There are many ways to skin a cat, but only one way to get at the heart of an artichoke
OK, no cat-skinning, just the need find an alternative way to deal with a tricky bulb. It’s Iron Chef night. This evening’s ingredient is the now in-season artichoke, a vegetable with which I have very little experience. So, before you start thinking that this is a post on the art of selecting, preparing, eating or even understanding this multi-layered beast of a treat, stop, and let me reiterate: this is a vegetable with which I have very little experience.
My contribution to our meal is a side dish. The thought of artichokes with bacon and garlic sounded tempting, so I decided upon a quiche. I will admit up front that I used canned artichoke hearts for this recipe, given everything else going on with it. Between prepping the crust, caramelizing onions (Walla Walla with a little brown sugar), and frying bacon to a crisp, I found myself looking for a shortcut. The artichokes – the central ingredient in this dish – were the path I decided to take.
I selected a can of quartered artichoke hearts that were packed with water. There was a bit of citric acid and salt in the mix, but no marinade or other preservatives. I drained the can, rinsed the artichoke pieces well, chopped them into ½” chunks, and then sautéed them in olive oil with garlic and chopped spinach. The rest of the quiche came together fairly easily, particularly because I’d made and frozen the pastry dough a week ago.
For the crust, I used a typical butter pastry recipe, replacing the wheat flour with a rice flour/starch blend and using vegan butter. The keys to it coming together were using COLD ingredients, and including egg yolk, xanthan gum and cider vinegar for binding and texture. The resulting dough was refrigerated before I used it, so it held together well. Given my trial and error approach, I won’t yet offer the recipe, but for inspiration, check out the MennoniteGirlsCanCook and GlutenFreeGirl blogs.
The recipe below is a composite of multiple dairy-based quiche recipes. I made substitutes galore to convert it to dairy-free, including upping the egg content to decrease the milk content, replacing milk with a combo of soy and rice milk, using vegan butter, and replacing the cheese with a non-dairy cream cheese substitute to maintain the intended richness of the traditional recipes. The result was tasty, if I do say so myself.
The bacon definitely adds flavor and texture to the quiche, but if you’d like to make a vegetarian version of this recipe, simply leave it out.
Artichoke and Caramelized Onion Quiche
Ingredients
- 1 recipe GF and/or DF pastry dough, refrigerate before using (see links above)
- 8 slices crisp cooked bacon, crumbled (optional)
- ½ large yellow onion, caramelized with 1 tsp brown sugar and 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 14-oz can artichoke hearts packed in water, drained, rinsed and chopped into ½” chunks
- 1 cup fresh spinach, chopped
- 5 large eggs
- 1 ½ cup plain, unsweetened soy or rice milk
- ½ cup Tofutti dairy-free cream cheese
- 2 Tbsp vegan butter, melted
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/8 tsp pepper
- Pinch of cayenne and nutmeg
Instructions
- Prepare Pastry
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and lightly grease a 9-10″ tart pan.
- Roll prepared and refrigerated pastry dough out between two sheets of plastic wrap.
- Remove one sheet of plastic and carefully invert the other piece with the dough into the tart pan. Fit dough into pan evenly and remove the 2nd sheet of plastic. Lightly press dough into bottom and sides of pan so it reaches the top edge of the pan. Remove excess dough and smooth edges. Using a knife, make a ¼ slit in 4 different places at the bottom of the crust to prevent air bubbles from forming – and deforming your crust (alternatively, layer a piece of tin foil over the dough and pour beans on top before baking to keep the crust from rising in the middle.)
- Place pan in oven and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until crust is golden brown.
- Remove pan from oven and let cool at one side. Reduce temperature to 375 degrees F.
- Prepare filling
- In a sautee pan, lightly sautee garlic, artichokes, and chopped spinach. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix together eggs, milk, cream cheese, butter, salt, pepper, cayenne, and nutmeg.
- Sprinkle bacon crumbles across bottom of tart crust. Sprinkle carmelized onions over bacon. Spoon artichoke mixture over the onions evenly. Finally, pour egg mixture over the top of the bacon and vegetables. Lightly tap the sides of the tart pan to help the egg mixture settle between the other ingredients.
- Carefully place tart in the oven. Bake at 375 degrees F for 30 to 40 minutes. When done, center of tart should be firm and sides golden brown.
- Remove from oven and let cool completely before serving.