My mother-in-law does not cook from scratch very often but even she has influenced my cooking. She got me into making quiche. She made one on a Sunday morning while she was visiting. My attempts up to the point I had hers were really time consuming and didn't taste all that great, so I was convinced I didn't like quiche. Turns out I was just making it a lot harder than it needed to be. While she used store bought pie crust, hers didn't have boatloads of cream as I assumed quiche needed to have (a pleasant surprise since I don't like adding milk or cream to my scrambled eggs), and it came together quickly and tasted great, especially for how little time was spent on it.
Sure enough, a few weeks after her visit, I got a hankering for quiche. I still wanted to make my own crust but didn't want to make my standard pie crust. I found this quick one with ingredients I already had that you press into the pan instead of rolling it out, and added some ham, vegetables, and cheese I had kicking around my fridge. Again, it was easy and tasty. I make these regularly now because they're so adaptable and great for a meal any time of the day, and they're a great meal to clean out the fridge (especially during CSA season, haha). My recipe is below.
The quiche pictured above contains (cooked) bacon, chopped spinach (frozen, thawed and drained well), sauteed yellow onion, scallions, and goat cheese.
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RECIPE:
Quiche, Infinitely Adaptable
Crust:
1 cup (115g) all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup (50g) olive oil or canola oil
1/4 cup (53g) very cold water
Preheat oven to 400°F. Place flour and salt in a bowl and mix briefly with a fork to combine. Make a well in the center of the flour. Pour oil and water into the well. Mix the oil and the water briefly, then gradually incorporate the flour and salt. Press into a 9-inch (23 cm) diameter pie plate. Bake for about 5-7 minutes until the surface begins to dry out a bit. Let cool while you prepare the filling.
Filling:
7-8 large eggs
A total of 4-5 cups fillings of your choice, chopped into bite size pieces*
Salt and black pepper to taste
*Suggested fillings: ham, cooked bacon, sausage, spinach, kale, broccoli, mushrooms, sauteed onions, scallions, bell peppers, tomatoes, grated/crumbled/cubed cheese that melts and isn't too strongly flavored (Swiss, cheddar, chevre, Gouda, feta), fresh herbs (parsley, chives), red pepper flakes. If you would usually cook the ingredient before adding it to your eggs, cook it before adding to the quiche filling mixture. If using frozen vegetables, thaw and squeeze as much water as you can out of them first (especially important with leafy vegetables like spinach). If the ingredients are especially salty (like feta cheese), you may not need to add any salt to the filling mixture. If using grated cheese, save some to sprinkle over the top of the filling so that it gets browned and crunchy, yum.
Crack eggs into a bowl and beat lightly, until just mixed. Add fillings, salt, and pepper to the bowl and mix gently to combine. Pour filling mixture into the parbaked crust and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the center is no longer wobbly and almost no liquid comes out when a knife is inserted and removed from the center. Let cool for 10-15 minutes. Serve warm, with a shake or two of hot sauce if desired. Leftovers can be refrigerated.
