This Smoked Salmon Quiche with Leeks and Cottage Cheese is the perfect dish to serve at a brunch party, to take to work in your lunchbox or to enjoy as a light dinner!
Leek and Smoked Salmon Quiche
This Salmon Quiche is a classic dish that is perfect to serve for brunch, take to work for lunch or to serve for a light dinner.
There are three steps to make this recipe:
- Prepare the Quiche Pastry (and blind bake it for 5 to 10 minutes).
- Pre-cook the Leeks and prepare the Cottage Cheese Filling.
- Fill the quiche with the quiche preparation and finish the baking.
I made a Shortcrust Pastry for this quiche, but Puff Pastry could work perfectly too.
I personally always prefer to make my own Pastry but you can absolutely buy some from your local supermarket if you are not confident in making it yourself.
Simply make sure the one you buy does not have added sugar as you want a savoury pastry.
A Traditional Quiche Filling is made with Eggs and Cream, but I decided to replace the Cream with Cottage Cheese for this recipe.
It creates a much lighter and creamier quiche filling that also has a more pronounced flavour than Cream.
I also associated the Smoked Salmon with Leeks, which always work great together
Homemade Quiche Pastry
The Pastry used for this quiche is a simple Shortcrust Pastry made out of 4 ingredients only:
- Flour: Plain / All-Purpose
- Butter: unsalted, very cold and cut into small cubes
- Salt: a simple table salt. You can also add any seasoning or spices you'd like.
- Water: very cold. The exact quantity of water needed may vary, so add it little by little.
I find that the easiest way to make a pastry is to use a Food Processor. I have found that it creates a dough that will shrink less in the oven than a pastry made by hands, because the butter is homogeneously spread through the flour.
Do not worry though, you can absolutely make it by hands (see the notes in the recipe card) or with the help of a Pastry Blender.
To make Shortcrust Pastry in the Food Processor:
- Place the dry ingredients in the bowl of your food processor (Flour and Salt in this case). You can also use any spice you like! - photo 1
- Add the Cold Butter cut into small cubes and pulse with the flour. You should get even looking small crumbs or a thick sand consistency. - photo 2 & 3
- Add the Cold Water and keep pulsing until the dough starts to come together. - photo 4 & 5
- Transfer onto a lightly floured surface and bring together into a ball, then roll between two sheets of baking paper. Place in the fridge to rest for at least 1 hour.
- Line your Quiche Pan with the chilled and rested pastry, dock the bottom of the pastry with a fork then place back in the fridge to rest for one hour. Put it in the freezer for about 15 minutes just before baking.
A Quiche Pan is similar to a Tart Pan but is much deeper, which is essential for the filling. If you do not have a Quiche Pan, you can also use a Deep Pie Dish. Using a baking pan with removable bottom will be very helpful when ready to serve.
Salmon and Leek Filling with Cottage Cheese
Although the Pastry is really important, it is the quiche filling that will make or break this recipe! As explained above, a traditional quiche is made with 2 basic ingredients: Eggs and Cream. For this recipe, the Cream has been replaced with Cottage Cheese.
I also used Leeks that I believe work perfectly with salmon. It brings a delicious oniony taste to the quiche that balances the fish very nicely!
If you like Leeks in your Tarts, you must also try my Leek Tart with Gruyere and Onion or my Mushroom and Leek Quiche!
Ingredients
- Leek
- Olive Oil
- Eggs
- Cottage Cheese
- Smoked Salmon
- Fresh Dill
- Salt, Pepper and your choice of favourite spice
- Grated Cheese (optional) - I used Parmesan, but you can use any cheese you want
How to make the Smoked Salmon Quiche Filling
The quiche filling needs to be made in three steps. First, pre-cook the leeks. Second, mix all the other ingredients together.
Lastly, add the cooked leeks that have had time to slightly cool down to avoid cooking the eggs.
- Thinly chop the Leek and place it in a saucepan with the Olive Oil and a little bit of Salt. Cook for 5 to 10 minutes or until translucent then remove from the heat and set aside to cool down.
