No Cheese, Vegetable Quiche

Depending upon your side dishes, you may be able to feed as many as eight people with one quiche. Realistically though, it’s 4-6.

Some people advocate pre-baking the crust and some don’t. I like to pre-bake my crust as I feel it makes the crust flakier. If you want to pre-bake, put the crust in the oven for 10-15 minutes at 375 degrees.

Put a pot of water on to boil for blanching the broccoli. Prepare a bowl of iced water to stop the cooking when the broccoli is done. When the water comes to a boil, add the broccoli, blanche until the broccoli is bright green, about 3 minutes. Remove the broccoli from the boiling water and plunge in the ice water to stop the cooking. Remove from the iced water and set aside on paper towels to drain.

Sauté the diced onion, dried red pepper, salt and pepper until the onion is translucent. Add garlic, sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add bell pepper, sauté until starting to soften, about 3-4 minutes. Add mushrooms, sauté until the mushrooms give up their liquid and it is mostly cooked off. Remove the vegetables from the heat.

Combine the eggs and milk and set aside.

Layer the vegetables into the pie crust, filling the crust evenly. Pour the egg and milk mixture into the vegetable-filled pie crust. I topped my quiche with leaf cut-outs made from the leftover dough. If you decide to decorate your quiche in this manner, brush the dough leaves with egg white to help them brown.

Bake for 30 – 45 minutes at 375 degrees. Check the quiche carefully. The quiche will be done when the egg custard is set and no longer shakes when you jiggle the quiche. Remove from the oven and let sit for 15 minutes before serving.

I’ve never made a cheese-less quiche before so when I was faced with leftover pie crust dough, lots of eggs and vegetables but no cheese and too much snow on the ground to go get some, I was a little concerned. I figured I’d give it a go without the cheese and see how it turned out. It was delicious! The texture was much lighter and fluffier and the flavor not nearly as rich as a standard quiche. I much preferred this no-cheese variety. I have to assume the lack of cheese makes it healthier, too! You can throw almost anything in a quiche, so if you don’t have these vegetables, use what you do have! Also, don’t feel constrained by the amounts of vegetables. You’re trying to fill up the pie shell; the exact amount of each is not important.

Let me know what you think about the no-cheese quiche!