BABY SPINACH AND CHEDDAR QUICHE FLORENTINE

I remembered the Quiche Florentine recipe I found a couple of months ago. I had a container of fresh spinach I needed to use, and there was also a box of puff pastry in the freezer, the kind with two sheets. It was easy enough to thaw the pastry out and roll them to fit a couple of pie plates. The recipe comes from Living Lou and the original recipe can be found here. I recommend visiting Lou’s recipe as she has step-by-step instructions with photos.

Quiche Florentine with Fresh Spinach

1 9” deep dish frozen pie crust, or you can use your own favorite pie-crust recipe, or the frozen pastry sheets as mentioned.

For the filling:

1 tablespoon salted butter

2 shallots, chopped 

1/2 teaspoon salt, divided 

4 cups spinach (mature or baby spinach), roughly chopped

3\4 cup grated cheddar cheese (Gruyère or Swiss can be substituted)

1/2 cup 35% cream (I used half and half)  

1/2 cup 2% milk

4 large eggs

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Place pie crust on a baking sheet and prick all over with a fork. Bake for ten minutes.

Meanwhile, make the spinach filling. Melt the butter in a non-stick pan over medium heat. Add the shallots and cook for about 2 minutes, until they begin to soften. Add the spinach and 1/4 teaspoon salt and freshly ground pepper.  Cook another 2 to 3 minutes until spinach is wilted.

Transfer wilted spinach mixture into a sieve, and using the back of a spatula, push and stir the mixture to draw out excess liquid (this is to help prevent a soggy crust after cooking). Spread cooked spinach mixture evenly in the bottom of the crust.  Sprinkle grated cheese evenly over spinach.

In a large bowl, whisk together the cream, milk, eggs, with remaining salt and pepper. Pour over the spinach and cheese.

Bake for 30 minutes in a 375 degree F. oven, or until quiche is golden brown and still slightly jiggly.

Freezing instructions:

After baking, allow to cool completely before wrapping in aluminum foil and freezing. The quiche will last for three months in the freezer. When ready to bake, unwrap and bake in 375 degree oven for about 50 to 60 minutes.

This recipe can easily be doubled to make two quiches.

Excellent recipe! We both gave this a 10 out of 10.

The changes we made: 

Below is the frozen puff pastry dough I already had in the freezer.  I had bought it originally to make an appetizer, but this came up first. After thawing I rolled out both sheets to fit two pie plates. They worked perfectly. Just had to trim it a little to fit.

Next time I will look for my actual quiche dishes. No problem using the pie plates, there was just a lot of pastry on the edge, as you can see below. I trimmed it off for my first photo.

Instead of shallots I used and diced half of a large sweet onion already in stock.   

I didn’t add any salt as we are monitoring our salt intake at the moment. Didn’t miss it at all!

I used half and half instead of the 35% cream.

Our oven runs on the colder side, and I ended up adding at least 15 more minutes to the cooking time before it started to get puffed and golden. You will have to judge your own cooking time, as this is just a guideline.  

I also added strips of foil to wrap around the pastry edges to prevent burning.

My sides are a favorite, sliced tomatoes, and sliced avocado (not seen). They were nice accompaniments.  

A mixed green salad would be lovely too.  

A sprinkle of black sesame seeds was my garnish this time.

I made enough filling for two quiches. We used one of them for dinner and had two more meals over the next couple of days. We froze the second quiche for another day. 

I was thinking that this might be nice without a crust, but I got the side-eye from my dear other half. He really liked that crust, and definitely had a point. This whole recipe was delicious and perfect for us.

If you prefer to copy and paste instead of going to the links above, here is the address out in full.

https://www.living Lou.com/quiche-florentine-fresh-spinach/

That’s about all I can think of right now. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask in the comment section.