Cheddar, tomato and red onion quiche

Hazel

Prep time: 1 hour 45 minutes

Cook time: 35 minutes

Serves: 8 people

Summer is a difficult time for a lot of people with chronic conditions and I am no exception. Even before being diagnosed with Meniere’s Disease, I disliked hot weather but now I really hate it. The heat aggravates my symptoms and where most people live for those few months of sun that we get each year in the UK, I’ll tell you honestly that I dread it. I am quite miserable until October when it starts to cool down. Quite frankly, there is only one silver lining about the summer- the food. Yes, I love soups, stews and steaming plates of cheesy pasta but I just adore the kind of snacks and nibbles that come out of the picnic basket!

Quiche is one of the most quintessential English summer dishes. It’s also among the first things I learned to make so I have a great affection for it just on that basis! And let’s face it, if you go for a picnic or are in any kind of buffet situation and there’s not some form of quiche or mini quiches, are you even in the right country?

However, in a bizarre plot twist I’ve learned that quiche is not in fact English at all. You could be forgiven for thinking “Ok, so it’s French as in Quiche Lorraine, right?” But no, it seems fairly widely accepted that quiche originated in Germany in the Middle Ages, in an area called Lothringen which was later occupied by the French and renamed “Lorraine”. It also seems that the word quiche actually has its origins in the German word for cake “kuchen”. I don’t want to be overly dramatic about this but my world has just been turned upside down!

Wherever it originated, you can’t beat a traditional quiche made with eggs, milk and cream although I do love the idea of crustless quiche for a lighter and healthier option – like my Mediterranean vegetable crustless quiche – if you missed that recipe, it’s incredibly tasty so give it a look!

I thought about doing something with some more exotic flavours for my first posted quiche but I firmly believe in getting the classics right first so I went with mature cheddar and tomato – although I couldn’t resist adding some caramelised red onion, yum!

I think I would have to list my quiche dish amongst my most used bits of kitchen kit. Yes, we only get a couple of months of what you might actually call summer in this country but I also use it for making fruit pies and tarts and even for oven-roasting vegetables so it gets LOADS of use all through the year. I love how it is crimped so that when the pastry for a quiche, pie or tart is shaped into it, it gives you that traditional quiche look!

Something which gets less use but I still wouldn’t be without is my baking beans. Yes, sure they are not an everyday use kind of item and you can use rice or lentils to weigh down pastry when blind baking it but that’s kind of a waste, right? My box of baking beans sits in our baking cupboard until needed, not really taking up much space and to be honest with you they last for years and years. And because you use them on top of baking paper, they don’t need washing up – a very important consideration for me as our dishwasher is broken at the moment!

I do have a list of potential quiche flavour combinations lurking in a notepad somewhere, so no doubt you’ll see more quiche recipes appear gradually (because I do love a bit of quiche!) but if there’s any combinations you feel a burning need to see made into a quiche, please drop me a line via the comments section, by using the Contact Me form on the site or of course catch me on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter and I’ll get experimenting! Enjoy DDx!

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Cheddar, tomato and caramelised onion quiche


  • Author: Hazel
  • Total Time: 2 hours 20 minutes
  • Yield: 8 servings 1x

Description

A traditional quiche – shortcrust pastry filled with mature cheddar, sliced tomato and delicious caramelised red onion!


Ingredients

Units Scale

For the pastry:

  • 175 g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
  • 75 g butter, plus extra for greasing

 

For the caramelised red onions:

  • 15g butter
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon caster sugar
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • 2 red onions, sliced
  • 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
  • A sprig of thyme, leaves stripped (or 1 teaspoon of dried thyme)
  • Salt and pepper

 

For the quiche filling:

  • 250 g cheddar, grated
  • 4 tomatoes, sliced
  • 5 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 100 ml milk
  • 200 ml double cream
  • Black pepper

Instructions

  1. Make the pastry: sift the flour with a pinch of salt into a large bowl. Rub in the butter until you have a mix that resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add enough cold water to make it come together as a firm dough (approximately 2 tablespoons), and then rest it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
  2. Rub a 22cm quiche dish liberally with butter. Dust a clean area of work surface with flour and roll out the pastry to fit the dish – don’t trim it yet as we will do this later. Pop the dish back in the fridge for 30 minutes to chill.
  3. Make the caramelised red onions: heat the oil and butter in a frying pan. Once the butter has melted, add in the thyme, paprika and onions.
  4. Cook over a medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft and starting to turn slightly transparent.
  5. Add the sugar and balsamic vinegar, season with salt and pepper and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the onions are sticky and caramelised. Spread out on a plate to cool.
  6. Preheat the oven to 190°C / fan 170° / 375°F.
  7. Take the chilled quiche base and line it with a sheet of baking paper and pour in baking beans (or lentils/rice work if you don’t have baking beans). Place on a baking tray and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the beans and parchment and put back in the oven for another five minutes
  8. Turn the oven down to 160°C / fan 140°C / 350°F.
  9. Sprinkle the cheese over the base and evenly spread the sliced tomatoes over. Distribute the cooled caramelised onions over the top.
  10. Mix the milk, eggs and cream together in a bowl and season well with salt and pepper. Pour over the cheese, tomatoes and onions.
  11. Bake for 30–40 minutes, or until set. Allow to cool and then trim the pastry edges to get a perfect edge and serve with your choice of accompaniments.
  • Prep Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
  • Cook Time: 35 minutes

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