Quiche Florentine (Spinach Quiche)

This Quiche Florentine is an easy version of the traditional French dish—a custard of eggs, cream, cheese, and spinach baked in a pastry shell.

Whenever I decide to treat myself to lunch at one of the boulangeries in my neighborhood, more often than not, I’m coming home with quiche. My favorite bakeries change up their fillings depending on what’s on hand—a salmon pea quiche one day, and a sweet potato blue cheese one the next. Often, though, a Quiche Florentine is on offer, and though it’s a classic, it’s one of my all-time favorites. That, and a cup of the soup of the day, and I’m walking home with a smile on my face. 

The good news is that you don’t need to live in walking distance of a French bakery to enjoy Quiche Florentine on a regular basis. In fact, it’s so easy that you can make it anytime. (Especially if you cheat, like I did in this recipe, and use store-bought crust!)

Why Make This Recipe

• Easy to Make: Simple filling, store-bought crust, and this Florentine quiche is in the oven!
• Vegetarian but Hearty: This is one of my favorite vegetarian dinner recipes. Packed with spinach and onions, and of course, cheese!
• Great for Make-Ahead: You can bake this spinach quiche a day before you want to serve it, then just reheat it in the oven. Or, let it cool after baking, then cut and freeze slices for future lunches or dinners. You can eat it warm, or at room temperature.

🥗 Ingredients

• Gruyère Cheese: If you don’t have gruyère cheese, you can substitute Swiss cheese, fontina cheese, comté cheese, or Monterey Jack cheese. You can use cheddar cheese as well, but I’d recommend using half cheddar and half one of the other cheeses listed. Cheddar does not melt as well as the other cheeses do, so it benefits from being mixed with other cheeses. 
• Frozen Spinach: You can use fresh spinach instead, but you will need to cook and wilt it before adding to the quiche. Squeeze out as much liquid as possible, then add it to the skillet while you are sautéing the shallots.
• Shallots: Feel free to replace with another type of onion. Red onions would work nicely.
• Nutmeg: I love the light taste and smell of a little nutmeg sprinkled on top, but you can leave it off if you don't have any.

🥣 Step-by-Step Instructions for Quiche Florentine

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit or 200 degrees Celsius. Place your baking rack on the bottom slot of your oven. Unroll your pie crust or pâte brisée and line a 9-inch pie plate or tart pan. If your crust comes on a sheet of parchment paper, just leave it on the paper when you fit it into the pan.

If necessary, trim the edges of your dough so they don’t hang much over the edge of your pan. Fold the edges of the crust back and under so that you form a border at the top that does not go around the edge of the pan. Any crust around those edges will just snap off when you try to remove the quiche slices.

Now, you’re going to blind bake your pie crust. Use a fork to prick the crust all over the bottom of the pan. Then line the crust with parchment paper and cover with pie weights, raw rice, or dried beans. This will ensure the bottom doesn’t puff up as it bakes.

Bake on the bottom oven rack for 20 minutes. Remove the parchment and weights, and bake for an additional 5 minutes. The edges of the crust should be golden, and the middle should no longer look raw. 

While the pie shell is baking, heat 1 tablespoon of butter in a small skillet over medium heat. Add 4 ounces of shallot slices and sauté for about 5 minutes, until starting to brown. Remove from heat.

Whisk together 5 eggs, ½ cup heavy cream, 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard, ½ t. salt, and ¼ t. pepper in a large bowl.

When crust has been removed from oven, spread the shallot slices on top of the baked crust. Distribute 6 ½ ounces of frozen spinach (thawed and squeezed dry) evenly across the crust. Then add 1 ½ ounces of shredded gruyère cheese.

Pour in the egg mixture. Sprinkle with an additional ounce of cheese and grate ¼ teaspoon of nutmeg over the top.

Bake for 25-30 minutes on the bottom oven rack, or until the egg custard is just cooked through and lightly browned on top. The filling should be completely set—if it jiggles when you touch the pan, it’s not done. Serve either warm or at room temperature.  

🧐 FAQs

👩‍🍳 Expert Tips for Quiche Florentine

Best Way to Unmold Quiche: If your crust does not come on a sheet of parchment, you can line your pie or tart pan directly with the crust. The butter in the crust will help it not stick to the bottom of the pan. Another option is to use a tart pan with a removable bottom. These pans let you pop out your tart beautifully to display on the table before slicing. 

Getting the Perfect Slice: Wait to slice the finished quiche for at least 10-20 minutes. This will allow the quiche to fully set, and you’ll get cleaner slices.

A+ Crust: It is a fact that quiches (and pies!) are always better with homemade crust. If you’re up for giving this recipe a little more time, and want to make your own crust, look no further than Cathy Barrow’s Flaky Pie Dough. She is a pie expert, and her pie dough recipes are foolproof and fantastic—well worth the time you put in to make them. 

More about Blind Baking: Blind baking is the term used for pre-baking a pie crust before adding the filling. Typically, blind baking is used when a pie shell will be used with a filling that does not need to be baked (such as a fruit tart with pastry cream or chocolate cream pie). In that case, the pie shell is fully baked before the filling is added.

Blind baking is also used when the pie crust is filled with a very liquidy filling, as in this recipe. In that case, the pie shell is partly baked, then continues to bake after the filling has been added. This avoids the dreaded “soggy bottom,” as Mary Berry says on the Great British Bake-Off.

