I love eating vegetables at their absolute best. Asparagus are one of the most seasonal vegetables for me. During the asparagus season I am always looking for simple dishes that do this tasty ingredient justice.

The cheese and eggs in this recipe enhance the asparagus flavor. Serve it with a salad , a glass of white wine and you have a complete and healthy spring meal.

Feel free to use ready-made short crust pastry or quiche dough, for an even easier meal.

Because I am a busy mom, I like making pies ahead. That way, I can play with my toddler when I get home from a busy day while the pie warms in the oven. To warm up your pie place it in a preheated oven of 160 degrees C for twenty minutes.

Asparagus pie

This recipe is for a 25 cm quiche mold.

• Short crust pastry:
  • 100 g flower
  • 60 g butter
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 50 ml water
• 150 gr green asparagus
• Filling:
  • 3 free range eggs
  • 75 ml cream
• 1 cup of grated strong cheese like old Gouda or Parmigiana
• Pepper and ground nutmeg to taste

1. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees C.
2. Make your short crust pastry:
   1. Rub the butter into the salt and flower until the texture resembles bread crumbs.
   2. Combine the crumbles into a dough by stirring the water in gradually. Combine the dough, don’t knead it. If you fuss around less with your dough, your dough will be more crumbly. For an even more crumbly result, wrap your dough in cling film and let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
3. Make your pie base:
   1. Roll out your pastry to a 5 mm thickness.
   2. Line the a greased quiche mold with your delicious pastry.
   3. Line your mold with some baking parchment and fill your pie with dried beans or actual baking beans.
   4. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
4. While your base is in the oven, prepare your asparagus:
   1. Remove the hard section of each asparagus. This is usually about 2 cm, depending on how fresh your asparagus is.
   2. Place your asparagus in a pan of cold water. Bring the water to the boil.
   3. When the water boils, immediately take your pan of the heat and cool your asparagus in cold water.
   4. Let your asparagus dry.
5. Prepare your filling by mixing the cream and eggs.
6. Take your base out of the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes. (Leave your oven on!)
7. Build your pie:
   1. Cover the base of your pie with cheese.
   2. Pour in half your filling.
   3. Sprinkle with pepper and nutmeg.
   4. Arrange your asparagus. You might need to trim your asparagus a bit for this step. Try to make one nice even and neat layer of asparagus.
   5. Add the rest of the filling.
   6. Sprinkle over the remaining cheese.
8. Bake your pie in the oven for 20 minutes at 200 degrees C.

Enjoy!