Fennel Mushroom Onion Quiche with Nut Crust

Serves 6-8

Recipe adapted from The Enchanted Broccoli Forest

Husband-Tested in Alice’s Kitchen

Even though this recipe calls for homemade crust and sautéing vegetables, the prep took less than half an hour. Baking took only 40 minutes. This was a big hit with my husband.  I was able to use onions, fennel and mushrooms I already in my fridge.  The filling vegetables can certainly be substituted with whatever you have in yours.  (Broccoli, spinach, kale, asparagus would work) You could even use cheddar cheese if that’s what you have handy. 

Try this recipe for your next Meatless Monday dinner.  Get your ingredients from our community-owned grocery store, Lost River Market & Deli.

Nut Crust

½ cup finely minced pecans (If doing this in a food processor, be careful not to over process the nuts or you’ll get nut butter instead of minced nuts.)

Pinch of Kosher salt

1 cup unbleached white flour

¼ cup whole wheat flour

4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

3 to 5 Tablespoons cold water (I used 5 Tablespoons)

Place the pecans, salt, and flours in the food processor.  Pulse a couple of times to mix.  Add the butter and process until the mixture becomes coarse, like cornmeal.  With the processor running, add in the water one Tablespoon at a time.  When the dough comes together, dump the contents out onto a floured board.  Form into a ball.  Roll out and place into a 9 inch pie plate.  Chill while making the filling.

Quiche Filling

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 cup or so of thinly sliced onions

2 cups or so of thinly sliced fennel

1-2 cups thinly sliced mushrooms

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

¼ pound gruyere cheese, grated

3 large eggs

1 cup milk (I used skim because that’s what we always have in the fridge.)

Pinch of paprika (optional)

Preheat oven to 375°F.  Heat olive oil in a skillet.  Sauté the onions, fennel and mushrooms until tender.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper, to taste.  Set aside.  Place the cheese evenly in the chilled nut crust dough.  Top evenly with the vegetable mixture. Whisk the eggs, milk and paprika (if using) together and then pour over the cheese and vegetables.

Place the quiche into the oven and bake for 35 to 40 minutes. (It took the entire 40 minutes in my oven.)

Allow to cool to room temperature before serving.

Here's this quiche made with broccoli in place of the fennel.

 

No Crust Mini Quiches

Makes 12 mini quiches

Recipe from http://cookingwithmykid.com/

Adapted and Husband-Tested in Alice’s Kitchen

When I was teaching third grade, the most popular lunch (besides pizza) was Upside Down Day also known as Breakfast for Lunch.  It was a sausage patty, with French toast and syrup served along with tater tots.  Here’s a much healthier version of breakfast for lunch that I bet you and your kids will love.  It’s still quite yummy and has good-for-you ingredients.  I’ve packed my Easy Lunch Box with two No Crust Mini Quiches, some fresh tomato slices, some avocado chunks, a couple of squares of whole wheat toast, a portion of Good Earth Organic Flax Plus Multibran Cereal (5 grams of fiber per ¾ cup serving!) with whole almonds and fresh blueberries (just add a bit of milk come lunch time) and then for dessert, some Banana Mango Smoothie (recipe on this blog) to drink with a straw.  The quiches and the smoothie can be made in advance and then it’ll just take a few minutes to pack the lunch on those busy mornings.

Ingredients:
4 large eggs
4 large egg whites
½ cup skim or low fat milk
½ cup shredded part skim mozzarella cheese
½ cup shredded cheddar cheese, set aside 2 to 3 tablespoons of cheddar cheese for sprinkling on top of quiches (I used sharp white cheddar cheese because that’s what I had in the fridge.  Of course, if you use regular cheddar, your quiches would not be as “pale” as mine turned out.)
2 cups fresh broccoli florets (I bet you could substitute other veggies like spinach or kale too.)
Freshly ground pepper and Kosher salt, to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the broccoli in boiling water and cover.  Cook just until tender and still bright green.  Plunge in ice water to stop the cooking.  Drain off the water.  Chop up the broccoli into small pieces and set aside. Meanwhile, in a large bowl combine eggs and whites and lightly whisk together. Add milk and continue to whisk together. Stir in broccoli and cheese and finish off with salt and pepper to taste. Grease muffin tin with cooking spray. Divide egg mixture evenly among cups.  Sprinkle with the remaining cheddar cheese. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until beginning to brown.  This should yield 12 mini quiches. You can easily freeze them and pack them in future lunches.

Note:  You can also make 6 standard muffin sized quiches, but you’ll need to increase the baking time to 35 to 40 minutes. 

The recipe calls for 2 cups of broccoli, but you can also substitute other veggies as I did here. I cleaned out the fridge and used some mushrooms, shredded carrots, baby spinach and broccoli equalling 2 cups. I also used gruyere cheese because I had run out of the cheeses that the recipe calls for. So, as you can see, this recipe is very forgiving.
This lunch includes 2 No-Crust Mini Quiches, Rainbow Cole Slaw, Clementine Orange Segments and a Whole-Wheat Chocolate Chip Banana Chip Cookie.  (All the recipes are on this blog.)

This breakfast came together in just 5 minutes because I had made the mini 

quiches in advance and kept them in the fridge.  

(For this batch, I used leftover veggies: broccoli, bell pepper, spinach

plus 2 slices of salami that I had minced.)  

Served here with the No-Crust Mini Quiches: 

1 Nature's Path Organic Flax Plus Waffle

with a touch of local maple syrup;

Non-Fat Plain Greek Yogurt with Banana,

Fresh Raspberries and sprinkled with Organic

Unsweetened 5 Seed Granola With Apples and Raisins

and Coffee with a bit of Soy Creamer