Revisiting recipes – Crustless Quiche with Spinach and Feta Cheese

I have often wanted to make this recipe of mine; invariably I would either be out of eggs or feta cheese. Last week when my daughter had a day off from school, a couple of friends and I planned an "art day"for the kids at my place. (Read keeping the kids busy and out of our hair!)

My upstairs neighbour organised the brushes, the face paint and loads of one sided paper. Some simple cuts in potato and brinjal halves and they had a whale of a time dipping them in the paint and making block prints! Then there was spray painting which they did with cut outs and an old toothbrush. Of course most of the paints seemed to be on them than on the paper LOL!

Lunch was a mixed spread. Phulkas, Lobia Saag (Cowpeas beans and Spinach Gravy), Cucumber and Tomato salad, Crustless Quiche with Spinach and Feta cheese, Brown Rice with Chicken and Pumpkin and Apple Crisp.

I have made a similar quiche before using roasted peppers and cream cheese. I wanted to make it again with different ingredients; spinach was the first thing which came to mind and since I had feta cheese too, it seemed perfect.

I was searching for other ideas and I came across this recipe from Baking Bites - the talk of flour that would automatically separate from the batter and form a crust seemed too exciting, though I had used flour in my earlier recipe too and didn't remember a crust forming. I decided to try this once again and adapted the recipe.

The quiche was good and we really liked the wedges we had; the browned top making a lovely contrast to the flaky insides and the delicious feta complimenting the overall taste. But I didn't get the crust effect separately though the bottom was quite firm. Maybe next time I will stick to the recipe completely and see what happens since the flour proportion was quite different from what I used in mine.

Crustless Quiche with Spinach and Feta Cheese

Ingredients:

Wheat flour - 1/2 cup
Refined flour (maida) - 1/2 cup
Baking powder - 1/4 tsp
Baking soda - pinch
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Egg whites - 3
Milk - 1 cup
Spinach - 1 cup cleaned and chopped
Onions - 1 cup chopped
Feta cheese - 1/3 cup cut into small squares
Chilli powder - 1/4 tsp
Carom seeds (ajwain/omam) - 1/4 tsp
Crushed black pepper - 1 tsp
Olive oil - 1 tsp

Method:

1. Mix the flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a bowl.
2. Pre heat the oven to 180C and grease a 10" pie pan or a shallow baking pan. Take a pan, heat the oil and put in some ajwain seeds, when they change colour (1/2 a minute), add the onions and saute for 2-3 minutes till transluscent. Then add the chopped spinach and saute till it softens and wilts (about 3 minutes). Remove and cool.
3. Whisk the egg whites and add the milk, salt, crushed black pepper and chilli powder to it.
4. Mix in the flour mixture gently and then add the spinach onion mixture.
5. Pour in the batter into the prepared pie plate and place the pieces of feta cheese on top.
6. Bake at 180C for 15-20 minutes, a toothpick inserted will come out clean and the top will be golden brown.