Quiche Florentine

This Quiche Florentine, also known as spinach mushroom quiche, is a delicious light family dinner or breakfast. It’s a flaky pie crust filled with eggs and garlicky spinach mushroom filling for a high-protein dinner that all the family loves.

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Quiches are one of the easiest healthy dinner recipes that are also perfect for storing and serving the next day for breakfast. Let’s see how you can make a French quiche Florentine at home.

A Quiche Florentine is a famous French dish with a flaky, buttery pie crust filled with eggs, spinach, and mushrooms cooked in butter and garlic and topped with Gruyere cheese. Gruyere is a Swiss cheese with a sophisticated fruity flavor that makes all the difference on top of this spinach mushroom quiche recipe.

The term “Florentine” describes a way of cooking spinach with a Béchamel sauce. It is thought to be coming from Catherine de Medici, who was born in Florence, Italy, and brought this recipe from her hometown when she married the King of France.

Ingredients and Substitutions

All you need to make a classic quiche crust that is flaky and buttery are:

• All-Purpose Flour – You can use white wheat flour, spelt flour, or gluten-free all-purpose flour.
• Cold Water – Straight out of the fridge or cold tap water with ice blocks.
• Diced Cold Butter – I prefer to use unsalted, free-range butter. The butter needs to be cold for this recipe to work. Don’t make it reach room temperature.
• Sea Salt

To fill a quiche Florentine, you need:

• Olive Oil – I prefer using extra-virgin olive oil to decrease the saturated fat. You can also use butter if preferred.
• Onion – White or brown onions work.
• Button Mushrooms – Use fresh, sliced white button mushrooms. While using canned mushrooms would also work, I find them way less tasty than fresh mushrooms.
• Garlic Cloves – Or garlic powder.
• Baby Spinach – Fresh baby spinach leaves are much better than either frozen spinach or fresh full-grown spinach leaves that have a stronger, almost bitter taste.
• Salt
• Eggs – Use large free-range eggs.
• Milk of Choice – I like to use almond milk in this recipe, but you can use any milk you want, including dairy milk.
• Heavy Cream – You might find it as heavy whipping cream, whipping cream, double cream, or Crème Fraîche. It’s cream with at least 35% of fat content but less than 50%.
• Gruyere Cheese – Gruyere is a Swiss cheese made exclusively in the Swiss region around the town of Gruyère. The common Swiss cheese is an imitation that would also work in this recipe.

How To Make Quiche Florentine

It’s straightforward to make a quiche recipe. The first thing is to choose the crust you want to make for your quiche. You have a few options depending on your food allergies and health goals. You can make a Keto Pie Crust – made with almond flour to keep the carbs minimal and the crust gluten-free. You can also make a 3-Ingredient Pie Crust for a classic, quick and easy crust. And if you’re short in time, a store-bought crust.

1. In a large bowl, add the flour and salt and whisk them well together.
2. Then, add the cooled cubes of butter, and using a pastry cutter or two forks, cut the butter into the flour until all the butter is coated and incorporated into the flour.
3. It should form small lumps of flour-coated butter.
4. Drizzle some cold water over the bowl, 2 to 3 tablespoons at a time, stirring after each addition.
5. Stop adding water when the dough comes together.
6. Then, fold the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead to form a dough ball. Wrap the dough ball tightly into plastic wrap and flatten it into a thick disc.
7. Refrigerate the dough for at least an hour or overnight.
8. Dice onions and slice the mushrooms into thin slices.
9. Over medium heat, warm a non-stick skillet with olive oil or butter.
10. Cook the onions until fragrant and translucent, then add in garlic, spinach, and mushrooms.
11. Cook until the spinach is fully wilted and mushrooms shrink which takes about 3 to 4 minutes. Discard the excess liquid in the skillet.
12. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).
13. On a lightly floured surface, place the dough ball and start rolling, applying gentle pressure from the center to the sides.
14. Roll until the pie crust is slightly larger than the pie pan – about 12 inches in diameter for a 9-inch pie plate.
15. Grease the pie plate with butter or line with parchment paper.
16. Place the rolled crust onto the pie plate and flute the edges with your fingers. Prick the bottom of the pie shell.
17. Top the crust with pie weights or dry beans. Bake it at 375°F (190°C) for 15 minutes until it’s slightly cooked.
18. Reduce the oven to 350°F (180°C) when removing the crust from the oven.
19. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the cooked spinach mushroom mixture into the pie case, leaving the juice in the pan. If there’s some liquid left in the frying pan, don’t add it to the quiche crust, or the egg custard from the quiche won’t set well.
20. Spread the mixture evenly and top up with the egg mixture and Gruyere cheese.
21. Bake the Florentine Quiche for 20 minutes at 350°F (180°C).
22. Remove the quiche from the oven when the egg custard is set or until the cheese is grilled.
23. Let the quiche cool down for a few minutes at room temperature before serving or slicing.

Quiche Toppings

You can serve a Florentine quiche plain or with some of the delicious toppings below:

• Chili flakes
• Ground black pepper
• Sea salt flakes
• Freshly chopped Italian parsley

Serving Suggestions

This Florentine quiche is delicious on its own or with some simple sides like:

• Lettuce
• Spinach Strawberry Salad
• Cherry tomatoes
• Fresh Avocado Slices
• Cauliflower Potato Salad

Allergy Swaps

Below I listed some simple allergy swaps you can use in this quiche recipe to make the quiche suitable for your food allergies.

• Dairy-Free – Swap the dairy milk for any non-dairy, plant-based milk you love, like almond milk, coconut milk, or oat milk. The cream can be replaced with canned coconut cream, soy cream, or dairy-free milk. Butter is easily replaceable with olive oil to cook the vegetables. However, for the pie crust, you will need margarine or dairy-free butter. Finally, use a dairy-free cheese alternative on top of the quiche or skip the cheese.
• Gluten-Free – use a gluten-free pie crust recipe or store-bought gluten-free ready-made pie crust for the recipe. The filling is gluten-free.
• Low-Carb Quiche Florentine – Use my keto quiche crust as a base to cut the carbs and make a low-carb quiche.

Healthy Swaps

You can make this quiche recipe a little bit healthier by swapping some of the ingredients in the recipe. The best healthy options for a quiche are:

• Use a low-carb quiche crust – it won’t raise your blood sugar level as much and increase fiber and proteins to keep you full for longer.
• Swap the cream and milk for dairy-free alternatives that are easier to digest.
• Swap the butter for olive oil to cook vegetables.
• Use low-fat grated cheese to decrease the calories and saturated fat.

Storage Instructions

The cooked quiche can be stored for up to 3 days in an airtight container in the fridge. You can freeze cooked quiche slice by slice in plastic wraps, or the entire quiche can be cooked in a sealed container.

There are two ways to rewarm a quiche. If you want to use an oven, you don’t need to thaw the quiche before rewarming it. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C), line some baking paper on a baking sheet, and place the frozen slices of quiche on the sheet. Bake until warm in the center for about 10 minutes.

You can also air-fry the quiche slices to rewarm them. Place the frozen quiche slices or cold slices straight out of the fridge onto the air fryer basket. Air fry the quiche slices at 325°F (160°C) for 8-10 minutes until crust is crispy and filling is hot.

Frequently Asked Questions

More Healthy Quiche And Pies

If you like quiche and pies, you’ll love these other healthy recipes: