Beetroot Quiche

Ingredients

• 2 beetroots, peeled & diced into 2cm pieces
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 small red onion, peeled, halved & finely sliced
• 150g wholemeal spelt flour
• ¼ tsp sea salt
• 60g butter, chilled & cut into cubes
• 50-60mL chilled water
• 5 free-range or organic eggs
• 120mL milk
• Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• Zest 1 lemon
• 1 tsp chopped fresh thyme leaves or ¼ tsp dried thyme
• 30g baby spinach, finely chopped
• 70g goat’s feta, crumbled

Method

• Preheat oven to 200°C (fan-forced).
• Toss beetroots in the olive oil and a little sea salt and roast for 15 mins or until softened when pierced with a sharp knife. Add the onion for the last 5 mins.
• Next, make the pastry. In a food processor, mix the flour and sea salt until combined. Add the butter and process until it comes together in a coarse crumb (you can also do this by hand by rubbing the butter into the flour mix).
• Add the water and process until the dough starts to come together, then gently knead it for a minute (to just bring it together, don’t overwork it). Add extra water if necessary (a tbsp or 2).
• Grease a springform quiche tin and roll the pastry out onto a piece of baking paper so that it will cover the base and sides of the tin. Invert it into the tin, trim the sides and prick the base 4 times with a fork. With the baking paper on top, fill with pastry weights and blind bake for 15 mins.
• To make the filling, beat the eggs, milk, salt, pepper, lemon zest and thyme until frothy.
• Once the pastry is ready, remove the baking paper and weights and spread the spinach and red onion evenly over the base. Then arrange pieces of the roasted beetroot and goat’s cheese.
• Pour over the egg mix, taking care not to over fill it and bake for 20-25 mins or until the centre is just set firm. Any extra egg mix can be cooked up as scrambled eggs.
• Allow to cool in the pan for 5 mins, then lift out, slice and serve. This quiche is delicious served cold too.