This Swiss chard leek quiche is so delicious it makes you not care that it's totally vegetarian.
"*" See Kitchen Notes for more information or links to special ingredients.
Combine flour, salt and herbs.
These Kitchen Notes help you to create your own quiche with different combinations of vegetables and proteins.
Crust’s flour – My preference is pastry flour. However, all purpose (AP) flour works “almost” as well. For a crust with a little more grain to it, substitute 1/4 cup whole wheat or spelt for 1/4 cup of the pastry flour.
Crust oil and seasoning – Use garlic infused oil as part or all of the oil, if you have it. However, any tasty EVOO that you enjoy works. A little spice and/or herbs in the crust is also quite nice. The herb you use depends on the quiche ingredients. However, about 1/4 tsp. of dried oregano in the crust works with almost any quiche.
Milk/cream mixture – My standard mixture is half and half with 2% milk. However, whipping cream or heavy cream with milk also works. Just reduce the cream to 1/2 cup and increase the milk to 3/4 cup is you want to keep the fat content lower.
Ratio of eggs to milk/cream mixture – For 9″ quiche, 4 eggs with 1 ¼ cups milk/cream yields a pretty big quiche with the egg/cream mixture rising about the crust and having a nice finished texture. If your pan is smaller, you can reduce the number of eggs to 3, but then you should reduce the cream to 1/2 cup and keep the milk at 1/2 cup.
Vegetable/Protein ingredients – Pick two main ingredients and adjust the seasoning to complement. Of course, always add a little garlic. Our favorite combinations are Swiss chard and leeks, leeks and mushrooms, crab meat and spinach, turkey mushroom, green chile and bacon, smoked salmon and asparagus, and artichoke and bacon. The possibilities are endless. Just don’t be tempted to pile it on too high. Too many vegetables or meat can add moisture that keeps the egg mixture from setting and produces a runny quiche.
Cheese – Two different cheeses work best. A sharp cheese (e.g., sharp cheddar, real Italian provolone, asiago) works best - IMO. The second cheese is almost always Pecorino Romano or Parmesan. The sharp, harder cheeses allow you to keep the amount of cheese at a reasonable level. Just choose the cheese or cheeses that best fits the ingredients and cheese that you like.
Warming up the leftovers – Remove from the refrigerator and place, covered with aluminum foil in a cold oven. Turn the oven on to 350ºF. When the temperature is reached, remove the foil and heat 15 – 20 minutes until heated through.
Slightly revised February 2018
Recipe author: MJ of MJ's Kitchen