Spinach and Mushroom Quiche

You guessed it. I had spinach and I had mushrooms. So yes, a quiche was inevitable, right?

I searched the internet for recipes but didn't find anything I wanted to use so I just made it up as I went along. The result was delicious and the quiche was enough to serve two dinners (with a side salad) and one lunch which made me feel thrifty too!

Here's what happened. I made a pastry which is basically flour, butter and sesame seeds. While it was chilling in the fridge I sauteed a big bag of fresh spinach leaves with a bit of crushed garlic and olive oil. Once wilted I let it rest in a colander so that the excess fluid could drain away. The next step was cooking the mushrooms and letting it rest. Then I whisked three eggs and added 300 ml double cream which I just happend to have in the fridge (yay!). After I rolled out the pastry and draped it into my pie dish I pricked the pastry with a fork.  I decided to blind bake the pastry for about 15 minutes just to give it a head start.  Layer the spinach and the mushrooms on the pastry. Make sure you squeeze as much juice as possible out of the spinach before adding it to the quiche.

A sprinkling of grated cheese goes a long way. Lastly pour over the double cream and egg mixture (remember to season it with salt and pepper!). Place it in the oven for about 45 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius.

Pasta with Tomato, Chicken and Spinach

The weather continues to annoy me.
I'm sick of the rain.
I want sun.

But since I have no control over it whatsoever I guess all I can do is accept the rain and go on with life. I had chicken and spinach and wanted to bake a pie. But then I got distracted and ran out of time so I ended up making a pasta dish instead.

A big tin of peeled tomatoes, chicken breasts cubed, lots of freshly washed spinach, onion, a clove of garlic, one carrot diced, olive oil and seasoning. That was all it took. Of course fresh basil from my herb garden and lots of grated Parmesan completed the dish.

Hope you have great week ahead!

Spinach Pesto

You know how I feel about spinach, don't you?

Even though I fully understand the green goodness this vegetable represents, I just don't like it much.

My husband on the other hand loves it. He will eat it all day long.

What is wrong with the man?

I had a mountain of spinach in the last streekkrat I received. Oh joy.

For a few minutes I actually contemplated freezing it or giving it to the neighbour.

Luckily my husband suggested spinach pesto.

Definitely a winner!

I figured it should be similar to making regular pesto so here's what I did:

Add three tablespoons of pine nuts and three chopped cloves of garlic to your food processor.
Cover it with spinach and blend it. Add some olive oil (I must have added about two tablespoons, maybe three in total) and more spinach, keep on blending.
Add a handful of basil leaves, a dash of salt, a bit of olive oil and more spinach. Blend, blend, blend.
Add about a handful of grated parmesan cheese and blend some more. I must have added about 6 big handfuls of fresh spinach.
It is ready when you have a nice smooth consistency.
Taste and adjust the seasoning to your personal preference.

Mix into cooked pasta and enjoy!

Crustless Spinach and Mushroom Mini Quiche

For the second time in my life I made quiche. The first time was back in 2011 and I had quite the pastry disaster. So this time I figured it was a good idea to make crustless quiche and to downsize it significantly. Muffin size to be exact.

I tell you, my muffin tray works very hard.

But what prompted me to make this specific quiche?
Well it was the very large bag of fresh spinach which I bought. I was trying to figure out what to do with the last bit of spinach I had left over and then it just came to me. Make a quiche!

Definitely a good idea and I'm already thinking about more variations... you know, for when the we go on picnics or just whenever.

