Pea Quiche with Avocado Crust

 

This green tart by Jamie Oliver is perfect for spring! And given that it’s so green, it’s perfect for Saint Patrick’s Day as well. 

The basic idea of this pastry dough is that puréed avocado is used in place of butter. It worked remarkably well! The only problem I encountered is that since I don’t have a baking dish that was the right size, I used a standard 9” tart pan, but I had way too much dough. I think I should have used a baking sheet or something, to make a much thinner tart. So I recommend halving the dough recipe to fit a 9” pan, and that’s what I wrote below – if you want the larger version, click through the link above to the original post. I also recommend incorporating all the cheese into the filling instead of keeping some to top the quiche. Finally, I didn’t serve the green salad with this, because I already had leftover French grated carrot salad that was delicious! I really liked this tart when I made it for lunch for myself, but it’s too bad everyone else refused to taste it. 

Note that while the dough is green when raw, it bakes to a golden-brown and the green mostly disappears. That being said, if you have leftover dough, the avocado in it will oxidize and the raw dough will turn brown – still edible, of course, just unappetizing. I’m not sure how quickly that happens if you freeze the dough, but I wouldn’t take any chances. 

1 ripe avocado 

200 g all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting 

2 Tbsp. cold water, plus more if needed 

6 large free-range eggs 

300 g frozen peas 

90 g Cheddar cheese 

½ a bunch of basil (15g)

extra-virgin olive oil 

100 g bag of mixed salad, for serving 

1 lemon, for serving extra-virgin olive oil, for serving 

Halve, destone, and peel the avocado. Weigh the flesh – you want 100 g to get your ratios right (if you don’t have enough, simply top up to 100 g with extra virgin olive oil). In a large bowl, smash up the avocado, then gradually rub in the flour, a pinch of sea salt and 2 tablespoons of cold water until you have a dough (you can add more water as needed – I used a total of 5 ½ tablespoons for the double batch, which works out to an extra ¾ Tbsp. beyond the original 2 Tbsp. as written here). Knead until smooth, then wrap and rest for 15 minutes. 

For the filling, crack the eggs into a blender, then add the frozen peas and the cheddar. Rip in the top leafy half of the basil, add a pinch of salt and black pepper, and blitz until smooth. 

Preheat the oven to 400 °F. Roll out the avocado pastry on a flour-dusted surface to just under ½ cm thick. Loosely roll it up around the rolling pin, then unroll it over an oiled 9” tart pan, easing it into the sides and pricking the base. Roughly tear off any big bits of overhang, then bake for 10 minutes, or until lightly golden. Evenly pour in the filling and bake for another 30-35 minutes, or until set. (The original recipe called for 15 minutes, but that was for the filling spread out much more thinly in a larger pan; I baked mine for 35 minutes.) 

Dress the salad leaves with extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice, season, then sprinkle over the quiche to serve (or serve on the side).