New Recipes: Spinach Quiche

I have a hard time finding good quiche recipes. There is always too much or too little egg, or its too heavy or too watery. But after many adaptations, I think I've found a new recipe that works well for me. Maybe it will work well for you.

Ingredients

* 6 large eggs, beaten
* 1 1/2 cups half and half
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 1/4 tsp pepper
* 1/4 tsp nutmeg
* 1 T butter
* 2 cups chopped fresh baby spinach, packed
* 1 cup mushrooms, sliced
* 1 small onion, minced
* 1 1/2 cups shredded gruyère cheese
* 1 (9-inch) refrigerated pie crust, fitted to a 9-inch, deep-dish pie plate

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

In a frying pan, over medium heat, melt butter. Add onions and mushrooms and cook until tender. When the onions and mushrooms are almost done but not quite, add spinach and cook until wilted.

Combine the eggs, half and half, salt, pepper, and nutmeg in a bowl and whisk (if you let the eggs rise to room temperature first, your quiche will be fluffier-- a good tip for soufflés, also). Layer the spinach/mushroom/onion mixture and cheese in the bottom of the pie crust, then slowly pour the egg mixture on over it. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes until the egg mixture is set.




Quiches are great because once you get the base, you can add whatever ingredients you want. If you don't like onions, don't put them in. If you want to add bacon, do it (though I recommend leaving out the nutmeg). If you want a heavier, richer quiche use heavy cream. If you want a lighter, more waist-line friendly quiche, use milk. If guryère isn't available or is too expensive, use Swiss cheese instead-- or whatever shredded cheese you're a fan of.

Another great quiche option, which I read online once upon a time, was mixing all the ingredients together and pouring them into muffin pans, baking, and then freezing the individual, muffin-sized quiches. I think this is a great idea for someone like me who is on the go all the time. I can just grab a quiche from the freezer, pop it in the microwave, and go.

One final note on the above recipe, I like to serve it with a side of oven-roasted asparagus sprinkled with butter and garlic. Yummy!