When I first started recipe shopping for this week I immediately thought of pasta dishes, and Mexican dishes and Asian, because that's what I typically crave. I happened to mention my plans to my friend Catherine, however, and she immediately shouted Quiche. To be honest, I've never really given any thoughts to quiches, I never really order them out and I've never had a quiche craving. That said, its a perfect non-j-friendly dish and you can make them out of anything. So I thought I'd give it a try.
Cheesy Pesto Quiche with an Oatmeal Crust.
As per my usual, I turned to Foodgawker to get a couple of ideas and right off the bat I found this beauty of a recipe. Needless to say I was hooked. Its a quiche, its cheesy, its pesto-y and it has an oatmeal crust. Yum. and 100% not j-friendly. A quick trip to the store and a few substitutions later I was ready to go.
Pesto Quiche
Ingredients:
for the crust-
-3/4 cup old-fashioned oats
-1/2 cup whole wheat flour
-3 tbsp butter
-3 tbsp milk
-pinch of salt
for the filling-
-3 eggs
-3 egg whites
-2 tbsp milk
-2 tbsp pesto
-freshly ground pepper
-1/2 large onion, diced
-1 small red pepper, diced
-1/3 cup baby bella mushrooms, sliced
-1/3 cup arugula leaves, rinsed
-2/3 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
I started with the crust:
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
In a food processor, combine oats, salt and flour.
Pulse until mixed.
Add butter, cut into cubes and pulse until crumbly.
Add milk and pulse until it starts to form a ball.
Place your crust dough between 2 pieces of wax or parchment paper, I had to smush mine together into a rough ball first.
Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough into a circle roughly the size of your pie pan.
It doesn't have to be exact (or pretty).
Oil your pie pan and carefully upend your crust into the pan.
Fiddle with the edges now, to make it pretty :) Bake the crust for 8-10 minutes.
Then remove and lower the oven to 350 degrees.
Meanwhile...
For the filling:
You need 3 eggs and 3 egg whites.
Add the milk and the pesto and beat well.
Slice your red pepper.
And onion.
And mushrooms. (I cheated and used pre-sliced)
Heat a little olive oil in a skillet and add veggies. Saute until soft.
About 8-10 minutes.
Add pepper to your eggs.
Now, to combine it all together:
Line the bottom with the cheese.
Add the arugula.
Then the veggies.
And lastly, the egg mixture. Toss it in the oven for 35 minutes (remember at 350-not 400).
When its set, its done!
Catherine was right and this was an excellent idea. Plus, now I have lunch for the rest of the week!
