Spiral Vegetable Quiche

There are days when I really put effort into my food looking good, and then there are days where I really cannot be bothered and as long as food is edible, it gets thrown onto my dinner plate. Most days it's the latter, which is why this blog isn't as full of nice home cooked meals and recipes as it once was, but occasionally I do get moments of inspiration (especially if I've been on Pinterest for a little too long)!

For those who have followed this blog for a longer period of time, you'll have noticed that the frequency at which I post, the types of recipes and posts I put up, style of writing etc has changed drastically from when I first started this blog. Whilst the blog started out being a place to document all my bakes and desserts, it has turned into a lot more of a collection of lunch dishes that I've been making as of late. In fact, as I'm quickly scrolling through the few posts I've written up this year, I have only posted one dessert recipe this whole year.

I'm still incredibly passionate about baking, and really enjoy whipping up a delicious dessert here and there, but of course the further I journey into adulthood, the less time I have for making these treats and saddingly, less calorie allowance for these too- these days, I'm finding that as much time is spent making these as it is trying to convince others to help finish them off!

As for cooking, it's something I also enjoy and do much more regularly (hence the surplus of recipes on this blog) although it's never quite as exciting as baking- a decorated cake is beautiful enough to photograph on a plain background but a plate of steamed veggies is not.

My cooking style isn't too exciting either, in winter it's often stews where I throw in whatever I feel like whereas in summer, it's usually salads where I also throw in whatever I feel like. Which works half the time, and the other half....let's just not talk about that!

But every once in a while, when I have a little time on my hands (i.e. the whole weekend) and I'm inspired to do something a little more creative than the usual, I do get up to some more exciting things in my kitchen. Such was the case with this beautiful spiral vegetable quiche, which I came across whilst browsing through recipes on Taste, and it was definitely something different to what I was originally looking for!

It's actually much more simple than it may at first appear, and only requires a handful of ingredients, mostly veggies. I'm always looking for different ways to incorporate more veggies into my diet, to get my 5 serves (or more!) a day so this was perfect!

To get the nice spiral, you'll need to thinly slice all of your veggies and cut them to a similar width. You'll need either good knife skills or a nice sharp mandoline, or which I had neither, and once the veggies are all prepped, just roll, pour over the egg mixture and bake!The original recipe uses filo pastry as well, however I thought it would be slightly less fiddly without it (and it saved a trip to the supermarket) and it worked find with just the veggies.

It looks absolutely amazing when baked, although it did fall apart slightly when cut- next time I'd increase the amount of the egg batter used but I'm definitely not complaining. Now if only everything I cooked looked this good, I'd probably have much more to blog about! :)

Spiral Vegetable Quiche
Recipe adapted from Taste.com.au

2 Large Eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup grated parmesan
1/2 cup shredded mozerella
3-4 large zucchinis
3-4 large carrots
2-3 large eggplants

1. Preheat oven to 180C/160C fan forced. Combine the eggs, milk and cheeses in a jug. Season with salt and pepper. Pour into a 5cm-deep, 24.5cm round ovenproof dish.
2. Slice the vegetables into thin slices lengthwise using a mandolin or vegetable peeler. Once the slicing is complete, check that they are roughly the same height and trim any edges to reduce the height as necessary.
3. Roll a strip of zucchini into a tight spiral, followed by a strip of carrot and then eggplant. Continue alternating, forming a tight spiral. As the roll gets larger, you may find you need to use two strips of vegetable to complete the circle. Once the roll gets too large to handle easily on the bench, place in the centre of the filled crust. Continue arranging alternating layers of vegetables around the spiral until you reach the outer edge of the crust.
4. Drizzle tart with olive oil and bake for 1 hour or until golden and set in the middle. Serve at room temperature.