Rachel
- Feb 22, 2020
- 3 min read

Vegetarian Quiche

A cheesy buttery quiche is one of many perfect ways to prepare eggs. Snuck a little spinach in to pretend it's healthy, but really this eggy baby is calorie DENSE. If you buy a pre-made crust it will come together in under an hour or so, but the homemade crust recipe here is super fast and tastes really fricken' good!

The recipe is here, and pictures of the process are below:

Ingredients:

Crust:

1 1/4 cup flour (160 g)
1/2 tsp. salt
1 stick cold unsalted butter (113 g), cut into cubes
1 large egg
2 Tbsp. cold water

Filling:

1 small onion, diced
2 cups spinach
1 Tbsp. butter
4 large eggs
1 cup half and half
1/2 tsp salt (omit if using salty cheese or salted butter in the crust)
1/4 tsp. black pepper
3 oz. cream cheese or other cheese, shredded/cubed (90 g)
3 oz. gruyere, parmesan, or other cheese, shredded/cubed (90 g)

Directions:

You can use a storebought crust but you might still want to pre-bake/blind bake it as directed. To make homemade crust: combine flour and salt in a food processor. Add in cold, cubed butter and pulse until crumbly. Then whisk together the egg and water, and pour in the food processor. Pule just until combined. Wrap and chill 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, roll out into a well floured surface until thin and large enough for your tart or pie pan.
Brush off excess flour and place in pan, pressing into the edges and fluting if necessary. "Dock" the bottom by pressing in repeatedly with a fork (this reduces bubbling up during the blind bake). Cover well and freeze 30 minutes (or refrigerate up to 1 day).
Preheat the oven to 400°F. GREASE, and I do mean GREASE, some tin foil or parchment paper with butter or oil to line the inside of the pie shell. (I didn't do this and the tin foil stuck really bad...) Place inside, pressing against the bottom and sides to fit. Add pie weights (beans, rice or whatever) to fill.
Bake 20 minutes with tin foil and weights in, then remove and bake 10-15 more minutes. Note: If you want you can brush the pie shell with egg wash after removing the tin foil to help it seal.
Take out to cool to room temperature.
To make the filling: fry the onions about 10 minutes in some butter before adding spinach and cook just until it's wilted. Let cool.
In a bowl combine the salt, pepper, eggs, and half and half and mix very well.
Line the bottom of the cooked pie shell with the cream cheese/other cheese, the spinach and onion mix, some more cheese, and then pour in the egg mixture before topping with more cheese.
Bake 10 minutes at 400°F, and reduce to 350°F and bake another 30 minutes, or until golden brown and not jiggly when you shake it. Don't over-bake or it can become rubbery.
Cool for 30 minutes before eating. Cool to room temperature before covering and refrigerating.

Before mixing the butter into the flour and salt.

After mixing the butter in until crumbly.

After mixing in the egg and cold water until a dough forms.

Wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes.

Roll out on a floured surface.

Shape into the tart/pie pan and pierce the bottom with a fork. This is called docking.

Cover and freeze 30 minutes to firm up. If you don't all the butter might leak out.

Now we will do a blind bake, or bake the crust before adding the illing. Add GREASED tin foil or parchment paper into your frozen crust, making sure it's snug up the sides. Then fill with your desired pie weights. In my case brown rice. Bake 20 minutes. Afer that we remove the foil + weights and bake more.

After baking 20 minutes and then removing the pie weights and foil. I brushed with some beaten egg before returning back to the oven. As yo can see the crust is damaged. Where's the rest of it?? Well see in the next picture...