I won't go into a long old rigmarole about the quiche, just suffice to say that I was looking to achieve a quiche that had to be tasty, I didn't want it to be too wet (the contents, that is!) and it had to be vegetarian. For me, this creation ticked all those boxes but be aware that my hubby thought it was a little bit "squishy", so if you've got texture-centric diners it's probably worth subbing some other vegetable in for the courgette, as I suspect that was the culprit.
I managed to avoid most of the "squishiness" by oven roasting the majority of the vegetables, which dried them out nicely. Take care to cut the sweet potato pieces into very small chunks to avoid it overpowering the contents. It will spread out better as smaller pieces.
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| Ready for the oven |
As ever, if you try the recipe and have any problems or confusion with it do let me know and I'll do my best to iron those problems out for others!
ROASTED MEDITERRANEAN VEGETABLE & CHEESE QUICHE (serves 4-8)
Ingredients :
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cut into small chunks
1 small red onion, peeled and cut into quarters
1 medium courgette, top & tailed, then cut into small chunks
8 button mushrooms, sliced finely
Frylight sunflower oil cooking spray
sea salt & black pepper
300g approx ready rolled shortcrust pastry (or you could make your own)
3 large eggs
1 tsp English mustard powder
100ml double cream
100ml semi skimmed milk
2 pieces of chargrilled red pepper from a jar (rinsed), cut into small pieces
3 sprigs of fresh basil, sliced fine
1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
half a tsp dried oregano
30g Gruyere or Gouda cheese, grated finely
30g red Cheddar or red Leicester cheese, grated finely
50g mature Cheddar cheese, grated finely
50g Greek salad cheese (Feta-alike, so if you've got Feta, that would be fine) broken into small pieces
1 medium tomato, sliced
1 tbsp fresh chives, chopped.
Method :
Pre-heat your oven to 180degC/340degF/Gas 4.
Place the sweet potato, onion and courgette pieces onto a large baking tray and spread them out evenly. Spray well with cooking spray and sprinkle with a little sea salt & black pepper. Place into the oven to roast for 25-30 minutes or until the sweet potato is tender. Ideally, the vegetables should have small areas of charring on them in order to get the best flavour.
With 10 minutes to go, sprinkle the vegetables with the sliced mushrooms, give a quick spray with the Frylight and replace into the oven until the rest of the veggies are done. Remove from the oven and place to one side to cool until required. Once cool, cut the onion quarters into smaller pieces.
While the veggies are cooking, prepare your pastry case by lining a loose bottomed 8 inch sandwich tin or quiche dish with pastry that has been rolled out thinly, making sure it is pressed into the corners of the tin and without any air bubbles underneath. Cover the pastry with a layer of baking paper and fill with baking beans. Once the vegetables are done and removed from the oven, place the pastry case in to part-bake for some 20-25 minutes. Again, when the time is up, remove and leave to cool until required.
While the pastry is part baking, you can get on with making the filling. Take a large bowl and break the eggs into it. Give them a light whisk to break the yolks and combine with the white. Add the cream, milk, some black pepper and the mustard powder and whisk to combine.
Add the sliced red peppers, basil, parsley, oregano and all the vegetables from the oven which should be fairly cool by now. Add most of the grated cheeses but reserve a little to sprinkle over the top and give the whole lot a good, but gentle, stir so as not to break anything up. Add the Greek salad cheese and give everything a light stir, just to combine.
When the filling is ready, take the part baked pastry case and carefully pour the filling in. Gently encourage the contents to spread evenly across the pastry case to avoid any areas that are just egg mixture. Sprinkle the surface with the reserved grated cheese and lay the tomato slices in an attractive pattern on the top. Sprinkle the chives across the surface and give the tomato pieces a tiny sprinkle with black pepper.
Place into the oven to bake for 30-35 minutes. Check the quiche after 25 minutes and turn it if the surface is browning unevenly. When cooked, the centre of the filling should feel fairly firm to the touch, but have a little spring in it and the whole thing should be a golden colour.
Remove the quiche from the oven and allow to cool for some 15-20 minutes. In the case of a loose bottomed sandwich tin, gently remove the quiche from the tin and leave on a baking rack to cool completely.
Serve with chips or Jersey Royal new potatoes and salad.
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