merrifood

Quinoa quiche

Posted by merrifood on February 17, 2013 · 1 Comment 

Aside from the fact that this dish is great to say, it combines two of my favourite things and makes it really healthy.  I love quiches, but normally their buttery crusts and massive amount of cream sort of turn me away from them (unless I’m in France, of course, in which case I would eat one with a chocolate croissant).  This quiche is crustless, though, and you don’t miss the crust at all because the quinoa in it makes it feel very hearty and filling.  Quinoa and eggs together?  Yeah, I was skeptical too, but it just all combines beautifully.  Once you pop it in the oven, you just have to wait until it cooks, so the whole thing comes together very easily.  This could serve a crowd for a casual dinner with a side salad, or you could do what I did and cut it into individual slices and then pop it in the freezer (I was traveling for a few weekends in a row and needed easy lunches when I got back).  I was amazed by how well this quiche freezes, actually – once defrosted and heated up, it tasted as good as the day it was made.  This is a winner find of a recipe, and I highly recommend making it ASAP.

Quinoa quiche (adapted from Tali’s Tomatoes)

Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup quinoa
• 6-8 mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated (optional – I didn’t have this at the time but it would definitely be delicious in it, and I don’t even really like cheese)
• 1 head of broccoli, chopped into florets, 1 red pepper, chopped up, or 1 zucchini, chopped up…or all of the above (this is optional – honestly, you can use any combo of veggies you want)
• 1 1/2 cups spinach or kale cut into thin strips
• 1 box of cherry tomatoes, each tomato chopped in half
• salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F) and grease a quiche dish or a baking pan (I used a square baking pan) with cooking spray.  Cook the quinoa according to package directions (typically 1 part grain to 3 parts water).  Once the quinoa is cooked, set aside.

While the quinoa is cooking, add some oil to a frying pan and saute the onions and garlic until soft and fragrant. I then added some broccoli and zucchini I had leftover from other dishes.  You can really just stir fry whatever veggies you want here.  Regardless, add the spinach/kale and  mushrooms last and stir until the spinach has just wilted. Set aside to cool.

Whisk the eggs with the milk (you could also use Greek yogurt) until frothy. Then just dump everything in.  (I had too many veggies and just set some aside to eat as a side with another dish)  Stir in the quinoa and parmesan cheese if you are using and mix everything together well.  Add some salt and pepper, and then pour the mixture into the baking pan the spinach mixture, parmesan cheese, cooked quinoa, nutritional yeast and salt and pepper and mix until well combined. Pour the mixture into the pan.

Carefully place the cherry tomatoes seed side up all over the top of the quiche and place it in the oven. Cook for approximately 45 minutes until golden.

Mixing the eggs and milk

All the other ingredients ready to go

Uncooked quiche ready to be put into the oven after everything has been mixed together

Deliciously browned quiche just out of the oven

Like I said before, this is really an amazing recipe – it makes a lot and it also freezes well, so when you make it you really have no excuse not to have a bunch of healthy lunches, or you could whip it up for a crowd of 6 people for dinner and impress them with your excellent grasp of super healthy cooking.  This is going to become a go-to recipe of mine for sure, and you can vary the types of vegetables so it won’t ever get boring!