Real Men Eat Quiche

Before anyone is offended by the post title, it’s a joke. Back in 1982, Pocket Books published a satirical book titled, “Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche.” Basically, it made fun of male stereotypes and was popular enough to be on the New York Times Best Seller list for fifty-five weeks. The best part was that a segment of the U.S. population thought the book was serious (because they didn’t actually read it). There were actually marches by men who didn’t want to eat quiche because they considered it too feminine. Good thing we don’t have to deal with that kind of craziness any more.

Personally, I love quiche. I like to make a couple of them on a sleepy Sunday morning, then have a piece for breakfast every morning over the course of the week. Just toss it in the microwave for a minute and it’s a quick, warm, and mostly healthy breakfast.

One of the best things about it is that it’s versatile. As long as you have your base ingredients – eggs and milk – you’re good to go. Everything else depends on you and what appeals to your tastes. In fact, even the base is adjustable. So if you’re vegan or lactose-intolerant, you can switch out the eggs and milk for alternatives.

Me, being me, forgot to pick up pie crusts when I was grocery shopping this past weekend, so I ended up making crustless quiche. Which I guess you could simply call an egg casserole. But I made it in a pie pan, so I’m going to call a technicality and claim it’s still a quiche.

Pretty, isn’t it?

Here’s the recipe I used. It’s enough for two quiche, with or without crust. If you do go with a pre-made pie crust, I recommend you use a deep dish one. Less chance for spillage.

10 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup of Almond milk
12 ounces of shredded cheddar cheese
2 red bell peppers, chopped
1 sweet onion, chopped
1 bag frozen spinach, heated and drained
Salt
Pepper
1 pound bacon, cooked, degreased with paper towels, chopped

Start off by sautéing the peppers and onions. Microwave the spinach while you’re sautéing, then put it in a colander to drain (you can also use some paper towels to get out the excess water). I’ll also cook the bacon at the same time (in the oven).

Once all that is done, let it cool off for a few minutes. Tossing the hot veggies and bacon into the raw egg will start to cook it, and you don’t want that. Also, set the oven for 350f (176c) and put the rack in the middle.

Crack your eggs into a good-sized bowl and whisk until well-blended. Add the milk and blend. I then add some salt and pepper and the cheese, blending it all together. Once the veggies and bacon are cooled off, toss them in, as well, and blend it well with a whisk or spoon.

Grease or oil your baking dish with some olive oil, butter, or if you’re feeling frisky, bacon grease. I used a couple of glass pie pans, but you can use a casserole dish. If you have pie crusts, you obviously don’t need to do this.

Pour the mixture into the pans/casserole/pie crusts, then put in the oven and set the timer for about 45 minutes. When the alarm goes off you can check to see if they’re cooked in the center. You can do this with a toothpick or a knife. Just stick it in the center of each quiche and see if it comes out clean. If not, give it another ten minutes and check again. Once it comes out clean, remove from the oven and let cool for about ten minutes before digging in.

Like I mentioned above, you can do so much to personalize quiche. Try adding a tiny pinch of cinnamon or some fresh herbs. Switch out kale for the spinach, or use fresh greens instead of frozen. Use different veggies, like tomato or thinly sliced carrots or parsnips. You can omit the meat if you’d like, or switch it up by cooking some ground sausage, shredded cooked chicken, or maybe some cooked crab meat. The options are limitless so let your imagination run wild.

If you try the recipe, or a variation of it, let me know how it turns out.

RB