Kitchen Sink Quiche

In an attempt to get my beau Carlos to eat more vegetables, I wanted to devise a dish that was delicious, in which I could cram as many vegetables as possible and would be great for leftovers. I thought of several ways I could do this and the best solution was to make a quiche. A quiche is a meal in itself and leftover slices make great re-heat lunches or dinners. It's even good for breakfast! So I decided to make what I now call the Kitchen Sink Quiche.

If I were to make this quiche for myself, I would use Ham, Tomato, Broccoli florets, Zucchini, Mushrooms and Cheddar Cheese. For Carlos, I used Ham, Tomato, Spinach, Onion, Cubanelle Pepper, Red Pepper, Spinach, Scallions and Brie. See the laundry list of vegetables? I put as many in there as I possibly could and I exlcuded certain no-nos like the broccoli, zucchini and mushrooms in my preferred quiche. I used fresh produce I got that morning from Wilson Farms, with the exception of the Spinach. Good quality, fresh, local produce just makes everything taste better!

Kitchen Sink Quiche

This makes 2 quiches.

Thaw and strain some frozen spinach. Don't forget to squeeze all that excess water out!



Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Par-bake two pre-made pie-shells for about 5-7 minutes.

Do a rough chop of one cubanelle pepper, one red pepper and half of an onion. If it weren't for the scallions, I would have done the whole onion. Sautee peppers and onion in light olive oil until their form begins to give. Basically you are doing some pre-cooking to ensure consistency of texture in the quiche.



I like to get these Ham slices. They are thinner than ham steaks but thicker than deli meat. Feel free to omit the ham if you are vegetarian.



I cut each stack length-wise into three strips then cut the across. Here I'm just having fun with design!



I set aside the cooked peppers and onions and the ham bits. Around this time you should be taking out the pie shells from the oven and poking holes in them with a fork, to release some of the air and to make sure they don't bubble up again when baking.



I lucked out and got some amazing heirloom tomatoes at Wilson Farms this morning. I sliced them into thick slices, then seeded them. Seeding is really important unless you want a soggy quiche! Then I cut the slices in halves or thirds. I set the aside and drained them a little bit before using. If you have time, try roasting them in the oven with salt before adding to the quiche.



I started with a layer of tomatoes, then a layer of ham.



Then I added the peppers and onions on top.



I whisked 5 eggs with about 3/4 cup of skim milk. Then I added salt, oregano and chopped scallions.



I was trying to figure out how to add the Spinach as a layer to the quiche and at the last minute I decided to add it to the egg mixture. I should have added it as a fine layer on top of the tomatoes because the spinach just floated to the top!



I poured the egg mixture over the pie. I do one egg mixture for each quiche. So for two quiches, that's a total of 8 eggs and 1-1/2 cups of skim milk.



I baked them in the oven for about 30-35 minutes. Then I added slices of brie (without the rind) to Carlos' quiche, then I put both quiches back in the oven for 10-15 more minutes. I decided to go cheese-less with mine. You'll see that mine had a bit of a milk separation issue! That was the first quiche I assembled and when I found out that 4 eggs wasn't going to work. Carlos' quiche below looks a lot better!



The quiches came out great. My apartment was filled with the most amazing aroma as these were baking in the oven. I highly recommend you try your own version of Kitchen Sink quiche.