I found inspiration from this recipe and adapted it to suit my ingredients as follow:

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
4 small spring onions, finely sliced (or use 1 medium onion)
2 rashers streaky bacon, chopped up (leave this out if you want to make vegetarian quiche)
approximately 250 gram fresh spinach (washed and stems trimmed)
5 eggs (I used medium free range eggs)
1 cup shredded cheese of your choice (I used half plain cheese and half parmesan)
approximately 250 gram brown button mushrooms, chopped
100 ml fresh milk
Salt and Pepper, to taste

Method:

Preheat the oven to 190C.
Heat a little oil in a large skillet and saute the garlic and spring onions until soft over a medium heat.
Add the bacon and continue sautéing until cooked.
Add the mushrooms and saute until they are soft.
Now add the spinach and continue sautéing until they are wilted.
Drain any excess fluid from the spinach.
Whisk the eggs in a large mixing bowl until combined and add the milk.
Season to taste.
Add the cooked spinach and mushroom mixture and the cheese to the eggs.
Mix well and then divide evenly among the 12 muffin cups. I managed to fill about 11 with this mixture.
Bake for about 20 - 25 minutes until they are cooked through.
Let them cool down for a few minutes and then remove from the muffin tray.
They are lovely served with a salad and fresh bread and make for perfect picnic food.
Enjoy!

P.S. I also decided to freeze a few of them as a bit of an experiment. Will let you know how it turns out...

Butternut, Spinach and Caramelized Onion Pasta

This pasta dish turned out to be just lovely.

It started off with me having some fresh spinach and not knowing what to do with it.
Then I remembered something which I saw on pinterest (you just gotta love pinterest!)
It was a lasagna with squash, onions and spinach.
Since I did not have most of the ingredients, I improvised.

My recipe below is for one very hungry person, but can easily be adapted for more.

I roasted a medium sized butternut, while at the same time caramelizing one onion. The idea was that they should be done within 40 minutes and the timing worked out well.
Halfway through cooking the onion I added half a clove of crushed garlic.
Oh the smell... it was mouthwatering.
I cooked my spaghetti (100grams) and also sauteed two big hands full of spinach.
When everything was done I used about half the butternut and saved the rest for another day.
Then I poured 100gram demi creme fraiche onto the spaghetti, mixing it well and to this I added the onions, butternut and spinach.
Lastly I grated Parmesan cheese over the pasta.
Yum.

Soy Creamed Spinach

My husband is a really good cook. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before.

As a side dish to our dinner, he made creamed spinach.

He used onions, garlic, fresh spinach (washed and the stems trimmed) and soy cream.
The exact method is a secret because I walked into the door and dinner was ready.
Lucky me :-)

The Green Goodness of Spinach Lasagna

Isn't is amazing how a really big bag of fresh spinach leaves can reduce to a lot less in a matter of minutes? Just a little bit of heat and steam and they wilt away.

Such beautiful green goodness, just waiting to be used.

Well, the big bag in my fridge didn't have to wait very long.
It was destined for a lasagna.

I didn't follow a recipe, I just combined what I had in the house and it came out pretty tasty.

All you need is a big bag of spinach, mushrooms, an onion, garlic, olive oil, lasagna sheets, mozzarella cheese, ready made pasta sauce (I used Jamie Oliver's tomato and basil sauce), two hands ful of grated Parmesan cheese and about 150ml soy cooking cream. (Use as much or as little of the ingredients as you feel fit)

Saute the garlic, diced onion and mushrooms for a few minutes in the olive oil. Add the spinach in batches and let them wilt - add some hot water to create steam if necessary. Put aside to rest for a few minutes. Heat up the tomato sauce until boiling point. Season as per your own personal preference.

Drain the spinach and then start layering the lasagna in a square oven dish.
Start with a some pasta sauce, then add some of mushroom and spinach mixture.
Drizzle the soy cooking cream over the spinach and sprinkle a handful of Parmesan cheese on top.
Now position the first layer of lasagna sheets.

Add as many layers as your ingredients allow. I only had two layers of lasagna sheets, thus on top of my final layer of lasagna I drizzled the last of the soy cooking cream, then the last of my Parmesan cheese and finally all the mozzarella cheese.

I placed it in a 160 degrees Celsius preheated oven for one hour. This was out of necessity since I had to pick up the kids and it seemed safer to cook it at a lower temperature to avoid it becoming too dark on top. It worked like a charm.

Remove the lasagna from the oven and let it rest for about 15 minutes.

Serve up and enjoy!