A lighter take on my giant quiche, using cottage cheese and milk instead of cream, with mushrooms, chorizo, spinach and thyme.
Spanish-Style Cottage Cheese Quiche
Ingredients
- just over 2 sheets shortcrust pastry including broken pieces for patching
- 6 eggs
- 1 cup full-cream milk
- 250 g cottage cheese
- 1 cup mushrooms sliced
- 1 chorizo sliced
- 1 cup spinach chopped
- 1 tsp dijon mustard
- fresh thyme
- 1/3 cup grated cheddar for topping
- butter for greasing the tin
- salt and pepper
Method
- Heat the oven to 160°C fan.
- Line the base of a springform cake tin with baking paper and lightly butter the sides.
- Line the tin with the shortcrust pastry, using broken pieces to patch any gaps. It does not need to look perfect.
- Cook the mushrooms and chorizo in a frying pan until the mushrooms soften and the chorizo has released some colour and flavour.
- Add the chopped spinach and thyme and cook briefly until the spinach wilts.
- Whisk together the eggs, milk and cottage cheese. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
- Spoon the mushroom, chorizo and spinach mixture into the pastry case.
- Pour over the egg mixture.
- Top with grated cheddar and a little extra thyme.
- Bake for around 45–50 minutes.
How to know it is cooked
Give the tin a gentle wobble.
The outer part should be set and the centre should feel firm with only the slightest movement.
If the centre still visibly wobbles, it needs longer.
Let it rest before slicing so the filling can settle properly.
What Could I Add?
This is very flexible. You could also use:
- roasted capsicum
- zucchini
- caramelised onion
- leftover roast vegetables
- peas
- broccoli
- feta
- ham or bacon instead of chorizo
Why I Make This
This is also a bit of lunch prep for when the kids go back to school next week — if it lasts that long.
Lately I’ve been so busy that I’ve looked at the clock at 2pm and realised I’ve missed not only lunch, but breakfast too. Then comes the ridiculous debate about whether to eat at all because dinner isn’t that far away.
That isn’t a great way to run the day.
So I’m trying to get ahead of the inevitable catch-up week after two weeks of school holidays and have proper food ready to grab, heat and eat.
This quiche is part of that plan.
Next up: salmon and ginger fish cakes, plus more traditional white fish and sweet potato cakes for the freezer, ready to serve with salad.
And really, if only there were some sort of app that could remind me to eat lunch…