Ham and Spinach Quiche

This ham and spinach quiche is a lovely dish for brunch, lunch or dinner, with cubes of leftover ham, spinach and loads of extra sharp cheddar cheese. 

If you are trying to use up leftovers, you can’t beat baking quiche. Quiche is like an omelet: You can put anything and everything in it. If you have lots of leftovers, you might also want to check out my Omelets with Super Powers post.

Creating a quiche in two or three easy steps:

1. Choose a cheese (Cheddar, blue, Brie, Camembert, Gouda, Emmental, Swiss, etc.)

2. Choose a vegetable (Broccoli, tomato, cauliflower, asparagus, potato, onion, etc. Quick cooking vegetables can be added raw, for instance, tomatoes. Others, like broccoli and asparagus, should be parboiled. Still others, like potatoes or carrots, should be fully cooked.)

3. (Optional) Choose a cooked “meat” (Ham, bacon, chicken, beef, lamb, fish, shrimp, etc.)

Then, of course, you will add eggs, milk and cream.  Your quantities of everything will depend on the width and depth of your pie plate or quiche pan. 

The pie crust recipe I use is here. It is versatile and works just as well with savory and sweet fillings. It is the pie crust of my quiches, as well as my banana cream pie and apple rhubarb strawberry pie and pecan pie and so on. I am asked for the recipe often, but I cannot take credit. I come by it honestly: The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook, 1980 edition, Zoe Coulson, ed.  

This cookbook was a gift from my mother-in-law on our first married Christmas in 1986 and it has been so well-used (read: falling apart) that I am on my THIRD copy now, purchased on Ebay. I had to have the same edition! Perhaps later editions have all the same recipes. I’ll never know. But in the 1980 edition, I know where everything is.  

I could wax eloquent about the Before You Cook section, amply used by my newlywed husband to cook wonderful meals for me upon his return from offshore, with its illustrations of kitchen tools and pots and pans and equipment, essential for a newbie. Or the Color Index with photographs of every one of the more than 900 recipes. Or the illustrated, step-by-step instructions.

Suffice to say, this book is one of only two we have taken in the luggage to every new overseas posting in 35 years of marriage. The second book is a binder of photocopied and handwritten recipes I have amassed over the years from friends and family.  

Ham and Spinach Quiche

My quiche pan was a wedding gift and I’ve used it more times than I can count over the last 35 years. It measures 10.5 in or 27cm across and is 1.5 in or 4cm deep. The ingredient amounts below fill it to perfection. You can also bake this in a normal pie plate. 

Ingredients

1 unbaked pie crust (I use this recipe.)

6 oz or 170g leftover baked ham 

4 1/2 ounces or 127g extra sharp cheddar, grated

3 1/2 oz or 100g frozen spinach (thawed, then drained)

4 eggs

3/4 cup or 180ml cream 

1/2 cup or 120ml milk

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

freshly ground black pepper  

Method

Preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C and fit your pie crust into your pie plate or quiche pan. Dock it with the pointy end of a knife or the tines of a fork. 

If your ham is in one big piece, cut it into smaller pieces. I think cubes are always fun but you can just chop it up. 

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, cream and milk. Fold in the ham, cheese and spinach along with the salt. 

Give the mixture a few good grinds of black pepper and stir again. 

Pour this mixture into your pie crust and bake for 10 minutes in your preheated oven. My oven doesn't heat evenly so I like to put my quiche pan on another larger pan to make rotating it in the oven easier. 

After the initial 10 minutes, turn the temperature down to 350°F or 180°C and bake for an additional 25-30 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean. If your oven doesn't heat evenly, gently turn the pan around about three quarters of the way through the cooking time. 

Remove the pan from the oven and leave the quiche to cool for about 10 minutes before cutting it into slices to serve. 

I usually serve each slice of quiche with a tomato salad or even a green salad on the side but truly, it is a meal all by itself. 

Enjoy! 

Today is Easter Sunday and if you are reading this early in the day, you probably haven’t eaten your Easter dinner yet (I mean, if you do celebrate) but my Sunday FunDay friends and I are thinking ahead! At the instigation of our host, Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm, we are sharing recipes designed to use up your Easter dinner leftovers! Check out all the recipes below.

• Au Gratin Potato and Ham Casserole from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Broccoli Ham and Swiss Casserole from Palatable Pastime
• Chef Salad from Amy's Cooking Adventures
• Ham and Cheese Buttermilk Biscuits from Making Miracles
• Ham and Spinach Quiche from Food Lust People Love
• Leftover Brown Rice Cakes from Sneha's Recipe
• Toasted Croissant Croutons from Culinary Adventures with Camilla

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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Aunt Orlean’s Pie Dough #BloggerCLUE

The flakiest crust I’ve ever come across, this supple dough is made with one whole egg and a touch of vinegar. It bakes up melt-in-your-mouth tender, yet the dough is easy to handle when chilled.

This month my Blogger C.L.U.E. Society is hunting for pie recipes and other holiday deliciousness in our assigned blogs. As I mentioned in my Black Forest Fruit Pie post, I was supposed to be poking around Making Miracles, which I did with some delight. But it also occurred to me that perhaps Rebekah wasn’t going to be up to baking with the care of her son on her mind, so I decided to choose a recipe to make from A Spoonful of Thyme, the blog that she was assigned, just in case.

Since pie was our clue, I started with a search and turned up quite a few possibilities, some savory like Kathy’s Cottage Pie  and her Steak and Guinness Pie or sweet like her Spiced Apple Pie, her deconstructed Bluebarb Pie and the divine Apple Galette with Salted Caramel. How to choose just one?

