Courgette and Blue Cheese Quiche
This courgette and blue cheese quiche features a nutty wholemeal crust filled with creamy custard, fragrant thyme and tender sautéed courgettes. Tangy blue cheese adds richness and depth. Pair it with new potatoes and steamed greens for a comforting main or serve with a crisp salad for a lighter lunch.
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Back home in Cornwall, we have a cheese farm just up the road. It makes my favourite blue cheese. So when I was visiting my mum a couple of weeks ago, I paid a visit and came back with a big bag of Cornish Blue bits and pieces which the farm sells at a discount. They’re ideal for cooking.
Dive Right In
- Why You’ll Want To Make This Courgette and Blue Cheese Quiche
- Courgette, Thyme and Blue Cheese Quiche
- Ingredients, Additions and Substitutions
- How To Make Courgette and Blue Cheese Quiche
- Other Blue Cheese Recipes You Might Like
- Keep In Touch
- Pin It
- The Recipe
Why You’ll Want To Make This Courgette and Blue Cheese Quiche
- A seasonal favourite – It’s a perfect way to use up summer courgettes (zucchini), especially if you’re growing your own.
- Crowd-pleasing – Ideal for gatherings, lunch with friends or a simple weekend bake.
- Delicious contrast of flavours – The sweetness of sautéed courgettes and onion pairs beautifully with the bold, salty tang of blue cheese.
- Make-ahead friendly – The quiche keeps well in the fridge and tastes great the next day and even the day after.
- Nutty wholemeal crust – More flavoursome and satisfying than a standard pastry case, with added texture and fibre. It’s easy to make too.
- Vegetarian and hearty – A great meat-free option that still feels indulgent and filling.
- Versatile – Serve warm for a comforting dinner with spuds and cooked veg or cold as a light lunch with salad. It’s also great for buffets, picnics and packed lunches.
Courgette, Thyme and Blue Cheese Quiche
Sweet sautéed courgettes and onions offer the perfect foil to the punchy umami rich cheese in this courgette and blue cheese quiche. Fresh thyme offers a herbal lift, echoing the garden flavours and adding a touch of freshness to each bite.
I use the same pastry and custard mix as I do for my vegetarian spring quiche. In fact I mostly use them for all of my quiches. They’re that good. It’s just the fillings that change.
The pastry is my wholemeal spelt and yoghurt recipe which works like a dream. Before I discovered the wonder of using yoghurt in pastry, my wholemeal pastry always crumbled and cracked when I tried to roll it. No longer.
The custard is a mix of eggs beaten into cream and milk. It makes for a super creamy quiche that’s just on the right side of decadent.
Unfortunately, in my hurry to get on with making the quiche I had a bit of a disaster. I managed to drop my beautifully lined pastry case on the floor when trying to get it out of our rather crowded fridge. Although I cobbled it back together again, I must have missed a few cracks as the custard subsequently leaked all over the tray.
The consequence of this means the images of my quiche don’t look as polished as they otherwise would have done. Luckily, although the tart wasn’t quite as full as it should have been, it still tasted delicious.
Ingredients, Additions and Substitutions
Other than the pastry and the custard, the filling ingredients for this courgette and blue cheese quiche are relatively few.
Blue Cheese
Use your favourite blue cheese for this recipe or whatever you have to hand. Creamy or crumbly cheeses both work. I used Cornish Blue.
If blue cheese isn’t really your thing, just swap it for any good melty cheese you do like. Gruyere is always a good bet for flavour.
Courgette (zucchini)
Try to use young firm courgettes (zucchini) for the quiche if you can. Having said that, I used a medium sized one cut straight from the garden, which was perfect, but also a chunk from a much larger older one. I sliced it and cut it into quarters and it was fine.
Just make sure they’re not flabby, too seedy or at all woody.
Onion
Onion adds sweetness to the quiche which helps to temper the pungency of the blue cheese.
Thyme
Thyme adds freshness and helps to cut through the rich dairyness of this quiche. Be generous with it so you can really taste it. I used thyme from our garden, which always seems to have a bit more punch than the kind you buy.