- In a seperate bowl, mix all of the other ingredients: Cottage Cheese, Eggs, Spices and Condiments, Fresh Dill, Smoked Salmon and Grated Cheese.
- Fold in the Leeks
Recipe FAQs
Because the filling of a quiche is rather wet, it is helpful to slightly blind-bake the pastry to insure the bottom of the quiche is baked.
I would recommend to blind-bake the pastry for 10 to 15 minutes only because once filled, the quiche will spend another 40 minutes in the oven and you don't want the edges to burn. The bottom of the pastry should feel slightly dry to the touch.
In this case, because you want the bottom of the pastry to bake quickly, I would recommend not to cover the pastry with baking beads and/or baking paper. You want the pastry to dry out as quickly as possible.
The smoked salmon quiche will last for 2 days in the fridge, well covered with wrap. Simply reheat individual slices in the oven for about 10 minutes or in the microwave for 1 or 2 minutes when ready to eat.
Yes, quiches do freeze really well. You can freeze the whole quiche unbaked, or individual baked slices as well. Reheat in the oven to thaw.
More Quiche Recipes
- Feta Asparagus Quiche
- Simple Quiche Recipe from The Home Cook's Kitchen
- Cheese and Tomato Quiche
- Spinach and Feta Quiche
- Broccoli and Cheddar Quiche
- Zucchini Quiche
- Mushroom and Spinach Quiche
- 18 Delicious Vegetarian Quiches
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Smoked Salmon Quiche
Ingredients
Quiche Pastry
- 180 gr (1 cup + 3 tablesp.) Plain Flour
- 90 gr (6 tablesp.) Cold Unsalted Butter
- 1 teasp. Table Salt
- 60 ml (1/4 cup) Cold Water
Quiche Filling
- 1/2 Large Leek
- 1 tbsp Olive Oil
- 4 Eggs
- 500 gr (2 cups) Cottage Cheese
- 1 teasp. Salt
- 1/2 teasp. Pepper
- 2 tbsp Fresh Dill, chopped
- 200 gr (7 oz) Smoked Salmon
- 60 gr (1/2 cup) Grated Cheese (optional) - I used Parmesan Cheese
Instructions
Quiche Pastry
- Place the Flour, Salt and Cold Butter cut into small pieces in the bowl of your food processor. Pulse until it ressemble small crumbs or a thick sand. Add the Cold Water and pulse until the pastry starts to come together. (see note 1 to make the pastry without a food processor).
- Transfer between two sheets of baking paper and roll into a large thin circle. Place in the fridge to rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour, then line the pastry in the quiche pan. Dock the botton of the pastry with a fork and place back in the fridge to rest again for 1 hour.
- Preheat your oven on 180'C / 350'F. While the oven is preheating, put the pastry in the freezer so that it is very cold when baked. Blind Bake for 10 to 15 minutes.
Quiche Filling
- Rinse and thinly chop the Leek. Place it in a large pan with the Olive Oil and cook on medium heat for about 5 minutes or until the leeks get translucent. Set Aside to cool down.
- In a seperate bowl, whisk the Eggs and Cottage Cheese. Add the Salt, Pepper, Chopped Dill and grated Cheese (optional). Add about 2/3 of the Smoked Salmon cut into small pieces (keep a little bit to decorate the top of the quiche), then lastly the cooked Leeks.
- When all mixed together, pour into the partially baked Pastry. Use the last pieces of Smoked Salmon to decorate the top of the quiche - I made a Spiral with the thin strips of Salmon.
- Place back in the oven for another 35 to 45 minutes. The quiche filling should be set and not jiggly.
- Leave to cool and set for 10 to 15 minutes before serving. Serve with some fresh Dill.
Notes
- You can make the pastry with your hands (or using a Pastry Blender). Place the Flour and Salt in a Large bowl and add the Butter cut into very small cubes. Rub the Butter with the Flour using your fingers and palms until all the butter has been incorporated into the flour. Add the Water and work the dough with you fingers to bring it together.
