Quick dinner idea: Spinach, basil, tomato quiche

My fellow foodie, Archana of LettuceVeg.com, and I have been talking about making dinner together for a while now. We finally had a chance to get together and get our cooking on a couple nights ago for a light and easy three-course meal. We both knew we just didn’t want anything fried and also wanted to steer clear of pasta for once. So we figured what better way to kick things off than making a summer quiche? She pulled up a recipe from Gourmet but customized it to our own tastes: a spinach, basil and tomato quiche with a whole wheat crust.

First things first: As an appetizer, Arch brilliantly suggested we go light with fresh, homemade salad. We picked up some greens, red bell peppers, and mandarin oranges (we both are obsessive about them), and topped it off with chopped almonds and a smidgen of tomato basil feta cheese. We mixed it with balsamic vinagerette and voila:

The quiche was also quick and easy to make. For 6-8 servings, you need:
* 1 (9-inch) frozen pie dough round, thawed (preferably whole wheat…we used a Wholly Wholesome crust from Whole Foods that was SO delicious — highly recommend)
* ¼ tsp salt
* ¾ cup heavy cream
* ¾ cup whole milk
* ¼ tsp black pepper
* 3 large eggs
* 3 oz. frozen spinach, cooked and drained
* 2 medium tomatoes (insides scooped out), diced
* About 10 fresh basil leaves, torn into quarter-size pieces
* 2 oz mozzarella cheese (1 cup)

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Heat cream, milk, pepper and salt in a 1- to 2-quart saucepan until mixture reaches a bare simmer, then remove from heat.

2. Whisk together eggs in a large heatproof bowl, then gradually whisk in hot cream mixture until combined.

3. Stir in spinach, tomato, basil and cheese and pour into pie crust.

4. Bake until filling is just set, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool about 20 minutes.

The pairing was so tasty and perfectly complemented by some cold lemonade. We decided to go simple for dessert and just got some Pillsbury cookie dough we sliced and stuck in the oven. Bliss.

x
Shy

7 Comments

  1. Sarah wrote:

    oh yum.

    Posted 7.16.10
  2. Shazia wrote:

    oh believe you me….was it yum!

    Posted 7.16.10
  3. Shoaib wrote:

    stop putting feeta on everything. yeah. i know how i spelled it.

    Posted 7.17.10
  4. shyema wrote:

    I LOVEEEEEEEEEE cheeeeeeeseeee.

    Posted 7.17.10
  5. narima wrote:

    Shy that looks amazing anything with feta and veg taste sooo good loved the recipe. Im going to
    try it.

    Posted 7.17.10
  6. shyema wrote:

    Mama, we wanna try YOUR quiche recipe…I was telling my friends about it..I have to call you so you can remind me how it goes 🙂

    Posted 7.17.10

Comments are closed.