Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Cheesy Veggie Quiche Recipe and Secret Ingredient


All right folks!!! The pictures have been posted and now here’s the recipe. Oh, the secret ingredient is……………RICOTTA! It gives the quiche a fluffiness and creaminess that I absolutely loved. Okay, now on to the recipe:

It was sooooooo yummy!
1 Frozen pie crust, thawed and *blind baked
1 Tbsp of olive oil
1 Bunch of asparagus (10-12 spears) cut in 1-inch pieces
1- 10 oz package of frozen spinach (thawed and excess liquid squeezed out)
1 Bunch of scallions (5-7 stalks) thinly sliced
3 eggs
1 ¼ cup of half and half
¼ cup of ricotta (part-skim)
½ cup of yellow cheddar cheese
½ cup of white cheddar cheese
½ cup of Gruyere cheese
Dash of nutmeg
Salt and Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Heat a medium skillet over medium heat. Add olive oil, once the oil is hot add the scallions and sauté for 1-2 minutes. Add the asparagus to the skillet and continue to sauté. Cook until the asparagus is slightly soft (approx. 7-10 minutes). Remove asparagus and scallions from the heat and set aside.

Crack the eggs into a bowl and beat until well incorporated. Add the half and half to the eggs and beat with electric hand mixer for 1 minutes. (This is to add extra air to the mixture, extra air = extra fluffiness). Add ricotta cheese beat until well incorporated.

Fold in the remainder of the ingredients (asparagus, scallions, spinach, all the cheeses, nutmeg and salt/pepper. Combine well, pour mixture into blind baked piecrust. Bake at 375 degrees for 30-35 minutes, until the center of the quiche is set (non-giggly). <--- That’s a technical term LOL! *Blind baked simply means that the crust needs to be baked prior to adding any filling. It is to prevent the bottom of the pie from remaining undercooked or gummy. Yuck, I hate that!

Please be adventurous with this recipe. With the other quiches I prepared I substituted the veggies for meat and then made a combo of meat and veggies (which is my personal favorite) a.k.a. THE WORKS!
Additional instructions for THE WORKS:
For THE WORKS quiche I used in addition to the veggies, 4 oz. of ham (cubed), 3 slices of bacon (cut in 12 in pieces and cooked until crispy), 4 oz. of breakfast sausage (out of the casings, cook until browned). Add the veggies, meat and egg mixture all together and pour into blind baked pie shell.


-DIVA

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