Foodie Friday - Gluten Free Roasted Vegetable And Feta Cheese Quiche

Quiche is a bit of running joke really isn't it - real men don't eat quiche, oh your vegetarian you must live on quiche. Yes I've heard them all and a few more besides but I love quiche and to be honest I always have. It's one of those things that tastes equally good hot or cold, and it's super tasty and filling, and easy to make. It isn't just for vegetarians either, you can use salmon, tuna or even ham, bacon or chicken but obviously I stick to vegetarian fillings. It's one of those dishes that you can experiment with, one of my favourites is the basic cheese and onion quiche, but you can experiment with different types of vegetables and different types of cheeses. Another one of my favourites is feta cheese and cherry tomatoes, but recently I had a few bits of other vegetables left in the fridge so I decided to have a little play and this was the very successful and tasty result.

Gluten Free Roasted Vegetable And Feta Cheese Quiche

For The Pastry 

6oz Plain Gluten Free Flour

3oz Butter 

Cold Water 

For The Filling

A Few Vegetables - Courgettes, Cherry Tomatoes, Red Pepper, Red Onion

A Drizzle Of Olive Oil

100g Feta Cheese

3 Eggs

A Splash Of Milk

A Dash Of Pepper

2oz Cheddar Cheese

1. Pre-heat your own to about 200° C. Then prepare your veg, you roughly want a good handful, I sliced half a courgette, 1/4 of a large red pepper, 1 small red onion, into bite sized chunks, and put them with a dozen or so cherry tomatoes into a roasting tin and drizzle with a little olive oil. Pop the tray into your preheated oven for about 25 minutes.

2. Whilst your vegetables are cooking you can make your pastry. You can easily buy ready made gluten free pastry but with a bit of patience it's really simple to make your own. Simply take 6oz of plain gluten free flour (I use Doves Farm or Asda's own) and pop it into a mixing bowl. Then add 3oz butter cubed or in small pieces to the the flour. I've used margarine and vegetable fat before but it just doesn't seem to work as well as the butter in gluten free pastry - so you need to sacrifice a few calories :)

The rub the butter and flour in between your fingers till your mixture looks a bit like breadcrumbs.

Then starting adding cold water to the mix until you can create a soft dough. Gluten free flour and any flour come to think of it absorbs water differently so it's hard to say how much you'll need, get your hands in and judge it by eye. Once your dough has come together you can either use it straight away or pop it in the fridge for a little bit to firm up.

3. After about 25 minutes or so, your vegetables should be soft and starting to brown You don't really want them too crispy so try to keep an eye on them. When their done pop them to one side to cool.

4. Cheese time - chop your feta into small cubes, and grate your cheddar :)

5. Time to get the show on the road - preheat your oven to about 190° C . and grease your tin - you can either use a deep tart tin, or like I'm using a sandwich tin. As per usual though I'm using silicone bake wear which I would thoroughly recommend if your a gluten free cook - gluten free baked goods are notoriously fragile and these make it so easy to get it out, without breaking anything.

Normally you would roll your pastry out but due to the fragility of gluten free pastry it really can be a frustrating nightmare, so I just pop my ball of dough into my tin or tray and push slowly out with the heel of the hand till it fills the entire tin.

Don't panic if it tears, you can easily patch it with the excess from the edges.

6. Once your pastry is sorted it's time to fill your flan case. I normally put the feta cheese on the bottom making sure it spread out evenly.

Then I pop the cooled roasted vegetables on the top again spreading them out evenly.

7. Now to make the egg mix, crack 3 eggs into a jug, and mix together with a splash of milk, and a shake of pepper - you don't need any salt as the feta is usually quite salty.

Then pour the egg mixture into your flan case making sure to just about cover the cheese and veg. You don't want your case to be too full, as the filling will puff up a bit, but you can add another egg or a bit of milk if you need to.

8. Finally sprinkle your grated cheddar evenly over the top of your quiche and pop it in the oven.

9. After about 40 minutes your filling should be golden brown and set and your pastry should be crisp. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for about 10 minutes if your serving warm, and at least an hour if you want to serve it cold

It will be fab with either salad, chips, or even a baked potato It can be served warm or cold - just heat it up for about a minute in the microwave, and it keeps well in the fridge for about 24 or so hours.

The world really is your oyster with this recipe once you have the basic pastry and egg mix you can really use what you like and what you have to fill your quiche x Do you love quiche like me ? let me know in the comments and let me know if you have any questions x