A Note On Pastry Flour
Wholemeal flour makes for a lovely flaky-textured and nutty flavoured pastry. It’s also much healthier than refined white flours. If you’re not used to using it and are a bit unsure, try a mixture of half plain white and half wholemeal to get you started.
I use wholemeal spelt flour as it’s great for baking. It’s also considered to be even better for the digestive system than ordinary wholemeal flour. It is pricier though and not always easy to get hold of.
How To Make Courgette and Blue Cheese Quiche
There are three stages to making this courgette and blue cheese quiche: the pastry, the custard and the filling. All are really straightforward.
Please refer to the recipe card at the bottom of this post for cooking temperatures and quantities of ingredients used.
Step 1. Make Pastry
Cool is the key to pastry making. Too much heat and the butter can melt which results in tough or rubbery pastry. For a nice flaky result, take the butter out of the fridge just before using and cut it into cubes. If you have cold hands so much the better.
In a large bowl, rub the butter into the flour and salt with your fingertips until the mixture resembles rough breadcrumbs. It doesn’t matter if there are small lumps of butter left. In fact it’s the butter pieces which help to create a light and flaky pastry.
Make a well in the centre and add the yoghurt and water. Using a round bladed knife, stir from the inside out until the mixture more or less comes together. If it needs a little more water, add it, but be careful not to make the pastry wet. It usually needs less than you think.
Bring it all together with your hands and form it into a ball of dough. Flatten it slightly, then place it back in the bowl and cover it with a plate or plastic bag so the pastry doesn’t dry out. Leave in a cool place to rest for half an hour.
If you want to make the pastry the day before, that’s fine. Just make sure that if you’ve kept it in the fridge, you take it out a good half an hour before you need it so it can reach room temperature. Cold pastry easily cracks and breaks when rolled.
Top Tip
If you’d like to cut down on time, you can always buy a ready made pastry case – I won’t tell if you don’t.
Step 2. Prepare Filling
Peel the onion, then cut in half lengthways and slice it as thinly as you can.
Warm the olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat, then add the onions. Fry for two to three minutes or until softened. Give an occasional stir.
Meanwhile top and tail the courgette then slice it into thinnish rounds.
Add the courgette slices to the onions in the pan and sauté for five to six minutes or until the courgettes have softened, but not browned. They don’t need to be completely cooked as they will cook further in the oven.
Give them an occasional stir to ensure they’re all cooked to more or less the same level. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
Strip the thyme leaves and discard the stems. Finally crumble or chop the blue cheese.
Step 3.Prepare Custard
Pour the cream and milk into a large measuring jug. Add the salt and pepper, then crack the eggs into the jug.
Whisk everything together with a fork (or whisk) until the custard is thoroughly combined.
Step 4. Assemble Quiche
Lightly grease your tart tin, then roll the pastry out into a circle. I recommend a loose bottomed tart tin (affiliate link), it makes removing the pastry once cooked so much easier.
Using the rolling pin, lift it up and lay it over the tin. Press the pastry gently into the tin with your fingers making sure it fits into all the grooves. Ensure there are no holes or cracks anywhere. Finally, trim the edges with a knife.
If it’s warm in the kitchen, pop the tin in the fridge for ten minutes or so for the pastry to firm up. But don’t throw it on the floor as I did!
Gather any bits of leftover pastry together and form a ball of dough. You can use it to make these cinnamon swirls.
Lay the courgettes and onion out in the pastry case in even layers. Gently pour the custard over the top, then scatter the blue cheese evenly over the custard.
Top Tip
It’s always a good idea to put a loose bottomed tin onto a baking tray when baking for just such mishaps as the one below.
Step 5. Bake Quiche
Being careful not to spill the filling, place the quiche on the middle shelf of your preheated oven. If you spill the filling it will make removing the pastry from the tin later a little awkward.
If the filling leaks all over the place, it makes it even more awkward – just saying.
Bake until the top is set, golden and nicely risen. It will deflate and become flat as it cools.
Allow to stand for five to ten minutes before serving. This makes it easier to both slice and remove from the tin. It’s delicious eaten warm or at room temperature, but not so good cold, when straight from the fridge.
The quiche will last for three days if left covered in the fridge. But as it’s much nicer eaten at room temperature than cold, take it out an hour before eating.
