Anne Morgan Delia Smith’s spinach quiche recipe has 900g of spinach and 225g of cream cheese in a wholewheat case, enough for 4 to 6. You wilt the spinach in butter with no water, then stir it into the cream cheese with milk, eggs, Parmesan and nutmeg. Her Complete Cookery Course calls it Spinach and Cream Cheese Quiche, and it needs about 2 hours from start to finish.
Those amounts are the ones on her printed page. Copies online often cut the spinach to a handful, but her quiche wilts down a big panful for one 25cm tin.
Delia also likes this quiche in a cheese pastry. Her leek quiche recipe has one too.
Delia Smith’s Spinach Quiche
Course: DinnerCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Medium4-6
servings50
minutes1
hour10
minutes530
kcalWilted spinach beaten into cream cheese, milk and eggs with Parmesan, nutmeg and lemon, baked in a wholewheat shortcrust case.
Ingredients
- For the pastry:
75g (3oz) wholewheat flour
75g (3oz) self-raising flour
a pinch of salt
cold water, to mix
- For the filling:
900g (2lb) fresh spinach
25g (1oz) butter
225g (8oz) cream cheese
150ml (5fl oz) milk
3 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
freshly grated nutmeg
a squeeze of lemon juice
salt and freshly milled black pepper
Directions
- Pastry: Rub the fat into the two flours and the salt, then add cold water to make a dough. Rest it in a polythene bag in the fridge for 20 to 30 minutes.
- Oven: Heat the oven to 180°C, fan 160°C, gas mark 4, with a baking sheet inside. Roll out the pastry and line a 25cm flan tin.
- Case: Prick the base all over with a fork and bake it on the hot baking sheet for 15 minutes. Brush it all over with some of the beaten egg, then bake it for 5 minutes more.
- Heat: Take the case out and leave the baking sheet in. Turn the oven up to 190°C, fan 170°C, gas mark 5.
- Spinach: Wash the spinach, throw away any coarse stalks and drain the leaves well. Put them in a heavy saucepan with the butter, salt and pepper, and add no water. Then cover and cook for about 7 minutes, shaking the pan now and then, until the leaves collapse.
- Drain: Tip the spinach into a colander and press out the moisture. Chop it with a sharp knife.
- Filling: Beat the cream cheese in a bowl and add the milk a little at a time. Beat in the rest of the eggs, the Parmesan, salt, pepper and nutmeg, then stir in the spinach and the lemon juice.
- Bake: Pour the filling into the case and set it on the hot baking sheet in the upper part of the oven. Bake for 40 minutes, until the top is puffy and browned.
Notes
- Delia allows 450g of frozen spinach, well drained, in place of the leaves.
- For her cheese pastry, add 50g of grated Cheddar to the same flours and fat.
- The fat is your choice, Delia says. Her basic pastry uses half margarine and half lard.
FAQs
Should I cook spinach before putting it into a quiche?
Yes, and it needs no water. Delia cooks the leaves with butter in a covered pan until they collapse.
Then the water has to come out. She drains the spinach thoroughly in a colander and presses it before she chops it.
What is the best cheese to use in a spinach quiche?
Cream cheese, in Delia’s recipe. She beats it with the milk and eggs, so the cheese is the body of the filling.
Grated Parmesan seasons it. The cheese quiche with onions on this site has Cheddar in a pastry of the same two flours.
Can I use frozen spinach in a quiche?
You can. Delia says a 450g pack will do, so long as it is well drained.
Her first choice is still a big bag of leaves, washed and picked over.
Is spinach quiche made with milk or cream?
This one is made with milk. Delia’s list has 150ml of milk, and the cream cheese does the rest.
How much spinach does a quiche need?
A lot more than it looks. Delia’s recipe takes 900g of leaves for one 25cm quiche, because they shrink to a small heap in the pan.
Some copies of her recipe online list as little as 60g. Her printed page is the one to trust: Complete Cookery Course, in the cheese chapter.
Which tin is best for a quiche?
A metal one. Delia writes that metal conducts heat far better than glass or porcelain, and that pretty porcelain dishes often give a soggy quiche.
A hot baking sheet under the tin helps as well. She calls it essential for anything that needs a crisp base.
