Easy Quiche
I’ve often been stuck with leftover bits ‘n bobs. Whether it’s roast chicken, veggies, cheese, brocolli, or smoked salmon, most things can be plonked in a pastry case, have a simple egg custard poured over them, topped with cheese, and baked into a delicious quiche! Perfect for lunches, dinners or even a generously-sized snack (it disappears quickly!).
The recipe
This recipe makes a ~24cm diameter quiche.
For the pastry:
For this recipe, you’ll need a batch of my shortcrust pastry! OOORRRRR you could buy a roll of ready-rolled shortcrust pastry and no one will ever know…
Butter and flour a ~24cm diameter tart tin/pie dish to prevent your pastry sticking. Place your lined tin in the fridge to chill.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out your pastry to a thickness of 3-4mm and a size about 8-10cm bigger than your tin. Using your rolling pin, drape the pastry over the rolling pin and gently drape it over your lined tin. Using a small ball of extra dough dipped in flour, gently press the pastry into all the grooves on the tin.
Once the tin is lined with the pastry, use your rolling pin to roll over the top of the tin, trimming off the excess pastry. Prick the bottom of the pastry case all over with a fork to stop the pastry from forming air bubbles in the oven. Place your pastry case in the fridge for ~30mins to prevent shrinkage in the oven.
Preheat your oven to 180C (160C fan) and line your pastry case with a sheet of baking paper. Then pour in some ceramic baking beans to weigh the pastry down in the oven.
If you don’t have ceramic baking beans, you can use most dried beans or rice!
Bake for 12-15mins with the baking beans, then remove the baking beans and continue baking for another ~5mins until the pastry is evenly light golden brown and crisp.
For the egg custard:
5 large eggs
1/2 cup cream
large handful of finely grated cheese
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp dried mixed herbs
pinch dried chili flakes
1/2 tsp garlic powder (optional)
Whisk all the ingredients together in a large measuring jug for easy pouring. A bowl could work too.
For the filling:
There’s no list of filling ingredients I can give you. And the real reason for that is because I have never made the same quiche twice! However, what I can give you is a list of flavour combos I have tried and leftovers you can use to make a quiche. So here they are:
cooked spinach, onion, bacon, feta and olives (optional)
leftover cooked savoury mince, cherry tomatoes and cheese
tenderstem brocolli, feta and red onion
roast veggies, feta, herbs and cheese
simple bacon/ham and cheese (quiche lorraine)
salmon, tenderstem brocolli and cheese
plain cheese!
To assemble the quiche:
Preheat your oven to 170C (150C fan).
Chop your chosen fillings into smallish pieces and lay an even layer over the base of your blind-baked pastry case. The amount of filling is up to you but you want to still have space for the egg custard. I like to make sure that my layer of fillings is not compacted, leaving room for the egg custard to flow, and that it is about ~1/2 the way up the edges of the pastry case.
Once you’ve finished adding your fillings, pour in your egg custard until the pastry case is ~1cm less than full. Then place your quiche gently in your preheated oven and gently pull the rack slightly towards you, giving you access to pour in the remainder of the egg custard so that the quiche is nice and full. Then gently slide the rack back into the oven and close the door. Bake for 20-30mins or until just set in the middle with a little bit of a wibble still.
If you have super steady hands, you can fill the pastry case completely and then place it in the oven, but it’s up to you! You can also add a sprinkle of cheese on top of the egg before you put it in the oven (I usually do!).
Allow the quiche to rest for ~10mins after baking before removing it from the tin. It’s delicious warm out the oven, as a room temperature tea-time snack, or cold out the fridge the next day - if it lasts that long…
