Spanakopita is one of my favourite appetizers. I would happily eat it for dinner (and have been known to do so), but sometimes it feels like it isn’t quite a complete meal on its own.

This inspired me to start making this quiche. The eggs bump up the protein quotient but this quiche still hits the notes of spinach, feta and dill, wrapped in a tender and flaky crust.

As an added bonus, this recipe uses a LOT of spinach. I suggest 8 cups of raw spinach below, but if you happen to have 9 or 10, throw them in. You will be amazed by how much it shrinks down, so you can feel good about how many vegetables you are having even if you don’t manage to pair this with a salad!

Hands-on time: 30 minutes

Total time: 1 hour 45 minutes

Ingredients:

• Filling
  • 1 onion (chopped)
  • 2 cloves garlic (crushed)
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 8 cups spinach, roughly chopped
  • 6 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 3/4 cup feta cheese
• Crust
  • 1 1/2 cups AP flour plus extra for rolling
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp dill
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cubed (very cold)
  • 5-8 tbsp very cold water

Directions:

1. Prepare filling
   • Sautee onion (1) and garlic cloves (2) in olive oil (1 tbsp) with salt (1/4 tsp) until onion is translucent but not browned
   • Turn down heat and add spinach a handful at a time, sautee until it wilts (see note)
   • Set aside to cool
   • Whisk together with a fork eggs (6) and milk (1/2 cup) – set aside a couple of spoonfuls to brush the crust later on
   • Crumble feta cheese (3/4 cup) into egg mixture
   • Stir spinach and onion mixture into egg mixture
2. Prepare crust
   • Stir together flour (1 1/2 cups), salt (1 tsp) and dill (1 tsp)
   • Cut in the flour (see note)
   • Add the water 1 spoonful at a time, mixing as little as possible. As soon as the dough starts to come together stop adding water, you might not need it all
   • Form the dough into a ball, handling as little as possible, wrap it tight and set it in the fridge for at least half an hour
   • Roll out the dough on a floured surface very thin, you are making both a bottom and top crust
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees f
4. Pour egg mixture into bottom crust, add top crust and shape the edges in whatever way you like best
5. Cut a hole in the centre of the top crust
6. Brush with the reserved egg and milk mixture (forgot to set that aside? Don’t worry, me too. Just brush the top with egg white, this helps it brown.)
7. Bake 30-40 minutes, just until a knife inserted in the middle comes out fairly clean
8. Let cool 10 minutes before serving

Notes:

• If you tend to find spinach bitter, you can blanch it rather than sautee it. Blanching means that you drop it in boiling water very briefly and then dip it in cold water. Make sure to dry it carefully or else it will make the quiche soggy.
• There are a few ways to cut flour and butter together. You can use a pastry cutter (if you have one of these, you probably don’t need me to tell you how to make a pie crust!), you can use a couple of forks to push the butter into the flour mixture, or my favourite, you can put the butter and the flour mixture into a stand mixer and use the wire whisk attachment to mix it together slowly. Whatever technique you use, you want to get the butter broken up and crumbly so it looks kind of like cornmeal.