Monday, August 3, 2020

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




21 comments:

  1. Just like you, I do love crust, but sometimes crustless quiche is so much healthier and a real deal. Our small local farmer market wasn't even open last two weeks :-((
    Stay safe, Pauline, and have a great week ahead!
    Angie

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    1. Thanks Angie, such a shame that farmers markets are also suffering because of the pandemic.I wonder what they are doing with all the produce. Take care, Pauline

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  2. Pauline, I make a very similar quiche just using silverbeet but will tweak it a bit next time. Yours looks very pretty the way you have presented it. I am getting used to the Blogger changes but will probably just keep using my own photos in case the Google ones disappear at some stage. Hopefully we don't end up like Victoria as regards the numbers of infected people. We have done so well up till now.

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    1. Hi Chel, so nice to hear from you. Hey, remember your story about the warm slippers that you bought up the road....., well my Toowoomba sister in law and a friend did go and buy a pair each from that shop you mentioned, and they just love them. You have done your bit for local businesses. Yes time will tell as to the consequences of people doing the wrong thing for Queensland.

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  3. I make this in summer when I've got random vegetables that need using up. BTW, it's International Scone Week soon. https://tandysinclair.com/international-scone-week-2020/

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  4. not sure what you mean about gallery photos disappearing pauline? i have been using the photos stored on my laptop, and adding them to my posts. they haven't ever disappeared that i know of. when you say you use gallery photos, what is that? is this something different? how lucky are we in QLD to have such low covid stats. let's hope it stays that way! Your quiche looks good. a great way to use up veg and stuff in the fridge:) sad about all the businesses going out of - well, business. let's hope things get better soon.

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    1. Thanks Sherry, probably everyone loads photos onto their posts differently and now I use photos straight from my laptop as well. Photos on my Samsung camera and my phone are stored in the Gallery, and there was a time when it was easier to use photos straight from the gallery, however if I deleted them from the gallery they also disappeared from my posts. So I stopped doing that. We now have the option to use photos straight from Google Photos which my camera syncs with, but I am wary that if I delete those photos from Google photos they will delete from my posts as well. So I am still using photos straight from my laptop rather than take a shortcut. Hope that makes sense:)

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    2. yep that makes sense pauline. i'm not fond of the new blogger interface yet. all it seems to have done is make it harder!! instead of one click to do something, it's 3 or 4 or 5! and it looks the same. Grrrrrr!

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    3. Sherry it sounds like we are all just grinning and bearing with it so far. A little further explanation from Google as to its benefits might help eh.

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    4. i sent feedback to blogspot about the new interface but they never answer anything i've ever asked them...

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  5. Love a simple tasty quiche for sunday brunch. Another amazing recipe Pauline . Its so healthy..

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    1. Thanks Rahul, Great to hear from you. I keep coming back to this quiche recipe because it tastes amazing every time I make it.

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  6. I often (in fact almost always) skip the pastry crust when making quiche. I make good crusts, but I never thought they added that much flavor. They do make it easier to convey a slice from pie pan to dinner dish, however. I've just started using Blogger's new interface. It's OK, but I'm really not seeing much benefit from it. I'll adjust, I'm sure. Eventually. :-)

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    1. Thanks KR, pastry probably makes a quiche more filling to eat, and I can't deny that I enjoy pastry. I'm still not feeling comfortable with the new interface either, and find myself reverting back to the other one sometimes when I am in a hurry. Nothing stays the same in the techno world, or in any world for that matter.

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  7. Looking for all the recipes where i can use maximum of my garden harvest.Its a perfect healthy dish for breakfast or lunch. Thanks for sharing.

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    1. Thanks Balvinder, I hope you enjoy this when you make it. How wonderful to be able to use fresh produce from your garden in your cooking. Take care, Pauline

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  8. Your quiche looks delicious and I love the beautiful presentation on that exquisite table covering. We are staying in too and just see our kids once a week for dinner on our deck!

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    1. Lovely to hear from you Judee, thank you for your kind comments. So nice for you to see your family even just once a week.Precious times.

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  9. I love this type of quiche and make one quite often with zucchini, potato and bacon. And yes, my husband loves it too ;) However I do love pastry - in fact I could eat just pastry. YUM!

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    1. Thanks Marcellina, there are so many different ways to make quiche, aren't there? I would eat a quiche with pastry any day if it wasn't for the calories. So sometimes only.

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