Vegetarian, Gluten-Free Quiche… My half-assed Recipe

Disclaimer: I’m not a food blogger nor a food expert. But I do have a newfound love for vegetarian cooking. And promise to relay this vegetarian, gluten-free quiche recipe as I created it, errors and all.

So I knew I officially turned old/domesticated/boring at the ripe ol’ age of 28 when my parents gave me 2 casserole dishes for my birthday… And for Christmas I received (after asking for) a 9-cup, Kitchen Aid Food Processor.  I was so excited to use it, I processed all 4 veggies in my house on Christmas day!

Anyway, I love quiche and we still have frozen veggies in the freezer from the CSA loot I received over the summer.  My roomie has celiac disease, so I wanted to make sure she could enjoy the fine meal I’d create. And create as little work/chopping for me as possible. Thank you, technology.

Browsing the web I found Gluten-Free Girl,  a simple recipe for the gluten-free crust. AND you could make the crust in the food processor… WOOHOO.

The rest of my recipe was impromptu, so feel free to experiment on your own for the veggies, cheese & portions. Enjoy!

Gluten-Free, Vegetarian Quiche

Time: Apprx 1 hour

For the dough (Note: This will make appx 2 Gluten-Free crusts):

• 2.5 cups Gluten-Free All-purpose flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill from Whole Foods, I’m sure any brand will do)
• 1 tsp Xanthan gum (recommended when using gluten-free flour)
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 US sticks (230 grams) unsalted butter (Whatever – I didn’t say I was on a diet…)
• ½ cup ice-cold water, plus a few splashes more

For the Filling:

• 5 eggs
• 1 cup – Skim Milk
• 2 cups Veggies (I used 1/4 of an eggplant, 1/8 cup spinach, 2 broccoli crowns & a peas from 15 Sugar Snaps minus shells. I didn’t “prep” the sugar snaps before freezing, therefore ruining the shell potential when I unfreeze them.)
• 3/4 cup – 1 Cup Cheese (I used: 5 oz Trader Joe’s Cheddar Mild Wisconsin Cheese/2.5 inch slice & ~ 3 OZ  (i.5 inch slice?) Whole Foods’ Jarlsberg Lite Low Sodium)

Here’s how I created the Quiche:

For the dough:

1. Cut the butter in 1 inch cubes. Put into freezer for 15 minutes.
2. Pulse the all-purpose flour & salt in a food processor until fluffy.
3. According to Gluten-Free Girl, put the butter cubes in and pulse 10 times.  The butter chunks should still be visible.
4. Pour in 1/2 cup of cold water. Pulse 5 times.  If it still looks dry, add more water (but not more than 1/4 cup.)
5. At this point, I wash’t happy with the huge chunks of butter so put back in food processor.  I put on “Low” for too long, and it ended up getting super sticky. I’d pry pulse maybe 5-6 more times until butter was better blended. Or freeze it for a shortly shorter time.
6. Put the dough on your counter/clean surface.  Divide the dough in half.  Save 1/2 for later use (Since you’re not using a topping… I didn’t think about this when I first created it.)
7. Create a ball with 50% of the dough.  Roll it out slightly and put it in the fridge to let it firm up a little.

In the meantime, start creating the Filling…

1. Clean the Food processor & Chop the veggies! I like keeping them small (diced-size) so the veggies blend in the quiche & don’t overwhelm the palate.
2. Sauté the veggies with olive oil on halfway level for ~8-10 minutes, until they’re softer (to your liking. I personally keep them slightly firm.)  Keep an eye on the veggies and take off the stove when you’re happy with the cooked-level.
3. As the veggies are sautéing, take the dough back out and roll it so it’s bigger than the pie pan. (My crust was VERY thin)
4. Put olive oil/nonstick spray on the pan to avoid sticking.
5. Form the crust in the pan.  When you realize you’re lacking some dough to cover the perimeter, steal some from the other dough you put away for future use.  I basically covered the 9″ round pie dish.

Put it Together…

1. First, put in the 2 cups of sautéed veggies in the bottom of the crust.
2. Chop the cheese into a blend in the food processor. (What can I say, I love the processing portion?) It would be easier to purchase shredded cheese – this is all preference.
3. Add the cheese on top of the veggies.
4. Whisk the milk/eggs in a bowl.  Pour it on top of the pan. (Note: When I first tried making quiche, I overfilled the bowl with too much egg/cheese mixture. The veggies and cheese will look like they leave no room for the quiche. This time, I only put in 4 eggs/milk and put in the bowl. When I saw it wouldn’t overflow, I added another egg, a little more milk. Depending on the size of your eggs, feel free to try to add the milk/egg ratio as you go along.)
5. Pop it in the oven at 350 for 25-35 minutes.  Keep checking the quiche until starts to brown, and the eggs look cooked.  (I had to leave mine in the oven for 10 extra mins.)

Here was my end vegetarian, gluten-free Quiche product, instagram’d & all:

Enjoy!

Readers, any hands to foreheads? Recommendations to perfect my recipe? I’m happy to hear them.