The whole plan changed with that apple galette though when I followed the link to Kathy's pie dough of choice and found the recipe for Aunt Orlean’s Pie Crust. I’ve been reading about traditional southern piecrust recipes with vinegar – many bakers swear by it – but I’ve never tried one. Since the pie I was going to make for my Making Miracles post said to use the piecrust recipe of my own choosing, I could use Aunt Orlean’s recipe and kill two birds with one stone. Three birds if you count checking a vinegar crust off of my want-to-try list! Win-Win-Win!

Slightly adapted from Aunt Orlean’s Pie Dough from A Spoonful of Thyme.

Ingredients
3 1/2 cups or 440g flour
1 cup or 300g shortening
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 teaspoon vinegar
2-3 tablespoons ice water

Method
Measure your flour and salt into a large bowl. Add the shortening and, using a pastry cutter or two knives, work the shortening into the flour.

Beat the egg lightly and add it to the flour/shortening and mix it in with a fork.

Add cold water a tablespoon at a time and mix it in with a fork, until the dough comes together. I ended up adding only two tablespoons of water.

Quickly knead the dough just a couple of turns and then separate it into two pieces. If you are making a two-crust pie, one piece should be slightly larger than the other. If you are making two one-crust pies, divide the dough evenly into halves. Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate until you are ready to roll it out.

Kathy says that it also freezes well, securely stored in a Ziploc bag. When you are ready to use it, allow the dough to thaw for about 15 minutes before rolling.

When you are ready to bake, roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface or use one of these handy zippery things from the King Arthur website.

This dough can be used for any pie, sweet or savory.

So, how is the crust? If you read my Black Forest Fruit Pie post, you know that it’s the flakiest one I’ve ever made! Easy to handle when chilled, melt in your mouth tender once baked. One teaspoon of vinegar doesn’t seem like much but as the pie started baking there was the slightest aroma of vinegar when I cracked open the oven door to double check the temperature. You don’t taste it at all in the final crust though. All in all, a resounding success!

The finished pie! 

Thanks, Kathy, and my hat is off to your Aunt Orlean! I’ll be using her recipe again and again, that I can guarantee you.

Check out all the other special recipes the Blogger C.L.U.E. Society is sharing this month!

• Aunt Orlean's Pie Dough by Stacy from Food Lust People Love
• Bacon and Leek Quiche by Sue from A Palatable Pastime
• Black Forest Fruit Pie by Stacy from Food Lust People Love
• Brownie Pecan Pie by Christiane from Taking on Magazines
• Butterfinger Pie by Rebekah from Making Miracles
• Cast Iron Apple Pie by Lisa from Suburban Gourmet
• Cauliflower and Leek Quiche by Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie by Aly from Cooking in Stilettos
• Classic Pumpkin Pie by Jean from Lemons and Anchovies
• Fig and Caramelized Onion Crostini by Christy from Confessions of a Culinary Diva
• Five Spice Apple Pie by Kate from Kate's Kitchen
• French Silk Pie with Frangelico by Christiane from Taking on Magazines
• Lemon Almond Cake by Azmina from Lawyer Loves Lunch
• Lemon Icebox Pie by Kathy from A Spoonful of Thyme
• Pumpkin Caramel Sea Salt Blondies by Heather from All Roads Lead to the Kitchen
• Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie by Kelli from Kelli's Kitchen
• Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream by Debra from Eliot's Eats
• Roasted Butternut Squash Dip by Anna from annaDishes
• Semisweet Chocolate Tart with Candied Pistachios by Liz from That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Southern Buttermilk Pie by Lora from Cake Duchess
• Vegan Blueberry Cranberry Mini Cashew Icebox Cheesecakes by Kim from Liv Life

Flakiest Baked Piecrust

This baked piecrust is for those pies with filling that doesn’t get baked. For instance, banana cream or chocolate pudding and the like.  It is light and flakey and identical to my regular piecrust, you just bake it empty or “blind” (with beans or pastry weights inside to keep it from puffing up) before adding the non-baked filling.

Or stop just before the "blind" bake and fill the crust with your filling of choice. (I'd like to recommend quiche for a savory option or pecan pie for a sweet one.)  Then bake according to recipe instructions. 

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups or 156g all-purpose flour
1⁄4 cup plus 2 tablespoons or a little shy of 70g shortening (I prefer Crisco, when I can get it.)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 to 3 tablespoons cold water

 

Method

Preheat oven to 425°F or 220°C.

 

In medium bowl with fork, lightly stir together flour and salt.

With pastry blender, cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Sprinkle in cold water, a tablespoon at a time, mixing lightly with a fork after each addition until pastry just holds together.












With hands, shape pastry into a ball. Wrap it in cling film and refrigerate 30 minutes.




Pop your dough ball into one of these handy devices, with a generous sprinkling of flour or on lightly floured surface with lightly floured rolling pin, roll pastry into circle 1⁄8 inch thick and about 2 inches larger all around than pie plate.

My piecrust bag is 12 inches and perfect for a normal pie pan, but the smaller size seems hard to find these days.





Transfer to pie plate, easing into bottom and side of plate. Fold overhang under; pinch to form a decorative edge.











Prick bottom and side of crust all over with a fork, to prevent puffing during baking. Cut a circle of parchment paper to lay inside and fill with pie weights or dried beans.







Bake for 15 minutes or until golden. Cool for a couple of minutes and then carefully remove the hot weights or beans and put them in a heat resistant bowl to cool. The beans can be saved in a Ziploc for future use as pie weights. Of course, the pie weights are reusable too.









Fill with the unbaked filling of your preference. In our family, we prefer banana cream.





Enjoy!