(no subject)

[rivka]

Please share with me your favorite vegetarian quiche recipes. I've never actually made a quiche before, but it's just a big ol' omelet in a piecrust, right?

Also, does this sound like enough food for a brunch party? Quiche, tossed green salad, fruit salad, zucchini bread, cake, coffee/tea/punch?

Comments

[brooksmoses]

Yes, that sounds like enough, indeed.

Quiche isn't so much an omelette in a piecrust as a custard in a piecrust, optionally with cheese mixed in so that it melts into it. My standard quiche recipe is based on this:

2 cups cheese, either muenster or gruyere
4 eggs, beaten
1 3/4 cups light cream
1 T melted butter
1/8 t white pepper
1/8 t nutmeg

For the standard recipe, one takes 1/2 pound of bacon (cooked and crumbled) and the cheese and sprinkles it over the bottom of the pie crust, and then mixes the remaining ingredients and pours them over top of it, and cooks at 425 for 15 minutes and then 350 for another 10-15 minutes until it's done (determined by sticking a knife in and seeing if one gets gooey uncooked eggs on it or just a bit of watery liquid corresponding to cooked eggs).

One trick to this is using a cheese that melts pretty easily; if you use standard Swiss (as many recipes call for), it will remain in cubes in the final quiche, and be really quite cheesey. Anything that's good in a fondue is probably pretty good here; muenster seems to be a nice compromise between "tasty" and "not too pricey", and add a bit of something like gruyere or maybe cheddar or something to adjust the flavor.

Anyhow, one can do pretty much any quiche with this basic recipe, by substituting stuff for the bacon. Spinach is good, asparagus and sun-dried tomatoes are good, mushrooms, broccoli, et cetera.