Spinach, Tomato, and Feta Quiche
I think that quiche is one of the most underrated dishes. When you think of breakfast or when you go out for breakfast, it’s not necessarily top of mind. It’s essentially the B-squad to pancakes, french toast, and omelettes galore. In the past year, I have come back to embracing our friend, the quiche. In my family, it has a special place in my heart because it is the dish I had with my family every Christmas morning. My mom always made two quiches, a meat one for the boys and a spinach one for the girls. She would put them in the oven right before we started opening gifts so that they would be ready right as we were wrapping up (pun intended). I always thought that it was such a fancy and immaculate dish and never really tried to make it on my own. When J and I moved into the house and were in charge of cooking for Mother’s Day with his side, I decided to make my first quiche. I, of course, called my mother first to get her tips to ensure I did not deliver a pie crust filled with disappointment. I whipped up a spinach feta quiche and his mom seemed to absolutely love it. PRAISE. JESUS.
This week, J went to Atlanta for a work trip and I knew I needed to pick him up from the airport around 3:30PM. It’s the awkward timing where I knew I would be racing the clock when we got back from O’Hare to try to whip something together for dinner. I wanted to make something ahead that we could eat off of that night and the next day. I had been sick the whole week and really was not in the mood to cook every day. Typical, after several months of quarantine together, he finally leaves town and I am bed-ridden (*eye roll). I opened my fridge and noticed that I had a tomato and some spinach that were on the cusp of going bad, so I knew I wanted to do something with those (most of my dinner ideas are inspired by all of the veggies I bought when I was feeling like a healthy goddess, only to order DoorDash the next 4 days until my produce is on it’s death bed). That’s when I remembered that I still had another frozen pie crust in the freezer. Alas, the gods have spoken and I am destined to make….a quiche!
I started by setting the oven to 350 degrees and using a fork to poke holes in the pie crust. This essentially allows the crust to “breathe” in the oven so that it maintains it’s form and does not puff up. You can, of course, make your own pie crust if that’s more your cup of tea. I reserve that for when I make actual pies. A homemade crust certainly tastes better, but it is an absolute beyotch to make, takes more time, and makes more of a mess. So, for this quiche, I enlisted the help of my hommie, the Pillsbury dough boy.
I put the crust in the oven for 10 minutes, enough time to warm it up without browning it or fully cooking it. While the crust is warming, I start preparing the filling. You can get pretty creative with a quiche and what you want to put into it. I decided to chop up a yellow onion, a Roma tomato, and some spinach. Again, there is no right or wrong answer to how much you add to your crust, just be conscious of the fact that the more volume you add, the longer cook time that you will need.
Once you have your ingredients prepped and ten minutes have passed, you can pull you pie crust out of the oven to begin assembling the quiche. For this portion, I always place the crust on a baking sheet. Should the contents of the quiche spill over, this helps to keep your oven clean.
I start by layering my veggies on the bottom. You can be the judge of how much you want to add. I sprinkle my chopped onion on until it has completely covered the bottom of the crust. I personally love the flavor and texture of onion in a quiche so this is an ingredient that I am not shy with. I then place a layer of tomatoes over the onion, followed by another layer of spinach.
At this point, I am ready to add my cheeses. If you want to be healthy or whatever, I guess you can skip this step. I WILL absolutely judge you because cheese is life, but you do you.
I typically make a spinach feta quiche, so I definitely wanted to use feta in this recipe. I had a huge bag of shredded cheddar leftover from when I made chili, so I decided to incorporate that as well to add a sharp bite (it also makes for a pretty color and I am vain and care about those things). This recipe would also be great with parmesan and Romano, or a bit of mozzarella.
Alright, now you are ready to bake your quiche! Lol just kidding, ya’ll know you can’t make a quiche without eggs.
