A Very Versatile Quiche Formula!

This is a great recipe for using up leftover veges, or whatever veges are in your garden or fridge… I’ve adapted it from a recipe in Mollie Katzen’s cookbook, “The Enchanted Broccoli Forest”. Hope you like it!

1. First you need a crust. If you have a favourite crust recipe, go ahead and make that, or you could use one of these:

Basic Spelt Crust (makes 2 crusts)
Place in food processor or Thermomix:
– 2 cups (300g) spelt flour (mixture of wholemeal & white)
– 2 t baking powder,
– 3/4 cup butter/lard or 1/2 cup olive oil
– 1 t salt
Mix until looks like crumbs, then add and mix until a ball of dough forms:
– 1/4 cup icy cold water (approx.) 
– squeeze of lemon juice
Roll out on bread mat or floured board and place in buttered pie/quiche pans. No need to prebake.

Crumb Crust (makes 2 crusts) – easy – doesn’t have to be rolled out.
(I use this when I’ve had a failure with my bread! I grind the whole thing up into crumbs and freeze them.)
Mix in food processor/Thermomix:
– 2 cups (300g) wholemeal spelt bread crumbs
– 1/2 cup wholemeal spelt flour
– 1 cup raw spelt/rice bran
– 1 cup rolled oats
– 1/4 t salt
– few dashes of italian herbs
– 1/2 cup melted butter or oil
Press into buttered pie pans and prebake in moderate oven for 10 mins.

2. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F).

3. Okay, now for the easiest part. There are only three steps to go.
First, The Cheese. (If you can’t have cheese, leave this part out, or replace it with a dairy-free substitute.) The cheese goes first, as the fat in it melts and forms a moisture-resistant layer between the filling and crust, so the crust doesn’t go soggy. I usually use:
– 1 cup shredded mozarella cheese (divided between the two crusts). You can also add come crumbled fetta cheese if you like. It just needs to be enough to barely cover the bottom of the crust.

4. The Filling: place the filling of your choice over the cheese. There’s so many options for this part – steamed/leftover veges, leftover cooked, chopped meat, tuna/salmon… Try a different one for each quiche – here’s a few ideas…
– Spinach/Silverbeet/Bok Choy (a few handfuls, chopped and sauteed with chopped onions, dry mustard and nutmeg)
– Mushrooms (a few handfuls, sliced and sauteed with shallots/green onions, garlic, oregano and thyme)
– Asparagus (sliced and steamed, or tinned, with herbs)
– Broccoli (one large stalk, chopped and steamed, with lemon juice and garlic)
– Tomato (1-2 tomatoes, sliced and sauteed gently in olive oil and/or butter, with italian herbs)
– Fresh herbs (marjoram, thyme, basil, dill, chives, parsley – snipped and sauteed with onions and capsicum/peppers)
– Marinated artichoke hearts (drained and chopped)
– Mixed veges (steamed/leftover broccoli, carrot, corn, etc, with sauteed onion and garlic, and slices of tomato on top)
– Tuna/salmon (tinned, with steamed broccoli, sauteed onion or fresh shallots)
– whatever else you can think of!

5. The Custard -beat together and pour over the top:
– 4 large eggs
– 1 1/2 cups rice/almond milk
(or you can use a mixture of sour cream and milk, or buttermilk instead of rice/almond milk.)
Dust the top with paprika or herbs.

6. Bake for 35-40 minutes in moderate oven, or until set.

If you end up with too much pastry and filling, make some mini quiches in muffin cups. Or if you have some scraps of pastry, roll them out and bake them on a tray for the kids to eat like crackers.

I hope these amounts are right – I’m notorious for altering recipes and not writing it down!