Vegetable Quiche

the psych program at Adelphi served us quiches at orientation last week, and since then the idea of more quiche has been nagging at the back of my mind. Quiche is great in many ways, other than just being delicious. It's a kitchen-sink food, requiring nothing other than staples (flour, eggs, milk, butter) and whatever leftover bits of food you have around, but you can also make it super fancy with the right ingredients. And this version is somehow both very healthy, since about 1/2 of the volume comes from a bunch of chopped up vegies, and very unhealthy, since the other half is pretty much butter and cheese. You can modify this many ways and still get a good quiche - you can sub yogurt for the creamcheese, cream or half-and-half for the milk, add more eggs and less vegies if you like a more omelette-like texture, and use whatever types of cheese you want.



Basic Pie Dough
makes 1 bottom shell - if making a full covered pie, double it
1 1/4 cups AP flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, chilled and chopped into small pieces
2-4 tbs ice water

The easiest way to do this dough by far is in the food processor, but I think you do get slightly better results doing it by hand. Either way, all it involves is cutting the butter into the mixed flour and salt until you get a crumbly texture of tiny balls of cold butter covered in flour (rather than melted and mixed completely). If a food processor, just dump it all in together and pulse a few times, stir to get up the bottom stuff, and pulse a few more times until it's crumbly. By hand, use a pastry cutter (MUCH EASIER) or a fork to chop the butter into smaller and smaller bits while mixing to coat it in flour. Once it's all gravely, add a bit of cold water and mix. You want it to be wet enough to hold together when you press it, but NO WETTER, and you don't want to overmix and give it enough time to melt and become homogenous. Once it holds together, press it into a ball, flatten that ball into a disc, wrap it up in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least an hour.

When you're ready to quiche, preheat to 400, take it out of the fridge, roll it out to a diamter that is a few inches more than the diameter of your pie dish, and press it into the dish. I forgot this vital next step which caused a minor quiche disaster - WRAP THE WHOLE THING IN TIN FOIL, pressing it against the edges (so it matches the countors of the pan), then poke holes all over with a fork. this keeps the side from collapsing in on themselves and the bottom from puffing up. pop it in the oven and bake it for about 10 minutes, until it has firmed up a bit but has not browned at all.

Vegetable Quiche
1 pie crust (recipe above or you can use store-bought)
3 oz cream cheese, room temp
1/3 cup milk
3 eggs
2 cups finely chopped vegetables (i used broccoli, onion, spinach, and carrots)
3/4 cup assorted cheeses (i used feta and goat cheese)

Preheat oven to 425°.

Depending on the vegetables you're using, saute whatever is raw and cruncy until al dente. Frozen spinach can just be thawed and well-drained (if using exclusively spinach you'll need about 10 oz to fill the quiche).

Beat the cream cheese and milk together with a fork until homogenous, then beat in the eggs (don't overmix - they should be streaky). Mix in vegies and cheeses. Pour mixture into prepared crust and bake until crust is golden brown and filling is set, about 25 minutes. Cool a bit before serving. Best if eaten in the next day or two so it doesn't get soggy, and best reheated in the oven or a toaster oven. Enjoy!