Zucchini Spiral Quiche

There are so many things to love about summer - long sunny days, fluffy clouds, beautiful sunsets, and weekend farmers markets! Farmers market is my prime motivation on Saturdays to get an early morning workout. Once I’m up and about, and feeling good about having burnt some calories, I head to the market for delicious breakfast crepes or tacos, and pick up fresh veggies and fruits for the week. Lately I’ve been seeing über bright yellow & green zucchini at several vendor booths. Last week I got one of each, and decided to make something that really highlights those lovely bright colors. I had seen pictures of spiral quiches floating around on the internet, and quiche being one of my go-to dishes when I can’t figure out what to make, I thought I’d give the spiral quiche a try! I added ricotta cheese to the custard to make it a bit dense so it could hold the zucchini. This quiche certainly required some extra efforts, but the eye-catching results were worth it, and it was absolutely delicious!

 

Ingredients:

2 large Zucchini (1 green, 1 yellow)

1 pie crust

3 eggs

¾ cup part skim ricotta cheese

¼ cup skim milk

1 Tbsp freshly grated Parmesan cheese - optional

¼ tsp Nutmeg - optional

Salt and ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 F.

 

Wash the zucchini and slice them very thin lengthwise?. You want the slices to also be of similar width so slices towards the wider middle might need to be cut in half lengthwise. Sprinkle a little bit of salt on the slices and let them sit for a half hour to release moisture. Use paper towels to squeeze out as much moisture as possible. If this step is skipped you’ll end up with a lot of liquid in the quiche as it starts baking. If this happens, don’t worry! Just use paper towels and soak up the liquid on top and continue to bake. You might have to repeat blotting a few times during the total baking period.

While the zucchini slices are resting, lightly grease a 9” baking pan and line it with pie crust. Add pie weights (or dry beans, rice etc.) and bake the crust for 10 min. Increase the oven temperature to 375 F.

 

Make the custard by mixing the eggs, ricotta cheese and milk in a bowl. Add nutmeg and season with salt and pepper (remember there’s salt on the zucchini slices!!).

Assembling the quiche:

Add the custard to the semi baked pie crust.

 

Start rolling one zucchini slice with the skin side on top. Roll it really tight! Then take another slice of different color and roll it around the first one. Keep doing this till you get a tightly wound disk about 5-6” in diameter (or as wide as you can hold securely). While you are rolling it is best to have someone assisting or use heavy objects to hold the ends of the zucchini slices in place. I had a few glass bowls helping me with this.

 

Once you have a 5-6” disk, gently pick it up and place it in the center of the pie crust with the custard. Continue adding zucchini slices till you reach the crust. You’ll get custard all over your hands but trust me, it’s totally worth it!

 

Transfer the baking pan to the oven and bake for ~45-50 min until the custard is well set. As I mentioned earlier, don’t worry if you see liquid pooling on top. You can just soak it up with a paper towel. Once the custard is set to your liking, sprinkle grated cheese on top and broil on high for a couple minutes until the cheese is browned.

 

If at any point you feel like the crust is getting too dark, you can cover the crust with Aluminum foil. This will allow the rest of the quiche to continue baking while reducing the intensity of heat transferred to the crust.

 

Once baked, let the quiche cool for ~5-10 minutes, then slice and serve!

~Gayatri

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Broccoli and Mushroom Roll-ups

Any buttery flaky pastry gets infinitely better with a creamy filling in the center - be it something sweet like nutella, pastry cream; or savory like spinach & ricotta cheese. With pre-made pastry dough, delicious appetizer roll-ups can be whipped up in a snap! This time I used broccoli and mushrooms for the filling, and gave it a creamy component by mixing in some cream cheese. While broccoli and mushrooms are some of my favorite ingredients, you can follow the same steps with any other vegetables of your choice, ensuring that you’ve cooked out most of the moisture so it won’t leave the pastry soggy.

Ingredients: (Makes 8 pieces)

1 cup chopped broccoli florets

4 oz chopped mushrooms (~1.5 cups)

½ small onion - chopped

2 cloves of garlic - minced

1 tsp oil

Salt, black pepper to taste

2 oz cream cheese - can use low fat

1 tube of Crescent rolls (8 pieces) - can use reduced fat

Filling:

Heat oil over medium-high, add onions and garlic and saute for a minute. Add mushrooms and reduce them to about half, stirring occasionally. Add broccoli, season with salt & pepper, and saute for another minute. Turn the heat to low, add cream cheese and mix well. Take the pan off the heat once completely combined.

Assembly:

Preheat oven to 375 F (or as per package directions for the pastry).

Roll out the Crescent dough and gently tear apart each triangle. Add about a Tbsp of the filling at the wide edge and roll towards the other end. Press down on the seam to seal it.

Place the roll-ups on a greased baking sheet (or lined with parchment paper), and bake in preheated oven for ~12-15 minutes until golden brown. Serve warm.

~Gayatri

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Farmer’s pie (for the vegetarian shepherd)

Typically a shepherd’s pie is a meat pie with a mashed potato topping. What would you call it then if it doesn’t have meat? Well, I called it “Farmer’s pie”, but creative name suggestions are welcome :-). Irrespective of the name, it makes a delicious and hearty meal coupled with a salad and maybe some bread. I used chickpeas as the base ingredient to pull everything together, but any kind of beans can be used. If you’re not particularly fond of beans or don’t need the extra protein in the pie, beans can be skipped and you could use more vegetables of any kind you like. The ingredients I used were what I had at home, but other vegetables (like broccoli, cauliflower, squash etc.) could be used as well. 

 

Ingredients:

1 medium onion - chopped (~3/4 cup chopped)

2 cloves of garlic

1-2 carrots – chopped

~¾ cup chopped green beans

1 small bell pepper – chopped

1 can of chickpeas (or ~1.5 cup cooked chickpeas)

½ cup of cooked red lentils (optional – I used this because I had some leftover)

1 Tbsp oil

Salt

Pepper

Paprika (optional)

Cumin powder (optional)

Vegetable stock/water (if required)

For the topping:

~4-5 red potatoes (or any other kind) - boiled

1 sweet potato (optional) - boiled

1 Tbsp butter

Milk

Salt

Heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onion, garlic and carrots and sauté until the onion is translucent. If using cumin powder, add that at this point. Add green beans, bell pepper and cook for a minute. Mix in chickpeas and lentils, salt, pepper and paprika (adjust to taste). Cover and cook for a few minutes until the chickpeas are soft. Use a fork or a potato masher, mash the mixture just a little, but make sure there is still a good texture to the filling for the pie. If the filling seems dry, add a little stock or water and let it heat through to make sure the mixture is moist. 

Mashed potato topping:

Mash the boiled potatoes separately. Divide the butter and add it to the potatoes. Add milk if required to mash them to a smooth texture. Season with salt.

Assembling and baking the pie:

Fill a casserole/baking dish (I used a 8x8 glass dish) with the pie filling, leveling it with the back of a spoon. Top it with the mashed potatoes. You can get creative here and make any design you would like. Piping the potatoes with a frosting tip is also a good option. I just spooned the potatoes over the filling alternating between regular and sweet potatoes, and then made a pattern on it with a fork. The patterns help make several edges on the mashed potatoes which crisp up in the oven.

If you’re not baking right after making the filling and the topping, let the pie heat through in the oven at 400 F for about 10 min. If the filling and topping is still hot, this step can be skipped since everything is already cooked. Broil on high until the top is browned a little. Serve warm.

~Gayatri