This delicious Mediterranean Quiche recipe mixes eggs, cream cheese, onions, tomatoes, roasted red peppers, kalamata olives, feta cheese and spices for a flavorful dish!
Quiche is amazing.
Here’s a few of the reasons why I love Quiche:
- It’s delicious. If it wasn’t, I certainly wouldn’t be posting about it.
- You can have it for breakfast. Or for lunch. Or for dinner.
- You can make it ahead and serve it to company.
- It’s very easy and difficult to mess up.
- All of the ingredients are inexpensive, and many are things you’d already have in your fridge or pantry.
Yay, Quiche!
The only way you can really screw up a Quiche is by under cooking the items you add to the custard filling. This recipe is for a Mediterannean-style Quiche, so I’ve used tomatoes, olives, spinach, onions and roasted red peppers.
You want to make sure that your ingredients are soft before you add them to the egg mixture, because they likely won’t get soft enough from baking in the oven alone. Additionally, pre-cooking the vegetables helps to render any liquid out of the ingredients to make sure that the Quiche comes out rich rather than watered-down.
Don’t be afraid to make the crust – it’s really very simple!
You’ll need something to weigh the pie crust down when you pre-bake it, such as pie weights, dry beans, or…. spare change. Yep, that’s right, I didn’t have pie weights or beans so I dug into the spare change jar on our counter.
Nothing but classy stuff goes on in my kitchen.
Once you’ve pre-baked your crust and set it aside to cool, you’ll go to work on making your filling. Saute the vegetables until soft and dry, then make the custard by first whipping together the half-and-half and the cream cheese.
See? I can measure.
(Token cream cheese shot)
Okay, once you’ve got those two nice and combined, beat in the eggs…
Then assemble the Quiche by spooning the vegetable filling into the crust and pouring the custard mixture over the top.
Pop it oven the oven for about 25-30 minutes, and you are good-to-go.
Let it cool for a bit, then sprinkle the top with a bit of Feta cheese. My mom loves to say that Feta makes everything fancy.
If you don’t have a lot of time, you could always use a frozen pie crust or the refrigerated kind that you just unroll and lay over a pie pan. I’ve definitely had days like that, but this time I felt like I just wanted to make it from scratch. It’s really a very satisfying thing to do. Plus, your kitchen will smell uh-may-zing while the pie crust is baking.
Although I guess it will smell like pie crust regardless of where you got the pie crust from. So, there’s that.
I’m definitely going to be making this for the husband and I to have as a breakfast quiche on Christmas morning. It holds up really well in the fridge, so I’ll probably make it the weekend before and have it all ready to go so we the husband can sleep in that morning.
Ready for a bite?
Mediterranean Quiche Recipe
Ingredients
For the Crust
- 8 ounces flour - about 1 ½ cups plus 2 tablespoons
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 c. 1 stick very cold butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
- 2 Tbsp. lard or shortening
- 3 Tbsp. ice water
For the Filling
- 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
- 1 c. sliced yellow onions
- 1/4 lb. roma tomatoes - seeded and diced
- 1 tsp. minced garlic
- 1/4 c. roasted red peppers - drained and chopped
- 3 c. baby spinach leaves
- 1/2 c. pitted and sliced kalamata olives
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
- 1 1/4 c. half-and-half
- 1/2 c. cream cheese
- 3 large eggs
- 1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
- 6 oz. Feta cheese - crumbled (divided - use half for topping)
Instructions
For the Crust
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
- Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl. Use a pastry cutter to incorporate the butter and shortening into the flour until the dough starts to come together and form small pea shapes. Work the ice water into the dough until it just comes together.
- Form the crust into a disk shape, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Once chilled, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and use a rolling pin to roll it out into an 11-inch circle. Lift up the dough and lay it into a 9-inch pie pan. Trim any excess overhang, and crimp the edges to fit the pan. Cover the bottom with a piece of parchment paper, then fill the pan with pie weights (or uncooked beans, rice, or spare change!), and bake for 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and remove the weights and parchment paper. Let cool slightly on a wire rack while you prepare the filling.
For the Filling
- Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sliced onions and diced tomatoes and cook for about ten minutes. Once the liquid has mostly evaporated and the onions are wilted, add the garlic and cook for another minute.
- Add the red peppers, spinach, and olives, and cook for about a minute or until the spinach is mostly dry. Season with the salt and pepper. Remove from the heat and let cool.
- Meanwhile, beat the half-and-half and cream cheese together in a large bowl. Once combined, beat in the eggs, then stir in the red pepper flakes and 3 ounces of the Feta cheese.
- Spoon the cooled vegetable mixture into the crust, then pour the egg mixture evenly over the top. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until set (still jiggly, but not liquid). Remove from the oven and let cool for 30 minutes before serving topped with remaining Feta cheese.
NOTES
Delicious and impressive! I will make again. Crust came out perfectly. The entire quiche is time and labor intensive if you aren’t used to making food with so many steps. End result is thick and creamy with wonderful Mediterranean vegetable flavors and flaky crust. Made for my Canasta group and everyone wanted the recipe. A keeper!
Hi Rhonda, so glad you and your group loved it! – Linda
can this be frozen?
Hi Robie,
Yes, you can freeze this baked quiche. Here is how you do it.
Step 1. Bake this quiche.
Step 2. Let it cool.
Step 3. Freeze it before wrapping. Put it on a baking sheet and place it into the freezer until the soft center freezes hard as ice. This is to freeze the filling, so that it won’t stick to the plastic wrap or freezer bag.
Step 4. Wrap the quiche. – It is best to wrap the quiche in two protective layers, to keep it safe from damage in the freezer. First, wrap the quiche up in plastic wrap, sealing it as tight as possible. Then wrap the quiche in a layer of aluminum foil or place in a freezer bag and seal with a little air in the bag as possible.
Step 5. Label. Label the quiche with the name of this recipe and the date of freezing.
Step 6. Freeze it. Put the wrapped quiche back in the freezer. I can be kept in the freezer for up to three months.
Step 7. Reheat. Remove the quiche from the freezer and unwrap it. Then, do not thaw (this will just make the crust soggy), but place it directly in a oven preheated to 350 degrees F. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until heated thoroughly.
– Linda
what a great idea! Thanks for sharing. Haven’t made many quiches before, but this one is right up my ally and worth a try. 🙂
Hi, Kenton! Thanks so much for the kind words. I love the idea behind your blog – I started following you on Twitter and Facebook. Can’t wait to see more of your beautiful recipes!
Did you “sanitize” the money first before using??
Nope, it is just resting on the parchment paper (not touching the food), and I figured that 375 degrees would take care of it 🙂 You can use beans, rice, or pie weights (like most people do!) instead of the spare change. I just thought it was silly and I wanted to share my embarrassing moment.