Healthy and Simple Vegetarian Quiche

This is a versatile and economical vegetarian recipe where the vegetables and herbs that I use are all optional dependent on what is in season and what I have on hand. This time I used capsicum, zucchini, some cooked silverbeet and fresh parsley and 1 tablespoon of finely chopped spring onion. Tarragon and thyme are also very flavoursome herbs to use in moderation. Feel free to add 1 cup of some cooked salmon, ham or even leftover cooked chicken if you wish, just reduce the amount of vegetables to one cup.  

The real bonus with this recipe is that I don't need to make pastry for it to taste great, although I do love a nice, crisp pastry. Who doesn't love pastry? If you are desperate for a pastry lined quiche, just fill an uncooked homemade or bought savoury pastry shell with the filling and bake for 30-40 minutes. This recipe is also perfectly suited to making mini quiches, which can then be frozen. I love reheating those for a quick and nutritious breakfast. Do you remember the old saying, "Real men don't eat quiche?" Well Mr. HRK loves this quiche, and what can I say, except that I know a real man when I see one.

Ingredients:

• 4 free range eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup Self Raising Flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup fresh cream or low fat sour cream
• 3 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 1/2 cups grated tasty cheese including parmesan (low fat is fine)

Vegetables and Herbs

2 cups finely chopped vegetables (including any combination of capsicum, celery, cooked silver beet, zucchini, mushrooms,
broccoli, fresh asparagus or thawed frozen peas) If you use silver beet, squeeze it first to remove all of the liquid.

2 tablespoons chopped herbs including flat leaf parsley and 2 teaspoons chopped thyme (Thyme is quite a strongly flavoured herb so not as much is needed in a recipe)

Let's Cook:

1. Combine beaten eggs, flour, milk, cream and butter. Whisk until all lumps have disappeared and it is a nice, even consistency.

2. Stir in cheese, herbs  and vegetable filling. Add salt and pepper to taste.

3. Pour into a 24 cm  lightly greased quiche or pie dish.

4. Garnish the surface with thinly sliced capsicum, or thinly sliced zucchini.

5. Bake at 180 deg. C for 30 - 40 mins. or until cooked and nicely browned and set.

Serve this  with a crisp tossed salad and vinaigrette.

I am revisiting this recipe which I posted when I was new to blogging and it remains a firm favourite of ours

We have just returned home on Saturday from a road trip North to Cairns and so a simple meal like this makes life easy when we are still unpacking. I know that we are so lucky here in Queensland to still be able to travel within this beautiful state of ours, however I think we are now  aware that the situation could change very quickly. Let's hope it doesn't.

During the next week or so I'll post some photos and a story about our trip North  which I hope you will enjoy, so watch this space. There are a lot of travellers on the Bruce Highway towing caravans and camper vans, making the most of the easing of retrictions in Queensland, and all of the caravan parks and free camps are full to the brim. 

It's tomato season, and at this time of year it is a tradition for us to stop at Merinda near Bowen on the Bruce Highway in North Queensland and purchase some tomatoes straight from the farm. I was saddened to see that some of the established fruit and vegetable shops are no longer open on the highway, a consequence of the pandemic, and a long season without any customers. However whilst the farm shop we normally buy from on an honour system wasn't open, we did find one, also operating on an honour system and managed to buy some fresh, firm tomatoes at $2.00 for an 800g bag. This is much cheaper than what we are paying at the supermarket.

With Victoria now under lock down and experiencing curfews, and many countries still in crisis with Covid 19, let's not take anything for granted. Here at home we are still living simply, not going anywhere too crowded, but still practicing social distancing as much as possible when we do need to go out.

Blogging friends, I am persisting with using the new Blogger interface. How about you? We can now add photos from Google Photos to our posts, and I hope that if I remove those photos from GP,  that they won't disappear from the blog post as well, as they used to with the gallery photos. 

Stay strong and healthy and I look forward to hearing from you. 

Best wishes,

Pauline