Herbivore – Spring quiche with fresh herbs

When did all the spring herbs, veggies and fruits grow? It appears that out of a sudden cabbages, roots, pears and apples had to make room for spring onions, wild garlic, asparagus, strawberries and rhubarb on our local farmers market.

Not that I have a problem with it – I love it! I am definitely ready for this change – I could jump for joy!

So, let’s stop talking and start embracing spring – by packing its full herbal power into one quiche! Hello again, all you fresh greens, come in!

I discovered this nice bunch of mixed herbs at the market and threw it all in the quiche. But try different herb combinations, substitute chard by spinach, add some spring onions … this recipe is really versatile. The crust is a quark-oil-dough – when it comes to quiche I prefer this to shortcrust, puff pastry or yeast dough. If you have trouble to find quark, you can use yoghurt as well, just keep in mind that it is runnier than quark and you will need less of it.

Herbal spring quiche (Ø 26 baking pan, serves 4-6 persones)

ingredients
100 g whole wheat flour, 100 g bread flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 125 g quark, 6 tablespoons olive oil, ½ teaspoon salt

200 g sour cream (24% fat), 2 eggs, 150 g aged cheese (f.ex. Gruyère), about 2 teaspoons salt, pepper, nutmeg, ½ chard (or spinach), two little stems broccoli raab, approx. 1 ½ bunch mixed herbs (I used 1 mixed herbes bunch containing sorrel, borage, tarragon, chervil, chives and ½ bunch wild garlic), 10 (or so) cherry tomatoes

preparation
Mix flour, baking powder and salt. Add quark and olive oil. Knead until you have a homogenous dough. If it’s too dry, add a few drops of water. Roll out ¾ of the dough into a disk fitting in the baking pan. With the rest of the dough form a roll that reaches around the bottom. Lay around the bottom, press flat to form the edge. Make sure the “seam” is sealed.

Preheat oven to 180°C. Wash chard and herbs, pat dry and chop all of them. Place in a big bowl. Grate cheese. In another bowl mix sour cream and eggs. Season with salt and pepper. Add about 2/3 of the cheese. Combine with herbs and spread on the crust. [On the pictures above you can see that I first tried to fill the crust with herbs and then add the sour cream, which worked not that good. So I adjusted this point fo the process.] Carefully press it into the pan. Wash and halfen tomatoes. Place on top of the quiche and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Bake for 45 minutes. Let cool out a bit.

As other kinds of quiche this can be eaten warm, but it tastes great lukewarm or cold – as lunch the other day – as well.