Turtle Pizza (Spinach and Bacon Quiche)

Back in the 1990s, getting my three kids to eat spinach felt impossible. No matter how I served it, the answer was always the same — yuck, ewww, I’m not eating that…

Turtle Pizza (aka Bacon spinach quiche) in a white deep pie dish

Then one night we watched the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, and suddenly my kids were obsessed. They talked about the Turtles constantly, and of course, they loved pizza.

That’s when an idea struck.

I had a spinach and bacon quiche recipe I wanted to make, but instead of calling it quiche, I blended the spinach into the mixture and announced that we were having Turtle Pizza for dinner.

Then I waited.

To my surprise, they loved it. No complaints. No suspicious looks. Plates were cleaned and seconds were requested.

The funny thing is, it wasn’t pizza at all. It was quiche. I just never told them.

A couple of years later I finally confessed, but by then it didn’t matter. They had already learned that spinach wasn’t so bad after all.

Over 20 years later my children are adults, and they still call it Turtle Pizza. What started as a desperate attempt to get some greens into their dinner became one of those little family stories that stuck.

Sometimes the simplest parenting tricks become the memories everyone remembers.

And if you happen to have a picky eater at home, this might just work for you too.

Why I Love This Turtle Pizza

This recipe reminds me that sometimes the best family recipes aren’t the fanciest ones – they’re the ones attached to a memory. What started as a sneaky way to add spinach to dinner became a meal my children still ask about decades later.

Print Recipe

The Spinach Trick That Fooled My Kids

Known as "Turtle Pizza" in our family, this spinach and bacon quiche was the trick that finally got my kids eating spinach. Made with a crispy puff pastry case, bacon, cheese and spinach, it quickly became a family favourite – and the nickname has stuck for years.

Servings:6

Ingredients

puff pastry, shortcrust pastry or homemade pie crust
1 cup cooked spinach
4 slices bacon cooked and crumbled
1 teaspoon butter for sautéing
1 small onion finely diced
4 eggs
½ cup cream
½ cup milk
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¾ cup shredded cheese Cheddar, Colby or Tasty.

Instructions

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Line a pie dish with the pastry and lightly prick the base with a fork. Blind bake for about 10 minutes.
Cook the bacon in a pan over medium heat until crispy, then remove and crumble.
Sauté the onion in the butter until soft and translucent.
Add all ingredients (bacon, onion, spinach, eggs, cream, milk, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and cheese) into a large bowl. Give it a couple of quick whizzes with a hand blender (magic wand style!) until slightly blended but still textured.
Pour the mixture into the pie crust. Add some grated cheese over the top.
Bake for 30–35 minutes, or until set and lightly golden on top.
Let it cool for 5–10 minutes before slicing.

🧊 storage.

Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. This quiche can be enjoyed cold, reheated gently in the microwave, or warmed in the oven.

💛 a note from me.

I love that this recipe has outlived the original trick. My children don’t remember being fooled into eating spinach – they remember Turtle Pizza. Sometimes the little things we do as parents, the things we think are just getting through dinner tonight, become the stories our families carry with them.