The best cheese & onion quiche by Ina Paarman recipe

September is Heritage month in South Africa and the focus is all around where we come from. This translates into the types of recipes I grew up with that make me remember my late mother. I wanted to make something using Cheddar and butter that immediately transported me back to my childhood and a recipe my mom would make. This cheese and onion quiche is one of those dishes and is the best. Nothing complicated, just the sweetness of butter-braised onions and the sharpness of mature Cheddar baked into a quiche, which was so very popular in the seventies.

My mom died when I was 18 so I couldn’t get her recipe nor could I find it in any of her recipe books she kept, but when I think of iconic South African cooks and heritage recipes I immediately turn to one of my many Ina Paarman cookbooks for inspiration.In her book ‘Cook with Ina Paarman’ which I have owned for as long as I can remember, she has a recipe for cheese & onion quiche and it’s exactly how I remember my mom’s version tasting. I’m not sure if she would have added cheese to her quiche pastry, but since you want to make this as cheesy as possible it is the right way to go.

The pastry is, in fact, the same recipe Ina uses for her cheese straws, so whatever is left over from making the quiche (it makes a little more than the recipe requires) – bake up a few straws. I added finely chopped rosemary and thyme to give the pastry and the quiche a slight herbaceous note.

Kerrygold is an Irish butter and cheese producer that make the most delicious products using milk from cows that freely graze on all that lush green grass. It’s packed with creaminess and is of top quality like all their products which are produced in Ireland and imported to over 90 countries in the world. I am obsessed with aged Cheddar and there are 24 months aged Cheddar is the one I go for. It’s also the one I used in this recipe because the cheese is such a central flavour component of this quiche, you don’t want to skimp and use anything but the best. Kerrygold products do not contain any artificial additives and only use natural ingredients “Because Taste is Everything”

You may also like these quiche recipes:

Bacon & zucchini quiche

My best-ever baking recipes

Recipe – makes one 25cm quiche (slightly adapted from Ina Paarman)

Prep Time:20

Cook Time:35

Ingredients

Cheese Pastry

250 g flour
pinch of cayenne
1 tsp salt
2 tsp chopped herbs rosemary & thyme – optional
1 tsp Dijon mustard
150 gm Kerrygold butter
1 cup 100g grated Kerrygold 24 month mature Cheddar
1 egg yolk
¼ cup cold water

Cheese & onion quiche filling

2 large brown onions chopped
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp Kerrygold butter
1 – 2 cloves garlic crushed
2 large free-range eggs
½ cup crème fraiche
½ cup milk
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp salt
¼ tsp ground white or black pepper
1 cup grated 24 months mature Kerrygold Cheddar

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180C / 350 F.
You can make this by hand using a pastry cutter or in a food processor.
Sift the flour and add this to the bowl of the food processor with the salt and cayenne and give it a 3-second mix.
Add the rest of the ingredients except the water and process briefly until just blended.
Add the cold water while the motor is running and until the mixture just comes together into a dough. Tip this onto a well-floured surface and knead briefly to form a ball of dough.
Roll this out to about 3mm thick and line the base of a 25cm quiche tin (this will be a little over half the dough). Allow some of the dough to hang over the sides and then trim. It will shrink back during baking. Prick the surface area of the pastry with a fork.
Blind bake the pastry case by scrunching up a piece of baking paper and then placing this on top of the pastry. The scrunching makes it easier to reach into the corners. Fill the case with any dried bean, rice or pasta (or pastry beans if you have these) and then bake for 10 minutes.
Remove from the oven and remove the paper and filling. Return the pan to the oven and bake for a further 5 – 8 minutes until it has crisped up and starts turning a golden brown.
While the pastry is baking blind, make your filling for the quiche.
Heat the butter and olive in a non-stick frying pan and once it starts bubbling add the onion and sauté them for about 10 minutes over low heat and until the onions are soft but not brown. Do not caramelize them. Add the garlic and set aside
In a bowl whisk the eggs with the crème Fraiche, milk and spices.
When the pastry comes out of the oven, sprinkle ¾ of the cheese across the base then spread the onion mix on top of that. Gently pour over the egg mixture and finally sprinkle the remaining cheese over the quiche.
Bake for 35 minutes until golden brown and firm.