The key to successful blind baking is to make sure that you have scored the dough, and then weighted it down with pie weights or uncooked rice or beans. Otherwise, the pastry dough will puff up when you bake it, leaving less room for your filling.

Delicious Recipes to Serve with Quiche

Quiche is such a versatile dish. You can serve it for breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dinner. For breakfast, you might eat it on its own, or if you are meat-eater, enjoy it with a couple of slices of bacon or sausage on the side.

Quiche Florentine makes a great addition to a brunch spread, especially when paired with a fresh fruit salad and something sweet, like this Easy Lemon Ricotta Cake.

If I’m eating a French quiche for lunch or dinner, I love to pair it with a big green salad or a soup. Possibilities are endless, but I've pulled some of my favorite recipes into this Best Side Dishes for Quiche post. And here are a few of my favorite pairings:

If you love a spinach quiche but want even more veggies packed in there, you may also want to try my Spinach Mushroom Quiche with Tomatoes (not classic, but still delicious)! And speaking of mushrooms, try this Mushroom Quiche for pure mushroom flavor. Or, if you are a seafood eater, try my Smoked Salmon Broccoli Quiche recipe.

If you try this Quiche Florentine recipe, I would love to hear from you! Leave a comment below—I read them all, and your feedback is invaluable to me. And please follow along on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook or subscribe to my newsletter. I'd love to inspire you with more delicious, healthy, and seasonal recipes!

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📖 Recipe

Quiche Florentine

Yield: Serves 6

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Additional Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Quiche Florentine is a traditional French dish in which a custard of eggs, cream, cheese, and spinach is baked in a pastry shell. Delicious for breakfast, lunch, or dinner!

Print

Ingredients

• 1 store-bought pie crust
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 3 large shallots (about 4 ounces), sliced
• 5 eggs
• ½ cup heavy cream
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 6 ½ ounces frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
• 2 ½ ounces grated gruyère cheese
• ¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit or 200 degrees Celsius, and place your baking rack on the bottom slot of your oven.
2. Unroll your pie crust and line a 9-inch pie plate or tart pan.
3. If necessary, trim the edges of your dough so they don’t hang much over the edge of your pan. Fold the edges of the crust back and under so that you form a border at the top that does not go much over the edge of the pan. Any crust around those edges will just snap off when you try to remove the quiche slices.
4. Next, use a fork to prick the crust all over the bottom of the pan.
5. Line the crust with parchment paper and cover with pie weights, or raw rice or beans. This will ensure the bottom doesn’t puff up as it bakes.
6. Bake on the bottom oven rack for 20 minutes, then remove the parchment and weights, and bake for an additional 5 minutes. The edges of the crust should be golden, and the middle should no longer look raw.
7. While the pie shell is baking, heat butter in a small skillet over medium heat.
8. Add shallot slices and sauté for about 5-8 minutes, until starting to brown. Remove from heat.
9. Whisk together eggs, cream, mustard, salt, and pepper in a large bowl.
10. When crust has been removed from oven, spread the shallot slices on top, followed by the spinach, and half of the gruyère cheese.
11. Pour in the egg mixture.
12. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and grate nutmeg over the top.
13. Bake for 25-30 minutes on the bottom oven rack, or until the egg custard is cooked through and lightly browned on top. The filling should be completely set—if it jiggles when you touch the pan, it’s not done.
14. Wait to slice the quiche for at least 10-20 minutes—this will allow the quiche to fully set, and you’ll get cleaner slices.
15. Serve either warm or at room temperature.
    

Notes

If you don’t have gruyère cheese, you can substitute Swiss cheese, fontina cheese, comté cheese, or Monterey Jack cheese. You can use cheddar cheese as well, but I’d recommend using half cheddar and half one of the other cheeses listed. Cheddar does not melt as well as the other cheeses do, so it benefits from being mixed with other cheeses.

Feel free to use fresh instead of frozen spinach. Just cook and wilt it before adding to the quiche. You can add it to the skillet while you are sautéing the shallots. Take care to squeeze out as much liquid as possible after cooking.

Quiche can be baked up to 2-3 days in advance, then kept in the refrigerator. Reheat in the oven to serve. Once quiche has been baked, it can be frozen for up to 3 months. Defrost in the refrigerator for 24 hours before reheating in oven.

Recommended Products

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• 
  SWEEJAR Porcelain Pie Pan, 9.5-inch Round Corrugated Tart Dish, Non-sticky Ceramic Quiche Plate, Suitable for Baking Apple Pie, Cheese Sweet Potato Pie, Chicken Pot Pie, Crustless Quiche (White)

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 6 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 386Total Fat: 24gSaturated Fat: 11gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 11gCholesterol: 199mgSodium: 750mgCarbohydrates: 26gFiber: 6gSugar: 4gProtein: 19g

Nutrition information is provided as a general reference for users courtesy of the online nutrition calculator Nutritionix.

Instagram Users: Now that you've made this Florentine Quiche recipe, tag me @vanillabeancuisine or #vanillabeancuisine because I'd love to see your results!

More About Molly

Cooking healthy(ish) meals with seasonal ingredients is my passion. Trained as a French pastry chef, I spent over 10 years as a personal chef. Here you'll find well-tested recipes that you and your family will love!

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