I love having breakfast for dinner. Breakfast foods are almost always comfort type foods in my mind. Fluffy, gooey, warm, and bacony. Yep, that about covers it. One thing that I’ve never tried making before is quiche.
Of course, I’ve had quiche before but being a dairy free house, I wasn’t quite sure it was possible to have at home. Instant pudding without cow’s milk does not work FYI and a few other experiments did not go as planned. I prepared myself for the idea of having to drink my quiche for dinner if it didn’t work out.
Thankfully the quiche fates cooperated and it set perfectly. The recipe I started with was fully loaded and quite involved with layers of cheese, filing, egg, and repeated layers. I don’t know about you but I don’t have time to layer, to cook things separately, and to deal with involved. Other than the pie crust, I cooked everything together for the filling, dumped the egg mixture over top and popped it in the oven.
Halfway into the process, I realized that making my own pie crust on a weeknight probably wasn’t the best idea I’ve ever had. Yes, it tasted wonderful. I also walked the dog while it refrigerated, and got a minor upper body workout in while rolling it out. Still it probably was a bit over the top for weeknight effort.
Feel free to use a pre-made pie crust or try the quiche in a crust-free version. If you go crust-free, please report back on how it worked out. I wasn’t sure it would come out of the dish as easily without the crust liner. I need the deets!
Mushroom Spinach Bacon Quiche 
- 1 cup (159g) all purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 4 Tbsp walnut oil
- 3 Tbsp water
- 4 green onions, white and green parts chopped
- 2 slices pre-cooked bacon
- 8 oz sliced mushrooms
- 1 cup (42g) fresh spinach
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 3 large eggs
- 1 egg white
- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 1/4 cup (28g) shredded vegan cheddar cheese
Place the flour and baking powder in a bowl. Add the oil and water and mix with a fork until mostly blended. It will begin to form crumbs and the crumbs will gradually start to stick together. You may need to add a little more water, just a few drops at a time to form the dough into a ball. A trick I use is to wet one hand under the faucet and shake most of it off and knead the water in.
Knead the dough just a little bit to mix it together and then press it into a fat circle onto a piece of plastic wrap. Refrigerate for about 20 – 30 minutes so that it’s easier to roll out. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Spray a 9 in pie dish or pan with non-stick spray. Roll the dough out into a 12 inch circle and place it in the pie dish.
Cover the crust with foil and bake at 425 degrees for about 10 minutes. Remove from oven and lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees.
While the pie crust is cooking, chop the onion and bacon into pieces. Heat a large pan over medium heat and add the bacon and onion. Cook for about 3 minutes until the onion is softened. Add the mushrooms and continue cooking until the mushrooms are almost completely cooked.
Stir in the spinach and cook until wilted. Remove from heat and spread evenly in the bottom of the cooked pie crust. Mix the eggs, egg white, almond milk, and cheese in a bowl and pour gently over the spinach mixture.
Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 45 minutes until the center is set. Remove from oven and cool for about 5 minutes. Slice into 4 wedges and garnish with green onions, if desired.
Makes 4 servings at approximately 383 calories each – 13g protein, 38g carbs, and 21g fat.
Notes
- I used walnut oil because I didn’t have olive oil. Any liquid oil will work but some may alter the flavor just a bit if you pick a more pungent variety. Not necessarily a bad thing but I wanted to point that out.
- This was the last of my package of pre-cooked bacon leftover from the Pasta with Asparagus and Peas. If you want to use regular bacon, just cook it as the first step and chop before adding in the onions.
- I saved time buying a package of pre-sliced mushrooms. Obviously you can buy whole ones and slice them yourself if you are dying to do that.
- Due to the dairy allergy, I used almond milk and vegan cheese. You can use the real thing if you prefer. You’ll have to adjust your nutrition values because they’ll be different.
This was a huge hunk of quiche too! Imagine how big 1/4 of an entire pie really is. If you’re looking to cut back, you could even slice it into more pieces. I really was surprised that the quiche wasn’t a runny mess without milk. I kept peeking at it in the oven with nervous anticipation. Thankfully I wasn’t left with a chunky, savory smoothie for dinner.
Have you every been hopeful that a recipe turned out? How did it work out for you?
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