Spinach and Tomato Quiche

Quiche!!! I don't remember having quiche before coming to Japan. For some reason a savory pie just sounded... weird. Oh what I was missing out on! During my first two years here in Japan, me and a girlfriend (hey Kathryn) loved to go to a tea shop called Auntie's. Their lunch set had quiche, scones, salad, tea and a cake! I fell in LOVE with quiche. If I had known it is so easy to make at home all those years ago, I could have had it more than 2 or 3 times a year ;)

I have a base recipe of ingredients for quiche and then for the meat, veggies and toppings I vary it every time I make it, depending on what is in the fridge or what was fresh at the market. I love how moist and yummy this recipe always turns out, and my FAVORITE topping in the whole world is tomatoes!!! Give it a try...

First you will need pie crust from my grandmother's pie crust recipe. Roll one portion out and prepare it in a pie plate for the quiche filling. All those instructions are in Granny's pie crust recipe.

Or I GUESS you could try store bought pie crust, but just don't tell me you used store bought pie crust. We'll pretend it never happened. A note for those living in Japan, store bought pie crust here doesn't go well with this recipe. It gets all mushy, it isn't strong enough to hold up to this quiche recipe, so I suggest making the pie crust from scratch.

For the egg mixture you will need the following ingredients...

4 eggs

1/2 onion

1~2 cloves of garlic

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup grated cheese (use your favorite kind, I love Goda)

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup cream

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp oregano

1 Tbsp flour

Veggies and toppings...

in the pic above you can see that I used bacon, spinach and tomato

other yummy suggestions..

asparagus

mushrooms

avocado

zucchini

or be creative with the things you love!

Let's get started on making this one. In a large bowl break 4 eggs and beat them slightly with a fork.

We'll need half an onion, so take your onion and peel it, and cut it in half.

Store half of that onion for something else later, and then finely chop the other half for the quiche.

Take that chopped onion and just dump it into the egg.

Take one or two cloves of garlic and peel them.

Then grind it. I love my litle egg plant shaped grinder that I found in the first house we lived in and have kept all these years! I hope it lasts a lifetime, it's so handy for garlic!

Throw away the root that is left!

Scrape the ground up garlic into your bowl.

Then add the cheeses. Just dump them in there!

Add 1/2 cup milk,

and 1/2 cup cream,

again just dump it in there, or have your mini-me do it! ;) Isn't her sweet little hand the cutest!

Dump the spices in (feel free to add any fresh herbs you maye have, or an italian seasoning mix, or just go with a salt and pepper flavor if you prefer). I didn't use basil on this day, but I love putting in basil leaves!

Add salt and pepper to taste.

And 1 Tbsp of flour to act as a bit of a thickening agent to hold the whole thing together when cooked!

Now have your mini-me mix that up to her heart's content while you chop a couple veggies and bacon.

I first cut up the bacon into smaller pieces and put that into the egg mix.

Next I prepared the spinach. I always wash the stems and leaves before cutting the root.

Then lay it down and cut the root portion off, and rinse again around the exposed stem area to get any remaining grit out that may have been trapped in there with the root still on.

Now begin to chop it into the pieces about one inch long like so...

I chose about three stalks of spinach and they yielded about one cup, packed, of spinach.

I also dump this into the egg mixture and mix it in.

Now take your empty pie shell...

and dump it all in there!!!

Next I sliced a couple of tomatoes because I LOVE love LOVE the flavor of baked tomato! So tart and bold, MMMMMMMmmmMMMMM!

Lay those out on top of the quiche in a nice little wagon wheel pattern!

I like to slightly submerge the tomato and let a little egg run in on top of it. It makes the final product look yummy!

Now sprinkle a little more cheese right on top!

And bake at 160ºC (325ºF) for one hour. When you remove it from the oven, shake the pie plate back and forth gently and if the middle of the quiche jiggles like jello, it still needs to bake a little longer. Put it in for another 5 minutes or so and check again. If at this point the top is beginning to look too done or the crust is starting to burn, you should cover it with foil for the remainder of the baking time.

Savory yumminess in a pie shell. H.E.A.V.E.N. in the kitchen! YUM!