Top Tip
Although you won’t get a soggy bottom if you use a metal tin for your quiche, it won’t be super crisp either. If you like a crisp crust, you’ll need to bake the pastry shell prior to adding the filling. Personally, I don’t think it needs it and it’s one more step as well as expense.
Other Blue Cheese Recipes You Might Like
- Easy blue cheese sauce
- Quinoa salad with watercress, walnuts & blue cheese
- Walnut & blue cheese scones
Keep in Touch
Thank you for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make this courgette and blue cheese quiche, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. Do you have any recommendations or tips for making cheese flans?
Please rate the recipe too. And do tag me @choclette8 on Instagram with your images, I love to see your take on my recipes.
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If you’d like more courgette recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious and nutritious, of course.
Choclette x
Courgette and Blue Cheese Quiche. PIN IT.
Courgette and Blue Cheese Quiche
Ingredients
Pastry
- 200 g wholemeal flour (whole wheat) (I used spelt)
- 1 pinch fine sea or rock salt
- 115 g unsalted butter fridge cold and cut into cubes
- 2 tbsp natural yoghurt
- 1 tbsp water
Filling
- ½ tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 onion halved and thinly sliced
- 300 g courgette (zucchini) 2 small or 1 medium sized – thinly sliced into rounds
- 4 sprig fresh thyme (about 1 tsp of leaves)
- 100 g blue cheese chopped into small pieces or crumbled
Custard
- 3 medium eggs
- ¼ tsp fine sea or rock salt
- good grinding of black pepper
- 125 ml double cream (heavy cream)
- 75 ml milk
Instructions
Pastry
- In a large bowl, rub the flour, salt and butter together with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.200 g wholemeal flour (whole wheat), 1 pinch fine sea or rock salt, 115 g unsalted butter
- Make a well in the centre and add the yoghurt and water. Using a round bladed knife, stir from the inside out until the mixture more or less comes together. If it needs a little more water, add it, but be careful not to make the pastry wet.2 tbsp natural yoghurt, 1 tbsp water
- Bring it all together with your hands and form it into a ball. Flatten it slightly, then place it back in the bowl and cover it with a plate or plastic so the pastry doesn’t dry out. Leave in a cool place to rest for half an hour.
Filling
- Fry the onion in the oil over a moderate heat for two to three minutes to soften. Then add the courgettes.½ tbsp extra virgin olive oil, 300 g courgette (zucchini)
- Fry for about five minutes, turning occasionally until the courgettes have softened and turned translucent, but not brown. Remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool.1 onion
Custard
- Using a fork, whisk the eggs together with the salt and pepper in a suitably sized jug or bowl. Add the cream and milk and whisk again until smooth.3 medium eggs, ¼ tsp fine sea or rock salt, good grinding of black pepper, 125 ml double cream (heavy cream), 75 ml milk
Assembly
- Set the oven to 180℃ (160℃ fan, 350℉, Gas 4).
- Roll the pastry out into a circle of about 4mm (a bit more than an ⅛ inch) in thickness. Using the rolling pin, lift it up and lay it over a lightly greased 23 cm (9″) loose bottom tart tin. Press the pastry into the tin with your fingers making sure it fits into all the grooves. Trim the edges with a knife.
- If your kitchen is warm and pastry is overly soft, place the lined tin back in the fridge to firm up for ten minutes or so. To avoid leaks, place the tin onto a baking tray.
- Lay the courgettes and onions in an even layer over the base, then sprinkle the thyme leaves over the top.4 sprig fresh thyme
- Gently pour the egg mix over everything.
- Scatter the cheese evenly over the custard mix.100 g blue cheese
- Bake in the centre of the oven for 40-45 minutes or until the top is set, golden and nicely risen. It will deflate and become flat as it cools.
- Allow to stand for five to ten minutes before serving. Eat warm or at room temperature.
Notes
Nutrition Estimate
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The whole family loved this quiche. The blue vein gave it lots of extra flavour. We have had lots of courgettes in the garden this year and been trying lots of recipes. This is the favourite.
Good to hear Angela and thanks for letting us know. If you manage to get courgette plants growing, there’s no stopping them – which is why I have a lot of courgette recipes.