"What I say is that, if a man really likes potatoes, he must be a pretty decent sort of fellow" (A. A. Milne)

Somewhere between the humble quiche and the slightly posher sounding frittata lives the 'friche' (yes, I did make that word up...). The friche is a protein packed, delicious and healthy open pie; it has an egg based filling similar to a frittata and a sweet potato crust which, despite is much lighter than traditional quiche crusts, definitely exists demarcating it from its omlette-like cousin.

The sweet potato base in this recipe is much healthier than conventional crusts (delicious as they are), but contrasts beautifully with the savoury, almost meaty filling, much like traditional pastry. I think that the vegetables included in this recipe complement the base particularly well, contrasting with the richness of the egg and sweet potato, and adding additional texture to the filling.

Not only is this recipe delicious, but it's really easy to make and looks much more complicated and exciting! A simple way to impress friends or a quick route to a healthy, versatile meal which can be eaten morning, noon or night.

Ingredients

For the crust:

2 sweet potato

1 tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper to season

For the filling:

8 eggs

100g cheddar

1 tbsp olive oil

1 red onion

100g spinach

200g mushrooms

1 tbsp chives

Method

1. Pre heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius, and prepare your pie dish by greasing the base and sides with 1tbsp of olive oil.

2. Grate your sweet potato. You can either do this by hand or in a food processor- I chose to do it in a food processor to save time.

3. Put the grated sweet potato into your greased dish and push it into the base as well as onto the sides  to make a evenly spread, base shaped layer. At this point, it's good to feel as though you have a surplus of sweet potato as it will fuse together and condense as it cooks.

4. Place the dish in the oven and bake the sweet potato for 15 minutes.

5. While the crust is beginning to bake, you can start to cook the filling. Begin by cutting the mushrooms, and red onions- I like to cut these quite thinly, keeping the ring shape of the onions where possible. Heat the oil in a frying pan, and cook the onions and mushrooms on a medium heat for around 5 minutes until browned, and softened. Then, turn the heat down and add the spinach on top. You really just want to wilt the spinach so that it is easier to mix into the egg- you should be able to remove it from the heat after a couple of minutes.

6. Break the eggs into a jug, add the cheese and whisk. Once the ingredients have cooled slightly, add them into the mixture.

7. After 15 minutes have passed, take base out if the oven. The sweet potato should have cooked. Take a fork and press the sweet potato into the sides and base, squeezing it together. Then place the dish back into the oven for ten minutes to set in this new shape.

8. When the sweet potato has cooked, pour your egg mixture into the dish and put back into the oven for 30 minutes, or until slightly risen and browned on top. To double check if fully cooked, wiggle the dish, if the mixture wobbles in the middle, pop it back in for 5 minutes until fully set.