Quiche is the perfect picnic food, it’s easy to transport and great hot or cold. This spinach and feta quiche has a rich, buttery, thyme pastry that encases a fluffy, creamy filling of spinach, feta, and shallots.
This quiche is full of delicious flavours and is a firm favourite in my house. It is just as delicious cold as it is hot and is great for summer picnics or Sunday lunch.
It’s packed to the brim with spinach, creamy feta, sweet shallots and a hint of garlic. The filling is light and fluffy and perfectly creamy. A homemade pie crust with a hint of thyme makes this quiche extra special.
Why This Recipe Works
- That pastry – perfectly buttery with a delicious hint of thyme.
- The perfect filling – light, fluffy and deliciously creamy
- Spinach – there is a lot of spinach in this quiche but trust me the kids will still love it!
- Great for Sunday lunch – looking for something new to cook for the vegetarians in your life, this quiche makes for a great Sunday lunch!
What You’ll Need
– For The Pastry
- Flour – plain/all-purpose flour.
- Butter – I use salted butter, so no need to add any extra salt to your pastry.
- Egg yolks – 3 medium or 2 large egg yolks.
- Thyme – I add a tablespoon of fresh thyme leaves to the pastry for a little extra flavour
– For The Filling
- Eggs – 3 medium eggs, when making quiche I always go by the ratio of 1 egg:½ cup of dairy
- Cream – I use double/heavy cream for extra richness
- Spinach – Fresh is best here, you can use regular or baby spinach depending on your taste. In my experience kids prefer the milder baby spinach.
- Feta – Look for authentic Greek feta, I use three quarters in the egg and cream mixture and ¼ spread on the pastry base.
- Shallots – I use the small round French shallots, but you can also use banana shallots.
- Garlic – If you are a fan of garlic like me, then 2 good sized cloves of garlic is perfect.
- Nutmeg – I add a little grating of nutmeg to the egg/cream mixture.
How to Make Spinach and Feta Quiche
This is just a quick visual guide, the full ingredients and instructions are in the recipe card below.
- Make the pastry – sift the flour into a large bowl, add the butter, mix that in using two knives. Then using your fingertips rub the butter into the flour until you a crumb-like texture. Stir in the thyme leaves. Whisk the eggs with the chilled water then add a tablespoon at a time to the flour mixture. Sir with a knife then finally using your hands bring the pastry together into a ball shape. Wrap it in cling film then pop it in the fridge for 20 to 30 minutes. Then blind bake the pastry.
- Cook the shallots – while the pastry is baking fry the shallots in a little oil until soft and golden brown then add the garlic and cook for a minute or two. Once the pastry is cooked remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly. Spread the cooked shallots over the base of the pastry followed by one-quarter of the feta.
- Sautee the spinach – cook the spinach until it is wilted then leave it to cool. Once it’s cool enough to handle squeeze all the excess water from it. Spread that evenly over the base of the pastry.
- Whisk the eggs and cream – stir in a little grated nutmeg then once they are all combined crumble in the feta, add salt and pepper then stir well. Carefully pour the mixture into the pastry case, then bake.
Tips for Making The Best Spinach Quiche:
- Butter – I use salted butter so I don’t add salt to my pastry, if you use unsalted butter then you may want to add a pinch of salt to the flour. The butter needs to be very cold.
- Knives – I use two knives like scissors to cut the butter into the flour. I usually have warm hands which are not great for making the pastry, you want the butter to stay cold, so the less you handle it the better.
- Blind Baking – When I blind bake the pastry I crumple up the baking paper before I add the baking beans, this is so that the beans will reach every corner and you will have an even pastry base.
- Cracks – Always keep a little leftover pastry to patch up any cracks after the blind bake, sometimes cracks happen, this is OK! Patch them up and the quiche will still taste great, no one will notice.
- Eggs – I use free-range, medium eggs for this recipe.
- Filling – For best results I add the shallots and the feta to the cooked pastry base before adding the filling, it gives the quiche a lovely sweetness. I then added the sautéed and squeezed spinach and pour the cream/egg mixture over into the base. I find this makes for a better quiche.
What to Serve with Spinach and Feta Quiche
This quiche is really great served with a simple tomato salad but a nice green salad would be great with it too. Boiled new potatoes or potato salad are also great with this.
FAQs
Freeze this Spinach Quiche?
This quiche is best made fresh, if you freeze this it may become quite soggy once thawed and reheated. You can freeze the raw pastry crust though, you can bake the base from frozen then fill it with the filling and bake the quiche.
How Long will this Quiche Keep For?
It will keep in the fridge for two days, leave it to cool completely before putting it in the fridge. You can eat this quiche hot or cold but if you want to reheat it pop it in a hot oven for about 15 to 20 minutes or until it is piping hot.
