to make an after dinner treat like Pain au Chocolat - the recipe is linked below

Complementing Recipes:

- Pain au Chocolat (Chocolate Croissants)

Click here for the recipe! This beautifully flaky pastry filled with oozy dark chocolate is the perfect after dinner treat or early morning accompaniment for your coffee, recipe by FrenchGuyCooking on  YouTube.

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My family loves to eat quiche lorraine and used to buy frozen mini quiches, but I noticed that when they do so the quiches are rarely eaten with any veg. So I decided to add some extra spinach into the recipe which turned out to be a great idea, my sister already loves quiche so even seeing the spinach didn't stop her from trying my quiche and to my surprise she loved it! She said that it tasted so much better than the frozen quiches and that the bacon flavour masked the taste of the spinach!

I'd love to see your versions of my recipes if you try them! Feel free to send them through to my email address; on Instagram with the tag (@unadornedeats) and/or hash-tag (#unadornedeats); or attach them to a comment below!

Love and luck in your cooking!

- Unadorned Eats