Notes

Put the filled quiche onto a larger baking sheet in case there are any spills.

Quiche can be eaten cold or at room temperature. serve with a green salad to make a perfect light lunch.

Servings: 1 quiche

Author: Sam Linsell

*This post is proudly sponsored by Kerrygold

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26 Comments

This looks divine! How do you prevent the custard mixture from leaking through the pastry and out the tin?? This always happens to me when I use a springform/loose bottomed tin for quiches, so I’ve given up and just use a glass pie dish.

Hi Jo, I generally find if the pastry is blind baked properly it wont leak. It might splash over the edges, so I always place it on a baking tray when it goes in the oven. Glass pie dishes are good, I often find though that the pastry doesn’t crisp up as much in one though.

The Cheese and Onion Quiche looks totally divine! I have to make it; my husband and I love onions — and cheese; what’s not to love!!

I made this last night and it was absolutely delicious! I love your recipes Sam and will be trying the caponata tonight.

I’m so glad you enjoyed this Heather and thanks for letting me know. I know you will love the caponata.

What a lovely recipe!! Baked and then enjoyed by my family. Thanks Sam!

I’m so glad you enjoyed it Liesl 🙂

YUM YUM !!
Amazing Recipe.
Thanks for posting !!

So glad you liked it Fiona – its a fve of mine.

This impressed my mother-in-law so I am thrilled!

HI Kristi – I’m SO glad you impressed your MIL. I love that recipe so much! (its also quite old school)

Any suggestions on how to make this ahead? I love this recipe.

Hi Thomas, Sadly this cant be made too far in advance and it cannot be frozen. The day before would be fine

Lovely recipe! Crust is delicious! Instead of cheese straws I made a large cracker with leftover dough that was gobbled up in no time. I doubled the dough recipe and had enough for 3 quiche pans and a 5 x 7 ish sized cracker. I added chopped bacon and grape tomatoes to 2 of the quiche. Delicious! Will make again definitely.

Hi Paula, Im so glad you enjoyed the recipe and your crackers sound fabulous. Sam

Yummy absolutely delicious, please more recipes

HI Beverley. Glad you enjoyed the tart. I have about 2000 free recipes on this site which should keep you busy but will be posting more all thetime too.

I made this for a friend’s birthday picnic in the park. Still warm out of the oven got a huge thumbs up and “this is the best quiche I’ve ever tasted”
I used brown and red onions with shallots instead of brown onions and it tasted delicious. Definitely be making this again

Thanks, Michelle and glad you liked. it. I think the mixed onions sound divine too.

Great recipe which is in the oven as I write… can’t wait to get it out and tuck in! But a quick question: why make so much pastry when you only use “just over half” of it? Have I missed something? I’ll use the left overs to make (rather fragile) cheese straws or something, but I was left wondering why you didn’t cut the recipe by 25% if really only a max of 75% of it will be needed?

Hi Susanna, this is Ina Paarmans recipe and thisis how it worked out. Perhaps she made a bigger quiche. The cheese straws are so lovely though. Honestly this is my favourite quiche recipe so I hope you like dit as much. best Sam

It was indeed delicious! As are the cheesy biscuits made out of the remaining pastry. I might just try cutting down the amount of pastry made next time, though as you say, the straws/biscuits are yummy though, so I might stick with it as it is!

I made this quiche today, fabulous, best ever. I used chives in the pastry and in the egg mix. Thanks. Delicious.

Hi Peter, so glad you enjoyed this recipe, its a favourite of mine. The chives sound lovely

Just curious – I know the crust provides a lot of flavor but if I wanted to make this without a crust, would it work as is, just putting the filling into a greased tin? Would I need to make any adjustments or would it be better to skip if I’m not making the crust? Sounds delicious.