Gone are the days of “real men don’t eat quiche” – thank goodness! Today’s awesome quiche recipe, sure to be loved by men and women (and kids), comes from Tali of the new and improved More Quiche, Please blog.
When I was 16, I made an important culinary discovery: Broccoli-cheddar quiche.
It wasn’t just that it instantly became one of my favorite foods — it was that I felt confident enough to serve it to my friends when they came for Shabbos.
Quiche with cheddar cheese? On Shabbos? That’s right. My four siblings and I were all raised as vegetarians, and I’ve now got a vegetarian kitchen of my very own.
As a kid (and especially as a teenager), I was all too aware that my family’s Shabbos menu was different than what everyone else was serving. No chicken soup, no deli roll, no meatball appetizers. So I developed something of a “veggie complex” — what if the friends I invited over didn’t like our food?
But then came the glorious day that I opened Mollie Katzen’s Enchanted Broccoli Forest and decided to give her broccoli quiche a whirl. After I tasted it for the first time, I felt up to hosting my whole class.
I’ve made this quiche countless times since, and there’s never any left. It’s so good that, for several months when I working full-time in Washington, D.C., I’d make a quiche on Sundays and have some for dinner every night of the week.
There are two ways to make this recipe: The easy way, using a frozen pie crust, and the “potchke” way, baking your own crust. If you’re in a rush or just don’t have the patience, you can go straight to the second part of the recipe, where I talk about the filling.
Broccoli-Cheddar Quiche
Pie crust (recipe and method from Howdini.com)
- 1 c flour
- 4 oz. cold butter, chopped in small bits no larger than a pea
- 1/4 c ice water, added by the Tbsp as needed
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp sugar
1. Working on a hard surface, ideally marble, add salt and sugar to flour and combine well. Using a fork, cut butter bits into flour until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.
2. Create a well in the center and add a Tbsp of ice water at a time, kneading with the fork. You will probably need no more than a few spoonfuls of water. Bring the dough together with a few more kneads (this time, by hand).
3. Sprinkle flour on your work surface, rolling pin, and dough. Hit the dough a few times with the rolling pin.
4. As you roll out the dough, be careful not to roll over the edges or they will become frayed. You are aiming for about 1/8″ thickness, and about two inches more in diameter than the diameter of your pie plate.
5. Lightly roll the dough over the pin and transfer to a fluted pie plate. (No need to grease it.) Trim the edges if needed.
6. Fold the edges over and pinch all the way around to create the fluted effect.
Filling
- 2/3 bag frozen broccoli florets, such as Bodek
- 1/2 bag shredded cheddar cheese (or more, if you like)
- 3 eggs
- 1 c milk, less 3 Tbsp
1. Preheat the oven to 375 F.
2. Using the pie crust you just created (or a store-bought frozen pie crust), sprinkle some of the cheese along the bottom to lightly cover.
3. Place partially defrosted broccoli florets on top of the cheese. (If you don’t have time to defrost the broccoli, you can also put it in the microwave for a minute.)
4. Whisk the eggs together and combine with milk. Pour over broccoli.
5. Top with plenty of cheddar cheese and bake for an hour, or until the top is golden.
Filling variations:
Pizza Quiche: Use a combination of shredded mozzarella and cheddar cheese, and substitute one sauteed onion and a sliced tomato or two (depending on size) for the broccoli. Some finely chopped fresh basil would be a nice addition. (I never used fresh herbs in the States, but here in Israel they’re much easier to deal with.)
Mushroom Quiche: Saute a carton of fresh mushrooms in a bit of olive oil and use along with a sauteed onion to replace the broccoli. Try swiss cheese instead of cheddar.
Spinach Quiche: Substitute the broccoli with about 75% as much spinach, leaving room to add in a handful or two of sauteed mushrooms. Mozzarella cheese works well here.
Do you have a favorite quiche recipe or filling? Please share in the comments section – or link up to a post on your blog using the Mr. Linky.
Yum! Can’t wait to try this – I’m always looking to expand my quiche repertoire.
Loved your recipe – and your cool blog! Thanks for linking up, Liz.
Mmm, this looks lovely. Although we are not vegetarians, I like to make unusual food – not necessarily the traditional shabbos fare – and my kids sometimes give me grief. Good to know I’m not alone! 🙂
You’d think that after being embarrassed over our not-so-traditional Shabbos meals as a kid, I’d now make all the classics every week. Ironically, I consistently go for the “weird” Shabbos foods instead. Go figure.
Pissaldiere – or as my kids call it “Pizza Quiche”:
Saute 2 c. onions and 1 clove garlic minced in 2 T. olive oil. When onions are soft, add 1 T. dried basil and 1 t. salt. Pour into bottom of 9 in. deep dish pie crust.
Mix together 1/3 c. Parmesan and 3/4 Mozzarella. Sprinkle 1/2 of mixture on top of onions. Scatter 1/4 c. sliced black olives over that.
Mix together 4 eggs, 1 c. milk, 1/4 t. dried mustard and 1 T. flour. Pour over pie. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese over that and then arrange thinly sliced tomato over the cheese decoratively (don’t overlap!). Bake at 375 for 45-50 minutes until set.
Thank you so much, this is very helpful