One of my “go to” foods when I want to make something ahead for dinner or to have as weekly lunch is quiche. I almost always have eggs, cheese and store bought pie crust on hand so I can quickly throw one together. Also because you can put pretty much ANY veggie or meat in it it lends itself to random leftover bits one might have in the fridge. It is also a great way to use up slightly sad veggies one might have lurking.
Last night I put one together with diced cherry tomatoes, onion, garlic, red pepper, mushrooms and cheese. I always pre-cook my veggies when I put them in a quiche so the egg mixture doesn’t get too liquidy and not set.
I also blind bake my crust so it stays super crisp. If you’ve never blind baked a crust before, this means cooking the pie crust WITHOUT the filling. If you’re making a custard based pie, fresh fruit pie or any other tart-like thing with a filling that is precooked and cools to set, you have to blind bake the crust. One does this with quiche so the eggs don’t make the crust soggy.
Blind baking can be a LITTLE tricky as the pie crust can shrink and/or sag in the pie plate. To prevent this I STRONGLY suggest using pie weights. I have a ceramic set I was given as a gift and they make my life SO MUCH easier. If you don’t want to invest in set, you can use dry beans or rice instead. To keep the crust from sagging make sure you push the weights up against the side of the pie pan. This will help the crust hold its shape.
Once the crust is blind baked I put in my veggies, cheese and then pour my egg mixture over top. I put the egg mixture in last because it holds the cheese and veggies in a more distributed fashion in the quiche. If I mix egg, cheese and veggies in a bowl, I end up with lump of filling in the middle rather than nicely distributed.
Then I bake off the quiche. One other tip I’ll suggest is that you turn off the oven before the quiche is done completely and let it finish cooking with the residual heat. This makes the quiche creamier rather than rubbery. Unfortunately, I got distracted cooking mine this time and it over baked a bit. Also if you’re concerned about the crust over browning you can put foil over the edges. I suggest using the toaster oven to reheat the final product.