RECIPE | Bake the royal quiche selected for King Charles's coronation

In consultation with Buckingham Palace's royal chef Mark Flanagan — who has been in the post since 2002 — the King and Queen Consort have selected a humble dish in honour of their coronation — a vegetarian quiche.

Letting the cat out the bag earlier this week, there were pictures of a homestyle quiche studded with greens, spinach, broad beans and fresh herbs, combined with eggs and cheese and baked in a pastry case.

Why a vegetarian quiche? It was selected because it was considered a “sharing” dish, suitable for most tastes, and the hope was the British people would be inspired to whip it up for the coronation celebrations due to be held over the royal weekend, May 6-8.

We share the official recipe — good for a meatless meal, it can be served for lunch or supper, hot or at room temperature.

THE CORONATION QUICHE

If making the pastry is too much fuss, use a roll of ready-made short crust pastry.

Makes: a 20cm quiche

Ingredients:

125g (250ml) cake wheat flour

Pinch of salt

25g (25ml) cold butter, diced, plus 25g (25ml) lard or use same amount of butter

30ml (2 tbsp) milk

Filling:

125ml (½ cup) milk

175ml (¾ cup) cream

2 eggs

15ml (1 tbsp) chopped fresh tarragon or another fresh herb

Salt and pepper

100g grated cheddar cheese

180g cooked spinach, lightly chopped

60g cooked broad beans or soya beans (you could use canned beans)

Method:

1. For the pastry, sieve the flour and salt into a bowl; add the fats and rub the mixture together using your fingertips until you get a breadcrumb-like texture. Add the milk a little at a time and bring the ingredients together into a dough. Cover and allow to rest in the fridge for 30-45 minutes.
2. Lightly flour the work surface and roll out the pastry to a circle a little larger than the top of a 20cm flan tin and about 5mm thick.
3. Line the tin with the pastry, taking care not to have any holes, or the mixture could leak. Cover and rest for a further 30 minutes in the fridge.
4. Preheat the oven to 190°C.
5. Line pastry case with greaseproof paper, add baking beans and bake blind for 15 minutes before removing the greaseproof paper and baking beans. Reduce the oven temperature to 160°C.
6. Beat together the milk, cream, eggs, herbs and seasoning.
7. Scatter ½ of the grated cheese in the blind-baked base, top with chopped spinach, broad beans and herbs, then pour over the liquid mixture.
8. If required, give the mixture a delicate stir to ensure the filling is evenly dispersed but be careful not to damage the pastry case.
9. Sprinkle over the remaining cheese. Place into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until set and lightly golden.