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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Springtime Chocolate Chip Muffins #MuffinMonday

Seasonal chocolate chips are a colorful and fun way to change up a classic muffin recipe. This one is a family favorite and makes a small batch of six muffins.

It’s the last Monday of the month so that means it’s Muffin Monday! March has been a better month than February, which was a better month than January (pretty grim despite it being my birthday month) so I have even higher hopes for April. 

The brightest hope comes from the increasing number of people I love who have been able to get vaccinated against COVID-19, including yours truly.  But sadly, people are still succumbing to that terrible virus. According to my Sunday Chronicle yesterday, we’ve lost more that half a million precious lives altogether just in the United States and that breaks my heart. 

It’s small consolation but bake some muffins for someone you love. If you can’t find springtime chocolate chips, use normal ones. 

Springtime Chocolate Chip Muffins

I’ve been making this muffin recipe or adaptations thereof since 2005 because it is infinitely adaptable. This is the first time I’ve adjusted the ingredients to make only six muffins though. If you want the recipe for 12, check out my post from 2012, along with a list of possible add-ins. 

Ingredients

1 cup or 125g all purpose flour

1/3 cup or 66g sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup or 120ml milk

1/4 cup or 60ml canola or another light oil

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 large egg

1/2 cup or about 90g springtime semi-sweet chocolate chips

 

Method

Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C. Generously grease cups and top of 6-cup muffin pan or use paper liners. 

Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together in a large mixing bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the milk, oil, vanilla and egg. 

Add all the milk/egg mixture to flour mixture. Gently fold just until dry ingredients are moistened.   

Then fold in most of your springtime chocolate chips. Save a small handful for decoration. 

Divide your batter relatively evenly between the 6 muffin cups. Top with the reserved chocolate chips.

Bake 20-25 minutes in your preheated oven or until the muffins are golden.

Remove from oven and leave to cool on a wire rack. 

Enjoy! 

Check out all the other lovely muffins my Muffin Monday friends are sharing today!

• Lemon Muffins from Passion Kneaded
• Papaya Orange Muffins from Magical Ingredients
• Peanut Butter Banana Muffins from Making Miracles
• Sourdough Banana Nut Crunch Muffins from Zesty South Indian Kitchen
• Springtime Chocolate Chip Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• White Chocolate Muffins with a Pistachio Glaze from Karen's Kitchen Stories

 

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page.

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Strawberry Mint Glazed Roasted Rack of Lamb

A tart and fruity strawberry and mint glaze makes a wonderful sticky topping for this strawberry mint glazed roasted rack of lamb. It’s the perfect dish for date night or the ingredients are easily doubled for a family dinner. 

Years ago I discovered quite by accident that a rack of lamb takes only 45-60 minutes to roast, which is so much quicker than the leg, my usual part of a lamb to roast. As much as we love lamb chops, I had never bought them all hooked together still. 

One day I arrived home to find a care package with big prawns, some smoked salmon and a vacuum-packed rack of lamb stashed in my refrigerator. One of the catering contractors who supplied my husband’s drilling rigs had dropped it all off as a thank you for the business.

Those were the days of achingly slow dial-up internet so I consulted my trusty Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook (1980 edition.) Right there on page 227, the instructions were so simple: Season with salt and pepper. Roast for 1 hour or until you reach your desired internal temperature. In the last 15-30 minutes, brush with an apricot glaze aka warmed apricot jam. Honestly, does it get easier than that? Who knew!

Good Housekeeping ended with the instructions of how to remove the back bones on one side of the rack so the chops can be easily cut apart. Let me offer you a little tip. Ask your butcher to do this before you even bring that rack of lamb home. Roasting and serving is quicker and easier without those back bones to deal with. 

Strawberry Mint Glazed Roasted Rack of Lamb

Instead of the Good Housekeeping recommendation of apricot glaze, you can use any fruit you like so this can be a wonderfully seasonal dish. This time I used strawberries and mixed them with the more traditional accompaniment to lamb, classic mint sauce. Any leftover glaze can be served with the roasted rack of lamb, to spoon over the chops. So good! 

Ingredients

For the strawberry mint glaze/sauce:

7 oz or 200g strawberries

Pinch salt

1­-2 teaspoons sugar (if needed, depending on the sweetness of your strawberries)

2 tablespoons prepared mint sauce (Not mint jelly! Proper mint sauce has a bite from the vinegar. I recommend Colman's Classic Mint Sauce.)

For the rack of lamb:

1 1/2 lbs or 680g rack of lamb, preferably with a nice layer of fat on top

1 teaspoon flakey sea salt 

1 large clove garlic

1⁄2 teaspoon peppercorns (I use mixed peppercorn but just black are fine.)

Method

Start your oven preheating to 375°F or 190°C. 

Use a sharp knife to score the fat on the top of the rack of lamb. Don't cut all the way through to the meat.

Use a mortar and pestle to crush the peppercorns, garlic and salt salt into a paste.

Rub the seasonings into the scored fat then place it on a rack in a baking pan. Set aside. 

To make the strawberry mint glaze, hull the strawberries and chop them into quarters. Cook them until soft in a small covered pot over a medium flame, with the pinch of salt and a splash of water.

Taste the strawberries and add a little sugar if they aren’t sweet. 

Mash the strawberries with a fork and cook them down until they are a thick sauce. Remove from the heat and stir in the mint sauce. Set it aside

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When your oven has reached the proper temperature, put the pan in the oven and roast the rack of lamb for about 30 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches about 115°F or 46°C, for rare chops.

Remove the rack from the oven and brush it all over thickly with the strawberry mint glaze.

Return the rack to the oven for another 15 minutes or until the internal temperature is about 135°F or 57°C. Remove it from the oven and tent it with foil for about 10 minutes.

Slice into six chops and serve the remaining strawberry mint sauce alongside the chops.

Enjoy! 

It’s Sunday FunDay again and this time I’m hosting and we are sharing lamb recipes. Check out all the delicious recipes below. 

• Handi Mutton Mughlai from Sneha's Recipe
• Lamb Meatballs in Tomato Sauce from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Lamb Stew from Making Miracles
• Stinging Nettle and Lamb Börek from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Stir-fried Mongolian Lamb with Scallions from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Strawberry Mint Glazed Roasted Rack of Lamb from Food Lust People Love

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.

Pin this Strawberry Mint Glazed 

Roasted Rack of Lamb!

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