These store-bought crusts are usually on the smaller side and not as deep as if I were making a homemade crust in one of my pie pans, so I typically will use 5-6 eggs for these. In an effort to be healthier, I decided to use 4 eggs and then fill the rest with egg whites. This is a common method for me- I use a calorie counter app quite a bit just to make sure I am conscious of what I am consuming. When I make eggs in the morning, I realized that it can quickly eat up a large portion of your daily caloric allowance if you are not careful (eating whole eggs, adding cheese, cooking in butter, etc). Egg whites are very low in calories, but I also cannot commit to just eating strictly egg whites. I always need to mix them with whole eggs because ya girl still cares about dat flavor!
Once I have beaten my eggs together, I add in my seasoning. As always, salt and pepper are a must with eggs. I then added a dash of red pepper flakes for some subtle heat, and a bit of minced garlic. You can always use garlic powder instead, but I wanted to keep with my theme of fresh ingredients for this one. Once your mixture is ready, pour it into your pie crust, distributing it over all of the veggies to ensure the eggs are filling the whole crust.
The final step prior to baking the quiche is to add butter. This is not necessarily a priority in baking a quiche, but I love butter and think that it compliments the buttery crust. So, if you are like me, feel free to Paula Deen the crap out of that quiche.
I will typically hack off about a tablespoon of butter and then cut it into small cubes to distribute amongst the top of the quiche filling. Just know that if you add too much butter, it will create more a liquid consistency on the top of your quiche. It can then be difficult to know whether your quiche is fully cooked, as it can be hard to tell what is butter and what might still be raw egg.
Now you are ready to bake your quiche! This should bake for about 55-60 minutes, depending on how dense you make your quiche. Once the edges are starting to brown and the quiche starts to puff up, leaving no liquid visible on the sides of the crust, you know your quiche is done.
Quiche is not necessarily something that you think of when you imagine “meal prep”. It is kinda the sneaky dish that serves an amazing purpose for picking at throughout the week. We have heated this up for breakfast, lunch, and dinner the past few days. It keeps it’s flavor and is actually pretty tasty as a “leftover”, and is something super quick and easy to make when you don’t want to cook. Someday, I might feel fancy and actually roll out a pie crust and put tons of love and care into my quiche. Until then, this is what ya get!
INGREDIENTS:
1 Frozen Pie Crust
1/2 Small Yellow Onion (or 1/4 of a larger onion)
1 Roma Tomato
3/4 Cup Spinach
4 Large Eggs
3/4 Cup Liquid Egg Whites
1/4 TSP Salt
1/4 TSP Pepper
1/4 TSP Red Pepper Flakes
1/2 TSP Minced Garlic
1/4 Cup Crumbled Feta Cheese
1/4 Cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese
1 TB Butter, Cubed
DIRECTIONS:
Begin by setting your oven to 350 degrees and preparing your pie crust. To do so, you will want to thaw the crust for a few minutes until it is soft enough to poke holes in it with a fork. Generously poke the crust on the bottoms and sides to ensure there is plenty of room for air flow
Place the crust in the oven for ten minutes, then remove and place on a sheet pan.
Begin preparing your vegetables. Chop the onion and tomato into small pieces and set aside. Then begin cutting your spinach into strips. Grab a handful, roll all of the leaves up into a bundle, and then cut into strips.
Now, place your veggies into the bottom of the pie crust. I do them in layers- first onion, then tomato, then spinach.
To prepare your egg mixture, crack your eggs into a bowl, then add the egg whites. Beat the eggs with a fork or whisk until all of the yolks are broken up and distributed. Then, add the salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and garlic, and whisk until distributed. Pour the egg mixture over the veggies in the pie pan. I do this in a circular motion, starting in the middle and spreading the mixture to the sides to ensure it is evenly distributed.
Add your cheeses over the top of the egg mixture. Break up any larger pieces of feta into smaller pieces so that it is evenly distributed.
Cut one tablespoon of butter into small cubes, and distribute it on the top of the quiche mixture.
Bake the quiche for 55-60 minters, until the egg mixture starts to puff up and no additional egg liquid can be seen on the sides.
