Like I said in my previous post, I’ve been on a breakfast kick. Probably because I didn’t eat breakfast for a while when I was playing with intermittent fasting. Turns out 1) I really like breakfast, and 2) not timing my meals appropriately makes me hangry. That’s right, hangry – hungry + angry = hangry. Nobody likes me when I’m hangry, including me.
I was headed to friend’s house for brunch and wanted to take a quiche. It’s easy enough, and tasty enough, to make a quiche without a crust. But I thought this would be a good opportunity to make a quiche with a potato crust.
This recipe is inspired by ingredients I tend to associate with Provencal cuisine.
For this recipe, you will need:
One dozen eggs
8 oz. mushrooms
2 summer squash, halved and chopped
6 oz. gruyere cheese, grated
6 sun-dried tomatoes, finely diced
8 oz. diced grilled chicken
4 oz. blanched green beans
1/2 c. coconut milk, unsweetened
1 c. water
handful of chives, finely chopped
2-3 T. fresh dill (if available), or dried dill
1 1/2 t. paprika
salt and pepper to taste (I used 2 t. and 1 t., respectively)
2-3 small potatoes (~2″ diameter)
coconut oil spray, or 1 T. ghee
1 1/2 T. ghee
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Use a mandolin and slice the potatoes into thin discs – the potato discs should be thick enough to serve as a crust, but be thin enough to be slightly pliable.
Lightly coat a spring foam pan with coconut oil spray or ghee and line the pan with the potatoes. I used the largest spring foam pan I had for this recipe – 10″ diameter.
Place the pan in the oven and bake for about 10 minutes. The potatoes should be golden.
Take the “crust” out of the oven and set aside.
Blanch the green beans (you could also use hericot verts). Place them in boiling water for about 3 minutes. They should bright green, but still crunchy.
Next, in a medium saucepan on medium-high heat, melt 1 1/2 T. ghee. Add the summer squash and mushrooms and sauté until the mushrooms and squash are lightly browned, but still firm. Set aside when done.
While the squash and mushrooms are cooking, chop and dice the sun-dried tomatoes, green beans, and chives.
Finally, dice the chicken and grate the cheese.
In a large mixing bowl with whisk, scramble well one dozen eggs. Add the coconut milk and water, and spices (salt, pepper, dill, paprika).
Add to the large mixing bowl the remaining ingredients – chicken, cheese, and vegetables – and mix. Then add the mixture to the spring foam pan.
Place the pan in the oven and bake for 45-60 minutes. The top will be golden and a knife, when inserted into the center of the quiche, will come out clean.
There may be a bit of liquid on top of the quiche. You can continue to bake the quiche at a lower temperature (250 degrees F) until the liquid evaporates.
Serve the quiche warm or at room temperature.
Viola!
You can play around with this recipe in lots of different ways. You could substitute grilled salmon for the chicken. You could use cheddar cheese or fontina instead of gruyere. You could mix and match the various vegetables. You could use sweet potatoes instead of yukon or red potatoes. The point is, you have lots of options :-)
- Nicole