Slow-cooker Spinach Quiche

The second recipe I decided to make this weekend was spinach quiche, again inspired by Fix it and Forget it. It took two days to make, although the actual preparation time was more like two hours at the most. I made the filling yesterday and left it to cool overnight, and then added the eggs while the pastry was baking blind before putting the whole lot together.

I love the different colours from the soup and the cheese

The spinach filling contained a bag of spinach (which happened to be 260g but anywhere around there would work fine) chopped finely and mixed with 250ml of sour cream, 125ml of mayonnaise and a packet of dried vegetable soup mix. I didn't feel like chopping the spinach for hours so I just put the whole lot in a blender and whizzed it into a paste.

Then I left it on the windowledge to cool overnight. If you have a bigger fridge than I do, chill for an hour instead.

The pastry was a bit trickier; I had bought two packets of ready-roll pastry since the recipe didn't say how much pastry would be needed, simply "two packs". One packet was ample. It was quite tricky laying it neatly into the slow cooker bowl and I was horrified after cooking it for about half an hour to see that it had slid down the edges until the lip was only two inches tall, or even just one in some places. The middle had also risen up and bubbled into funny shapes. I think perhaps it would have helped to have weighted it with those fancy ceramic balls, but I don't have any.

Regardless, after about two hours I decided the pastry looked reasonably well baked. I added five eggs (yes, five!) and 100g of grated cheese into the filing and whisked it all together before pouring it carefully into the bowl. It only just fitted - even just 5ml more and it would have run over the edge of the pastry. Then back on went the slow cooker for another four hours. I set it for five, and after three I tested it a few times until I felt the filling had set sufficiently.

After tasting the raw filling before I put the egg in, I thought it was delicious - but the funny-looking pastry discouraged me a little so I was anxious when I cut a slice out to taste. It is indeed delicious! And very, very fattening, so I am putting 80% of it into the freezer as soon as it has cooled down. My freezer stash is looking full these days.