My ‘rustic’ home made gluten free quiche

For many years I followed a strict gluten free diet and while I don’t have to anymore I do still prefer my GF quiche to a ‘regular’ quiche.
When regular flour is substituted with buckwheat flour, the pastry takes on an amazing, unique, almost nutty flavour. But because there isn’t any gluten to bind the pastry and hold it together  the pastry tends to fall apart and stick to everything, making it almost impossible to roll – but stress not! I have a few tips to solve this and it really is worth it for the flavour!

Step 1:

• first slice and slow roast your vegetables – use any that you fancy. I like a mix of capsicum (red pepper), aubergine (egg plant), red onion, sweet potato (the orange ones), courgette and really good cherry tomatoes.
• use a generous amount of olive oil and don’t crowd the veg – let them roast not steam!

Step 2:

• to make the buckwheat pastry, weigh 150 grams of buckwheat flour; 50g of other flour (either plain or GF); 100 grams of butter and a pinch of salt
• combine flours and salt in a bowl or a blender and add  half the butter
• using your hands or the blender start to mix the ingredients together; once the flour starts looking a little like breadcrumbs add the rest of the butter
• once all the butter and flour is mixed add cool water – with GF flours you need more liquid than regular flours so just add a tablespoon at a time until the pastry starts to bind
• roll it into a ball, wrap in cling film and then pop in the fridge for 30mins

Step 3

• lay a good length of  cling film onto a bench and pop the dough ball in the middle, place another sheet of cling film on top and start to roll the pastry out
• make sure you roll in all directions to encourage the pastry to roll evenly and in a circle (it doesn’t matter if your pastry is not perfect or ends up the shape of an alien; you can just cut and paste it into the quiche tray using a little water to bind the edges back together) very rustic!
• peel off the top sheet of clingfilm and place the quiche tray upside down on the pastry, carefully flip the the pastry and the tray the right side up and peel off the bottom piece of clingfilm
• pre-cook the base for around 20 mins until the pastry starts to go a little golden in colour

step 4

• evenly layer the roasted veg into the base, starting with the sweet potato and finishing with the onions and tomatoes on the top layer
• grate a little cheese on top, sprinkle some fetta and add some basil leaves
• grab a bowl and crack at least 5 eggs into it – add some salt and pepper and a little milk or cream
• hand whisk together and then pour over the quiche – you want all the veg to be just covered – but not drowning in egg
• bake at around 160-170 until the egg is cooked through

step 5

• crack open a bottle of red, tear up some crusty bread and enjoy with friends

Bon appetite!