Spinach Artichoke Quiche with Grilled Spring Onions
32 Comments
Updated Nov 28, 2020
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This gluten-free, grain-free, paleo-friendly spinach artichoke quiche is loaded with healthy greens and savory flavor. A delicious breakfast upgrade.
There are two times of year that are brutal in the Antelope Valley – summer and winter. Yep, half the year. Okay, to be fair, it’s not the entire seasons of summer and winter….but a select few months that, to put it gently, are “less than pleasant.” Summer temps, like right now, are averaging oh, 110+ degrees each day. Winter temps, on the other hand, are frequently below freezing, which means that I turn into a very unhappy popsicle. Ironically, these extremes aren’t so different from when I lived in Kabul, Afghanistan. So yeah, high desert of Cali = Afghanistan (in terms of weather). Whodathunk?
But I’ll gladly suffer through some crappy weather to spend time with dad. He had his latest Parkinson’s doc appointment at Cedars Sinai this week and afterwards, we hit up Whole Foods to stock up on ingredients (as there aren’t any up here). Dad was having a good “motor skills” day so we toodled around the market for a bit. I tried to steer him toward the produce aisle and lots of greens (did you see it on Snapchat?). Yet he had other ideas.
I literally turned my back for 1-minute and he’d motored off with his wheeled walker into the gluten-free cookie aisle! Oh geez, my dad is like a moth to a flame in terms of sugar, candy and sweets. And when I got to him, he sheepishly turned to me with a 2-year old grin that said, “Can I have it? Pleeeeeaaaseee!”
At this stage of his wellness, I do my best to steer him in the right direction, but at 71 years of age (and let’s be honest, not changing his habits any time soon), his happiness also takes priority. So I let him get the cookies…and received an ear-to-ear smile and laugh in return. *moments*
Dad is not fond of salads AT ALL and jokingly refers to any type of lettuce as “rabbit food,” which cracks me up. He also doesn’t like raw spinach as it has “stalks,” which are difficult for him to chew. So I’ve had to get creative on ways to sneak greens into his diet. Green smoothies are the obvious go-to, but breakfast affords so many opportunities as well. Case in point: this loaded-up-on-greens quiche.
The crust is gluten-free and grain-free (it’s the same crust as my pumpkin pie recipe, but with added garlic), while the inside is dairy-free (using coconut milk) and chock full of organic spinach and artichokes. For a little added flavor and pizzaz, there’s grilled spring onions on top. I really wanted garlic scapes, but I can’t ever seem to find them in Cali?! If you’re lucky enough to have garlic scapes, feel free to use swap those in.
The good news is that dad loved the quiche and went back for seconds, which is a massive win in my books. In fact, I think I’ll double-batch this recipe next time and freeze one quiche, for a future insta-healthy meal.
Enjoy!
Spinach Artichoke Quiche with Grilled Spring Onions
Description
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 1/4 cups almond flour
- ½ cup cassava flour
- 1/2 tsp granulated garlic
- ¼ tsp sea salt
- 5 tbsp cold butter, or organic palm shortening for dairy-free
- 1 large egg
- 2 tbsp cold water
Filling
- 1 cup full fat coconut milk
- 4 large eggs
- 8 oz frozen spinach, thawed and drained
- 3-4 whole artichoke hearts, about 1/2 14-ounce can, drained and diced
- 2 medium shallots, finely diced and sauteed
- 2 spring onions or garlic scapes
- salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- To make the crust, stir together the flours, salt and garlic in a mixing bowl. Cut in the butter or shortening using a pastry cutter or your fingers until you have a crumbly mixture.
- Whisk in the egg and one tablespoon of water and using your hands, knead together until a ball of dough forms. *Note - if it's too dry and crumbly, add the second tablespoon of water (I used two for my recipe).
- Wrap the ball of dough with plastic wrap or parchment paper and place in the refrigerator for at least one hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator and roll it out between two pieces of parchment paper or use your fingers to push the dough in a 9-inch pie pan. Use a fork to pierce a few holes in the bottom of the dough.
- Pre-cook the crust for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside.
- Heat a grill pan on medium heat and grill spring onions for one minute on each side. Remove to a plate. Once slightly cooled, slice the spring onions in half lengthwise (you don't need to do this if using garlic scapes).
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk until light and frothy. Add the spinach, artichoke hearts, shallots, salt and pepper and stir to combine.
- Pour the filling mixture into the crust and place pie pan on a cookie sheet. Cook for 45-55 minutes at 350 degrees fahrenheit, until the center is cooked. Halfway through, cover the top with aluminum foil to prevent the top from burning.
Nutrition
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I made this when I had some family over and I should’ve made more! It was cleaned out in minutes! So tasty and so perfect!!!!
Thank you Lisa for always giving us the best recipes!!
Glad you enjoyed this quiche Rayla! Now you know to make a double batch next time :)
Hello,
Are your nutrition values for one serving or the whole pie (and similarly for other recipes)?
Thanks
Hi Logan – all nutritional information is for one serving :)
Hi Lisa, can I make this quiche dough in a cast iron skillet? Thanks!
I’ve never tried that to be honest, but I think it should work!
I do not have cassava flour. What can I use instead?
Also, I lived in Afganistan for 2 years. Wonder if we saw each other.
Hi Michelle – wow, that’s a small world about Afghanistan. You never know! Unfortunately, I don’t have a substitute for the cassava flour in this recipe, as I haven’t tested it with anything else.
Oh my gosh — made this for Easter Sunday, and it was a huge hit! I’d never made a quiche before, but this one turned out near-perfectly following the instructions. I’m gluten- and dairy-allergic, so this recipe is a godsend. To step it up another notch next time, I will make a bigger show of squeezing all of the liquid out of the artichoke hearts and the frozen spinach. I did this to a degree, but want to invest in some cheese cloths for next time. Thank you so much for this recipe! What a treat it is to eat something with a delicious, flaky short-crust! I will definitely make it again.
So glad this quiche came in handy for Easter Sunday Lindsey!
Great healthy quiche recipe! I love that it’s Paleo. Directions were clear and easy to follow.
Glad you love this one Dena :)
can the cassava flour be substituted with something else?
Hi Ella – you may be able to use a different flour, but unfortunately I haven’t tried any others so not sure what the ratios would be.
I (badly|) failed! I used regular flour and followed the recipe to the letter, but I’m very disappointed!
Despite using a 9-inch tin, I had to make the dough really really thin (0.3cm!) in order to have enough dough to cover all the tin.
The final result was visually very similar to yours (crust aside) but the taste wasn’t convincing at all, definitely too bland and underwhelming.
A real shame as I follow a Mediterranean diet and are really used to simple flavours, only enhanced by the quality of the ingredients – just like the ones I can usually find on this blog! :)
I’m not sure whether this was the way it was supposed to be, but the veg mixture I poured was very liquid and in fact I didn’t even have to cover the top (ever) because it was very far from being solid until the very end.
Was I supposed to whisk longer? I used a Braun Minipimer (blender with whisk accessory) and whisked for 10’…
Any advice is welcome, would love to try this once more!
Hi Cristina – unfortunately, you can’t swap regular flour for other gluten-free flours, as they function and bake very differently. If your mixture was that liquid-y, it also sounds like you may not have fully drained and squeezed all the juice from the artichoke hearts. For the flavor, you can obviously tweak this to your liking, by adding garlic or more seasoning. But spinach, artichoke, and shallots are a bit more neutral in flavor than some of my other Mediterranean inspired recipes.
Hi Lisa,
Thank you for replying, I’ll keep this in mind!
We’re currently in lockdown in the UK, so I sadly couldn’t buy the flours listed in the recipe.
I definitely did not squeeze the artichokes too much (oops!), will make sure to do it next time and to perhaps season both artichokes and spinach – I actually ADORE artichokes and found the can ones missing a lot in flavour compared to the fresh ones (but oh well!).
As far as the egg is concerned, could I ask you how long you whisked the egg mixture for? I got the bubbles almost immediately, but the liquid consistency didn’t change at all even after a fairly long time.
Thanks again!
This quiche is filled with all my favorite flavors of summer! I love the healthy gluten-free crust!
Hi Alison – This really is the perfect summer recipe!
Looks fantastic. I love egg dishes like this!
Spinach and artichokes are a match made in heaven! I love that you grilled the green onions. I bet that adds some really good flavor.
The green onions add a hint of freshness to this :)
Yum! Definitely looks like a perfect breakfast to me!
Hi Nart- It’s a great warm and savory breakfast option :)
Have you tried making individual quiches to freeze for quick breakfasts. I’m not a big fan of crustless egg muffins, but I like the idea of this maybe in ramekins or tartlet pans.
Hi Jules- Yes! I sometimes freeze my quiches to save for future breakfasts. But, this would be a great idea to make them in both ramekin or tartlet pans. Will definitely try to give that a go :)
Hi! This sounds delicious… do you think it’s possible to use ghee instead of the butter or shortening for the crust? Thank you in advance!
Hi Rocio – yes, no problem. :)
I don’t buy frozen spinach…
Would I just use 8 ounces fresh spinach as a “substitute”?
You’d likely need more than that (probably 1.5x as much) as fresh spinach cooked down is less volume.
Can’t beat quality family time and a hearty yet nourishing summer quiche!
So true! Thanks Liz! :) x