Butternut Squash, Feta Cheese and Roasted Pepper Quiche

Last Sunday my friend came over for lunch.  I thought that some kind of quiche or flan with salad would be ideal.  I had already bought the butternut squash, so went off in search of a recipe that would incorporate this.

In the end my recipe is a kind of combination of a couple of different recipes.  Some of the butternut squash flans were made by pureeing or squishing the squash! A bit like pumpkin pie, no texture, yuk!

My shortcrust pastry comes, as usual, from the Avoca Cookbook I have blogged it before HERE  

I blind baked the pastry case and then made the filling as follows:

1 butternut squash, peeled and cubed

1 onion sliced

dessert spoon of brown sugar

olive oil

jar of roasted peppers, drained

pack of feta cheese

3 eggs

2 egg yolks

250ml single cream

salt & freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oven to 200C, put the butternut squash and two tablespoons of olive oil in a roasting tray and roast until soft and golden brown.

Gently fry the onion in a little olive oil until soft, add the brown sugar and let it caramelise.

Take the blind baked pastry case, put the caramelised onions in the base, add the roasted butternut squash, chopped feta cheese and roasted peppers.

Beat the eggs, egg yolks, cream and seasoning together.  Pour into the pastry case.  

Turn down the heat in the oven to 180C and bake for about 40 minutes or until the egg is set.

Serve warm or cold with salad.

It was very nice, lots of texture and flavour, the saltiness of the feta went very well with the sweet squash and peppers.  The only thing that bugged me was that the filling leaked out of the bottom of the tin, something that hasn't happened to me for years!  Fortunately, I managed to get it out of the tin without too much trouble.

I am also entering this in the October 'No Croutons Required' challenge over at Tinned Tomatoes, the theme is 'squash' and I'm hoping that this counts as 'salad'.