Eggless Quiche (With Base)

I am a thorough desi by heart and I love all stuffs that are Indian. Some years before, I didn’t even know what a quiche was, forget about tasting it. Being born in Kerala and brought up in Mumbai gives lot of variety in our food and my hubby and Neha being foodies help me to try out new stuffs. Also, after joining a baking group on facebook, I was introduced to various dishes and since then I have been trying out different recipes at home. One such dish was a “Quiche” which is basically of French origin. So, finally baked it for today’s dinner along with vegetable clear soup.

From the wiki: Quiche is a savoury, open-faced pastry crust with a filling of savoury custard with one or more of cheese, meat, seafood or vegetables originated in France.

I have tried to make this a healthier version by replacing all purpose flour or maida by whole wheat flour and fine semolina. This is also an eggless version filled with healthy spinach, corn, broccoli and paneer or cottage cheese. So, just get going and try this at home.

Ingredients:

For the crust:

• Whole wheat flour 125 gm
• Semolina/chirotti rava 60 gm
• Salt as reqd
• Cold butter 40 gm
• Ice cold water as needed

For the filling:

• Olive oil 1 tbs
• Onion 1 big
• Spinach 1 bunch
• Corn kernels 2-3 tbsp
• Paneer pieces 100 gm
• Broccoli florets 1/2 cup
• Garlic cloves 4-5
• Pepper powder 1/2 tsp
• Chilli flakes 1 tsp
• Salt as required

For the white sauce:

• Paneer crumbled 100 gm
• Thick milk 100 ml
• Salt a pinch
• Pepper powder a pinch
• Cheese grated 1-2 tbsp or 1 cheese slice ( optional )
• Fresh cream 1-2 tbsp optional

Method:

To make the crust:

• Combine both the flours and salt and mix well. Add the cold butter cut into small pieces and rub with your fingers into the flour.
• Mix well so that it resembles bread crumbs. If you try to hold it together, it should stay.
• Add ice cold water little by little and assemble to form a dough. No need to knead it. It should be a tight dough.
• Wrap the dough in a cling film and refrigerate it for some time.
• Roll it on a counter dusted with some flour into a big thick disc. ( bigger than the size of your pie or tart mould ).
• It might be a bit difficult to roll it out smoothly. Do not worry, just keep attaching the broken dough pieces and roll again.
• Grease the tart/pie mould and slowly lift the rolled out dough and place it on the mould. Press the sides well and trim the extra edges.
• Poke holes on the base using a fork so that it doesn’t puff up while baking.

• You can add some beans like rajma (kidney beans) on the base and blind bake it in preheated oven at 180 degree celsius for 12-15 minutes or till the edge of the crust start leaving the sides of the mould.
• Remove from oven and cool. Do not take it out of the mould. ( I didn’t have a pie/tart mould, so I used my 8 inches spring form pan and used it instead. Also I have not used rajma while baking and it didn’t puff up)

To make the filling:

• Blanch the cleaned spinach leaves and drain all the water from it.
• Chop the onions, garlic, blanched spinach, broccoli florets into bite size pieces and keep aside. Boil the corn kernels.
• Saute the onion and garlic in olive oil. Add spinach, broccoli, paneer pieces and corn kernels.
• Add salt, chilli flakes and pepper powder and mix well till it becomes a bit dry. Remove from fire and allow it to cool well.

• Mix the crumbled paneer and milk and blend it in a mixer till its smooth and creamy.
• Make sure there are no lumps of paneer. Add a pinch of salt and pepper and keep aside.

To assemble the dish:

• Spread the veggies mixture on the crust and pour the creamy paneer milk on top. Make sure it doesn’t reach the brim and overflow.

• Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degree celsius for 40-45 minutes or till the top becomes golden.
• Insert a toothpick at the centre and check for doneness.
• Add finely cut cheese slices or two tablespoons of grated cheese on top during the last five minutes of baking.
• Take it out of the oven. Wait for five minutes.
• Now place the spring form pan on a cake stand or a sturdy  steel container and remove the sides of the spring form pan and allow it to cool for atleast 10-15 minutes.
• Gently shift it from the base of the pan/mould and keep on a plate. Cut into wedges and enjoy it warm with tomato sauce and any soup of your choice.

Notes:

• I have read a lot of quiche recipes on various blogs and saw many videos too before I came up with this version.
• Neha enjoyed it and ate with tomato sauce. Hubby said its made well, but I think we will  have to start developing a palate for such dishes.
• Did I like it? Maybe not. As I said before, I m a hardcore Indian… likes all desi food… yeh French, Italian khana… I enjoy to make…. but I like our dal chawal more 🙂
• It requires quite some hardwork and it is time consuming too. Hats off to Akila Subramanian , Gayathri Kumar and others for posting such recipes on their blogs.