Spinach and Goat's Cheese Self-Crusting Quiche

This self-crusting quiche has no pastry, but still heaps and heaps of flavour! It forms its own crust thanks to a special extra ingredient.

This spinach and goat's cheese self-crusting quiche is so much tastier than I ever dreamed it would be! Unlike most quiches, there's no pastry - instead, a bit of flour in the mixture helps it to create its own crispy crust, and it's packed with tangy goat's cheese, garlicky spinach, cherry tomatoes and toasted pine nuts!

What is a self-crusting quiche?

A self-crusting quiche is a quiche with no pastry. It's not quite the same as a frittata - a frittata is just pure eggs (maybe a splash of milk!), whereas a self-crusting quiche has a little flour incorporated into the egg mixture, so that as it cooks, it crisps up around the edges, creating a bit of a crust.

Before I started work on this incredible recipe (if I do say so myself), I never really understood the point of a crustless quiche. Surely one of the best bits of a quiche is the pastry, so why would you want to get rid of it?

Well, it turns out a quiche can still be pretty incredible, even without the pastry. When the filling tastes this good, the pastry would be the blandest part anyway.

Genuinely, I will never make a quiche with pastry again.

(I mean, it's not something I did often anyway... but you know)

Start with garlicky spinach

I chose to go for spinach and goat's cheese inside my self-crusting quiche. The two go beautifully together, especially when the spinach is sautéed with an outrageous amount of garlic.

Just cook the garlicky spinach in a pan, and set it aside. Don't forget, you'll need to use approximately fifty bags of spinach to make one quiche.

(it only needs one big bag really, but doesn't it always feel like you need so much, since it cooks down to basically nothing?!)

Egg mixture

Once your spinach is sorted, it's time for the egg mixture! I wanted this to be a truly irresistible quiche - if you're taking away the pastry, after all, you want the rest of the quiche to be something a bit special.

So as well as the obvious eggs, I added some cream, and also stirred some grated cheddar cheese right through the mixture. It makes such a difference having the cheese throughout the quiche, rather than just sprinkled on top - it makes it taste infinitely more amazing!

Finally, the all-important flour. This is what's going to help form the crust of the self-crusting quiche. It also gives the quiche a really lovely texture - it's a little denser than a normal frittata, but I don't mean that in a remotely bad way. It just makes a really beautiful, filling, fluffy, cheesy quiche.

Add the fillings

Pour the egg mixture into a cake tin (don't forget to grease it thoroughly!), scatter the garlic spinach and some soft goat's cheese on top, and poke them down into the egg. You could mix it straight into the mixture if you prefer - I just wanted to make sure it was all evenly distributed.

Plus, it's pretty fun to dunk everything down into the egg with a pokey finger.

I also added some cherry tomatoes on top - no dunking for these, as they roast up nicely when they're left exposed. Similarly, a few pine nuts sprinkled on top get nice and toasty in the oven!

Bake it up

When you take your self-crusting quiche out of the oven, it will probably have risen halfway to the ceiling, due to both the eggs and the self-raising flour. It will drop a little as it starts to cool, but don't worry - it's still beautifully fluffy inside!

Let it cool for a few minutes, then remove it from the cake tin.

Doesn't that just look insanely good?!

What to serve with quiche?

Personally I think this spinach and goat's cheese quiche would be a really lovely brunch dish to make for guests - I'd be so proud to present this to my friends, perhaps under a dome that I can lift up with a flourish, to a chorus of 'oohs' and 'ahhs'.

Luckily, it's also easy enough that you can make it just for yourself, to eat in your PJs.

There are all sorts of ways you could serve this quiche:

• in pre-cut slices as part of a buffet
• simply with salad for lunch (I love a bit of coleslaw on the side!)
• or British-style, with a jacket potato and baked beans, for a heartier dinner
• serve it for brunch alongside a buffet of bread, fruit, etc.
• with garlic bread or French fries
• or with vegetables and roast potatoes
• put out a few slices to liven up a cheese board
• or just with fresh bread and butter

Can I adapt this self-crusting quiche recipe?

Of course! I'm no quiche dictator.

If you're not a fan of spinach or goat's cheese, feel free to use something else instead.

Any veggies would be nice, just make sure you cook them first, especially if you go for something that releases a lot of water as it cooks, like mushrooms.

For the best flavour, most veggies are best roasted - roasted peppers, onions, mushrooms, asparagus, even roasted broccoli and roasted cauliflower! Then add them to the egg mixture like I did with my spinach.

As for the goat's cheese - feel free to swap it for feta cheese, dollops of ricotta, or anything else you fancy. They'll all make an incredible self-crusting quiche.

Spinach and goat's cheese self-crusting quiche

This self-crusting quiche has no pastry, but still heaps and heaps of flavour! It forms its own crust thanks to a special extra ingredient.

If you've cooked this recipe, don't forget to leave a star rating!

5 from 2 votes

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Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes

Servings: 6 slices

Calories: 385kcal

Author: Becca Heyes

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Ingredients

• ▢ 1 tablespoon oil
• ▢ 4 cloves garlic, minced
• ▢ 150 g (~ 5 oz) fresh spinach, roughly chopped
• ▢ 8 eggs
• ▢ 250 ml (~ 1 cup) single cream
• ▢ 115 g (~ ¾ cup) self-raising flour
• ▢ 100 g cheddar cheese, grated (~ 1 cup when grated)
• ▢ 1 teaspoon dried mixed herbs
• ▢ 1 teaspoon salt
• ▢ 1 teaspoon black pepper
• ▢ Butter or oil for greasing the cake pan
• ▢ 125 g (~ 4 ½ oz) soft goat’s cheese, crumbled
• ▢ ~ 5 cherry tomatoes, halved
• ▢ 1 tablespoon pine nuts

Instructions

• Heat a dash of oil in a frying pan, and add the garlic and spinach. Cook for a few minutes, over a medium heat, until wilted. Set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl, combine the eggs, cream, self-raising flour, and grated cheese. Add the dried herbs and plenty of salt and pepper, and mix thoroughly until the eggs are well mixed in.
• Thoroughly grease a springform cake tin (mine measured 8 inches), and pour in the egg mixture. Scatter the garlic spinach on top, along with the crumbled goat's cheese. Poke them down into the egg. Place the halved tomatoes on top, and scatter over the pine nuts.
• Bake the self-crusting quiche at 190°C (Gas Mark 5 / 375°F) for around 45 minutes, or until golden brown on top, and fairly firm to the touch. Remove it from the oven, and allow it to cool a little before removing from the cake tin.
• Serve hot or cold.

Nutrition

Serving: 1 slice - Calories: 385 kcal - Carbohydrates: 22.3 g - Protein: 20.4 g - Fat: 24.3 g - Saturated Fat: 11.8 g - Cholesterol: 261 mg - Sodium: 691 mg - Potassium: 520 mg - Fiber: 2.2 g - Sugar: 3 g - Calcium: 268 mg - Iron: 4 mg

Nutritional information is approximate, and will depend on your exact ingredients. Please calculate your own nutritional values if you require accuracy for health reasons.

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Prefer a pie with pastry? Try my creamy vegetable and halloumi pie!