Buckingham Palace’s Coronation Quiche recipe

News broke this week that Coronation Chicken has been dethroned, replaced by Coronation Quiche as King Charles’ entree of choice.

The curry-tinged chicken salad was served at Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation luncheon in 1953, and it’s still extremely popular. But the coronation recipe released by Buckingham Palace — complete with social media campaign, videos, Prue Leith sightings and much hashtagging — is a royal-approved, veg-forward tart filled with spinach, broad beans and fresh tarragon.

Like all House of Windsor decisions, this one is already stirring controversy, which seems a bit much. But so far, the criticisms include: That’s too much tarragon. Broad beans are a pain to peel. Tarragon — seriously? The pastry has lard! No tarragon!! And this is not a quiche, it’s spinach pie.

Here’s the recipe, courtesy of Buckingham Palace, which describes it as “a deep quiche with a crisp, light pastry case and delicate flavours of spinach, broad beans and fresh tarragon. Eat hot or cold with a green salad and boiled new potatoes — perfect for a Coronation Big Lunch!”

A few recipe notes: This calls for baking in a “flan tin.” You’ll want to use a tart pan with a removable bottom for ease of serving. There’s nothing in our supermarket vegetable bins labeled broad beans; look for fava beans or edamame. Broad beans should be double-shelled — shell them, blanch them, then slip off the skins — or look in the freezer case for pre-shelled edamame or favas. (And we won our independence in 1776, so if you don’t like tarragon, use another herb.)

P.S. The Guardian’s food maven, Felicity Cloake, says you’re probably going to want to bake this longer than the recipe calls for, if you want your quiche to look like the one in the palace video.

Coronation Quiche

Serves 6

PASTRY:

125g plain flour

Pinch of salt

25g cold butter, diced

25g lard

2 tablespoons milk

(Or use ready-made shortcrust pastry)

FILLING:

125ml milk

175ml double cream

2 medium eggs

1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon

Salt and pepper

100g grated cheddar cheese,

180g cooked spinach, lightly chopped

60g  cooked broad beans or soya beans

DIRECTIONS

To make 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 sandy, breadcrumblike 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

Lightly flour the work surface and roll out the pastry to a circle a little larger than the top of the tin and approximately 5mm thick.

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.

Preheat the oven to 190°C (350 degrees Fahrenheit). Line the pastry case with greaseproof paper, add baking beans and bake blind for 15 minutes. Remove the greaseproof paper and baking beans.

Reduce the oven temperature to 160°C (325 degrees Fahrenheit).