Quiche

Quiche is a glory of the kitchen.  It can be as budget-friendly or budget-busting as you want, made with humble chopped ham, caramelized onions and grated cheddar cheese or with luxe smoked salmon, asparagus and chèvre.  It is a perfect vehicle for upcycling leftover cooked meats and veggies.  It can be vegetarian and completely seasonal.  It can be prepped ahead in a pie plate for same day cooking, fully cooked and reheated for next day service or assembled as a kit for the freezer.  It plays well for breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner or midnight snack.  And it's as easy to make two as it is to make one, so you can double the ingredients to make one for dinner right now and freeze the second.

Some suggested filling combinations: ham with caramelized onions and cheddar, chicken with sauteed mushrooms and pepper jack, leftover pork roast and sauteed zucchini with swiss, leftover salmon and thawed frozen spinach with goat cheese, canned tuna and peas with American, roasted butternut squash and white beans with havarti, diced cooked bacon and radicchio with provolone, sliced baked potato and bacon with bleu cheese.


Basic Quiche
Makes 8 servings

1 pie crust
3 eggs
1 cup milk
2 tbsp flour
salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 - 2 cups filling of your choice
1/2 cup grated or crumbled cheese of your choice

To prepare a freezer kit, you'll need 1 large ziptop bag to hold everything and 3 quart-sized ones (4 if you have homemade pie crust) for ingredients.  Put the pie crust still in its package (or homemade pie crust in a quart-sized bag) in the large bag.  Whisk together eggs, milk, flour and seasonings and pour into another quart-sized ziptop bag.  Put filling in another quart-sized bag, and cheese in last bag.  Put all small bags into the large bag with cooking instructions.

To bake, thaw all ingredients.  Put pie crust into 8" or 9" pie plate.  Spread filling over bottom of crust.  Pour egg-milk mixture over filling.  Sprinkle cheese on top.  Bake 45-60 minutes at 350F. Pin It