Sweet potato, beetroot, goats cheese puff pastry plait

One of my own 'throw some things together and hope it turns out OK' recipes which was a success! This pie is best eaten at room temperature or cold.

 

Courgette (Zucchini), Asparagus and Feta Cheese Galette

Spring is here at last and so my cooking habits shift from soups and stews to quiches, tarts, and summer pies. I have had a bit of a gallete obsession recently (though unfortunately haven't blogged some of my wonderful creations) and wanted to make one that felt very in season. So I opted for courgettes and asparagus, and added in some feta cheese. Yum!

Roast Butternut Squash, Brussel Sprouts, and Goats Cheese Gallete

This was the first free-form pie I ever made and I have to say I am totally sold. They are easy to make, very tasty, and best of all, adaptable i.e. a good use of whatever  veg and cheese you have leftover. This can take a while to make, but you can always cut down time by making the pastry beforehand and storing in the fridge until needed, or using ready made pastry.

Balsamic Caramelised Leek and Onion Quiche

Summer is here and that means quiche season in my house! This is a very straightforward caramelised onion  and leek quiche. A trick a friend once showed me for pastry is to line the bottom with polenta (cornmeal), as this really improves the crust. It's not critical, however, so if you want to omit it that's fine. This is lovely hot or cold, though I generally prefer quiche when it has been cooled.

Creamy Mushroom and Butterbean Pie

This was an experimental pie filling of mine which turned out really well; in fact exactly as I imagined, which is always a bonus when cooking something without a recipe for the first time! Not many pictures of the final product as I served this when we had guests round for dinner, but suffice to say it was yummy. This uses pre-made puff pastry isn't actually that complicated to cook.

Pumpkin, Asparagus and Leek Quiche

Another sunny weekend, another quiche recipe. This was one I threw together based on what vegetables I found for sale in my local shops and what I felt would go well together. It was lovely. I found the pumpkin in an Asian food store on the campus where I work, and I believe it is known as 'Japanese Pumpkin' or Kabocha. You can substitute for any type of pumpkin or squash (or sweet potato if you like). I also put some mustard into the egg filling for a change, though this is optional.

Lemon and Balsamic Roasted Carrots, Goats Cheese and Thyme Quiche

This recipe is a modified version of this one I found on the brilliant Cook Vegetarian website. If you haven't ever seen the Cook Veg website I'd strongly recommend it as it has lots of interesting and unusual recipes. You can create an account and favourite recipes you like the look of for later use; I've been revisiting my 'plan to cook' saved recipe from the site recently, so expect a few appearing on this blog in the near future. This quiche was lovely and quite unusual, and it was also great cold. The goats cheese flavour is very strong in this recipe, so if you'd rather tone it down a bit, you could substitute half for cheddar or other flavoured cheese.

Most of the changes I made to this recipe were quantity based as they were all wrong (in my opinion) on the original website. I also added balsamic vinegar on a whim, and used double cream. I've put instructions for making the pastry from scratch, but if you don't have the time/inclination, just buy ready made shortcrust pastry.

Cottage Cheese and Chive Pie

This is an old readers digest recipe; I got it from my boyfriends mother years and years ago (pre-vegetarian) after eating it at his parents house one weekend. It's essentially a cheese and onion pie, but using cottage and cheddar cheese alongside onions and chives. Fresh chives work really well if you have them; we used to grow chives in the garden of our old house but since moving, I've had to rely on dried chives and it works just fine. I tried to make things easier by using pre-rolled puff pastry, but it was the wrong shape and I had to roll it out anyway, so you may as well just buy the block puff pastry which is often a bit cheaper.

 

Sweet potato, feta and pine nut pie

This pie is one of my 'I have some odds and ends that need using up so I'll just try make something up' recipes. The filling definitely has a wow factor (for me) and all the flavours really worked well together. I'm not entirely convinced as to the pastry - as you may be able to tell from the photos, I did not make enough so the 'lid' was not entirely closed! I've estimated how much would be better and changed the amounts here. In fact, I think it would be better - instead of having a full enclosed pie - to just add the filling straight to the dish, and top with a store bought puff pastry 'lid'. This would also make things easier.

Courgette, Rosemary and Goats Cheese Quiche

One of the things I love about quiche is you can put whatever you fancy in it as a filling. For example, my previous quiche recipe involved beetroot and feta, but I mixed things up a bit here by using courgettes, goats cheese, and rosemary. This recipe comes from one of my many generic 'vegetarian kitchen' cookbooks and is a lovely balance of flavours. As ever, if you don't want to make the pastry, just use packaged stuff. 

For some reason I see quiche as very much a spring/summer dish, so this is probably the last quiche I'll feature on the blog for a while, as my attention turns to soup in the coming months.

Beetroot and Feta Quiche

Quiche tends to take quite a bit of time, but I find it is always worth it. I had an urge to cook with beetroot, since I really like it but don't ever cook with it as have never been sure what to do with it. Anyway, I decided quiche would be a good place to start experimenting with it, and it turned out great. I bought ready cooked beetroot from my local supermarket; make sure you don't get pickled beetroot if you also do this. I'd recommend it as it's far easier than cooking the beetroot yourself. A note: beetroot juice leaves the mother of all stains so be careful when chopping it! I had some shallots from the garden which I used, but you could just use a regular onion. If you have any leftovers, it'll make an awesome lunch cold.

Butternut Squash Puff Pasty Pie

Ok, this is my first post ever so please bear with me, especially for the pictures... :)

I modelled this pie on an old Readers Digest recipe I had from my boyfriend's mother, which was a cottage cheese and chive pie. I substituted the cottage cheese for mashed up butternut squash, and the chives for red onions. It turned out pretty well. Mine was almost overfilled, so I've reduced the quantities slightly. This recipe is pretty time intensive, but the end result is worth it, and it tastes great cold too. Remember to take the pastry out of the fridge 20 minutes before you want to roll it out!