26 March 2011


This winter I instituted a Meatless Monday at our house. Well, it's not usually Monday (I do slow cooker meals on Monday because of my husband's work schedule), but we do have one meal a week with no meat. It's an attempt to save a little money and be healthier by eating more veggies one night a week. I have tried several meatless main dishes now, but one of my go-to meatless meals is quiche and soup. I usually make quiches with spinach, because I really like green veggies in quiche and frozen spinach is a handy thing that I usually have on hand. But last night I felt like doing something different. I had two heads of broccoli in the fridge (we love broccoli, especially roasted), and I thought that would be good in a quiche. I had never used broccoli in a quiche before, and instead of looking up recipes, I just decided to wing it. Here's what I came up with.


Broccoli Cheddar Quiche

Ingredients:
9” pie crust (I used the refrigerated kind)
6 eggs
1 cup broccoli, cut into very small florets (¼ head)
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
½ tsp salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°.

Unroll pie crust and place in pie plate. Trim or crimp edges.

Lightly beat eggs and add broccoli, cheddar, and salt. Pour into pie crust. Bake for 30 – 40 minutes, or until eggs are set.

Makes 6 servings.


Here it is as it came out of the oven:


This is the kind of pie crust I use. If you like making your own crust, be my guest. One thing you'll most likely never see on this blog is a homemade pie crust recipe. I don't own a rolling pin and have no intention of doing so in the future! I also make a quiche crust using hash brown potatoes. That's really good; I'll blog about that the next time I make it. Jim actually prefers that to the pie crust.




Now, I have to tell you that when I got it all put together, I was a little disappointed in the appearance. It looked kind of weird. It seemed like there were hardly enough eggs to cover the bottom and the broccoli stuck way out. But I put it in the oven anyway. Then I went to the computer and looked up some broccoli quiche recipes. Almost all of them called for cooking the broccoli before putting it in the quiche. Oops. I didn't do that. I thought the pieces were small enough that they would cook in the half hour in the oven. So, while this thing was baking, I was sure it was going to be a flop.



But, to my amazement, it looked beautiful when it was done (see pic above). The eggs fluffed up very nicely and fit the pie shell perfectly. I know that most people put milk in their quiches, but I don't. I think the eggs come out the perfect consistency without it. If you haven't tried it this way, you should just once and see if you like it. The broccoli also pleasantly surprised me. It was cooked, but not mushy. Still had a little bite to it. Perfect. I think that if I had cooked the broccoli before, it would have ended up being mushy.

I served this quiche with my Potato Leek Soup and some pretzel bread I found at the grocery store that afternoon. It was an awesome meal and none of us missed the meat at all.

I will be adding the new category, Meatless Mains, to my list on the right. Do any of you go meatless once a week (or more)? If so, leave a comment and let me know what some of your favorite meatless dishes are.

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5 comments:

  1. From Facebook:

    "That looks so good. I'm hungry. Toast for breakfast, 3 chocolate truffles for lunch...... and so........"

    Gloria N.

    ReplyDelete
  2. From Facebook:

    "Sounds delish! I love that you don't have to precook the broccoli. Whenever I end up steaming broccoli before using it in a recipe, it always seems overcooked to me in the finished dish. I'm also going to have to try making a quiche without milk!"

    Liz M.

    ReplyDelete
  3. From Facebook:

    "Mmm, why have I never thought of doing a broccoli quiche? This sounds awesome. I never use milk in my quiches and I love the consistency of them. I bet leaving out the milk helps the broccoli not get mushy or fall apart. Yum!"

    Barbara B.

    ReplyDelete
  4. From Facebook:

    "Hey, I just made it! Had frozen broccoli not fresh so I zapped it in micro wave for 3 minutes and then let it drained in a colander while I got the rest ready. I added a couple ingredients, and Lisa, it was delicious! The moment Chris saw it he goes, "I love quiche!" He was happy."

    Gloria N.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I have never cooked fresh broccoli before putting it into a quiche... just think the flavor and texture is better. Cooked broccoli can get mushy really fast. I also don't pre-cook onions as they develop a good flavor and consistency while the quiche is cooking. Will have to try it without milk...thanks for your recipe. A dash of white pepper also adds a nice flavor.

    ReplyDelete