Crustless Veggie Quiche Recipe
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Recipe Overview
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 35 minutes
Makes: 6-8 slices
Ingredients Needed
- 250ml/8.8flozs cream
- 100ml/3.5flozs milk
- 5 eggs
- 150g/5ozs feta (very finely crumbled)
- 1/2 cup green onions, finely sliced
- 2 tablespoons/30g/1oz plain all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 12 large basil leaves
- 375g/13.2ozs tomatoes or same weight other vegetables*see note
- 4 asparagus spears, top two inches
- salt and pepper
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1 - PREPARE Preheat oven to 200C/400F conventional or 180C/350F fan forced. Oil or butter a 25cmx4cm/9.8x1.6inch quiche dish.
Step 2 - FILLING Whisk the cream, milk and eggs together until you get a smooth mixture. Add in the feta, green onions, flour and baking powder. Stack the basil leaves on top of each other and roll up into a little bundle. Thinly slice basil to chiffonade the leaves. Add to the egg mixture and pour this mixture into the prepared dish.
Step 3 -VEGETABLES Slice the large tomatoes thickly (around 1.5cm/0.6inch thick) so that they will still be seen when they are sitting in the egg mixture. Trim off the top quarter of the cherry tomatoes. Season the sliced tomatoes with salt and pepper then place carefully in the mixture. Add the asparagus.
Step 4 -BAKE Carefully slide the quiche into the oven. You can also place this on another baking dish if your quiche dish is very full (I don't bother usually - the quiche puffs up but it has never overflowed but for peace of mind, you do you!). Bake for 20 minutes, then turn the quiche around in the oven and bake for 15 more minutes. Sit for 10 minutes to cool. I like serving this with a green salad on the side.
Substitution notes and ingredients:
I used a mix of 1 heirloom, 1 kumato and 3 cherry tomatoes but use whatever tomatoes you prefer.
Vegetables like tomatoes, green onions and asparagus don't need pre-cooking but vegetables like pumpkin, sweet potato and broccoli do need to be cooked beforehand (like this broccoli quiche recipe). Other vegetables can be quite wet (mushroom) when cooking so avoid using them raw as they can release water into the quiche.
If you want a richer quiche, use 350ml/12.3flozs all cream rather than 250ml/8.8flozs cream and 100ml/3.5flozs milk.
I used large eggs for this.
You can also sub the feta for finely grated parmesan or pecorino cheese.
Basil can be subbed for oregano or more spring onion.
Spring onion can be subbed for fresh or dried chives.
Personal Note
This past weekend I was headed to the Southern Highlands with my friend Sophia. Mr NQN had a wedding to go to which I was sad I was missing but I love visiting the Southern Highlands and we were going to a food festival. I was going to be away for 2 nights so I left him some smothered pork chops for dinner on the Friday night and all he had to do was microwave it for 2 minutes. I also left a whole veggie quiche for him to have for lunch as well as some buttermilk pancakes for breakfast.
We had a bit of a situation about cars. We only have one car and I was headed south and Mr NQN was headed north to Church Point. We decided to go in Sophia's car so that she could get in some country driving practice and the car could have a long drive for her car's engine as she typically drives short distances. I offered to drive to the Southern Highlands and back because she has her full license but is not a confident driver at all.
Mr NQN carried my bags out and we packed the car. Sophia moved into the passenger seat and I got into the driver's seat. And then I realised that she didn't have a reverse camera. I've never driven a car without one and I panicked. "Maybe we can drive our car and you can drive her car?" I said to Mr NQN but Sophia didn't want to as he isn't covered on her insurance. "Just go around the block once and see how you go," he said.
Every car is different and this was no exception. The accelerator was very sensitive but the brake less so at least in comparison to ours. But after a block I realised that it would be ok especially as I may not have so much tight reversing into car parks as there is in Sydney. We got there and back no problems and Sophia got in some country driving practice too!
When I got back from the weekend I found out that Mr NQN couldn't be bothered heating up the smothered pork so he basically ate this whole quiche over the span of 2 days. Which isn't a bad thing as it was wholesome and healthy and had protein and vegetables. And best of all he loved it cold!
So tell me Dear Reader, do you prefer quiches with crusts or without? Do you prefer to eat quiches cold, warm or hot? And are you a good driver that can instantly drive another person's car?