What is Quiche

Quiche is a kind of pie recipe. It is made by stuffing a mixture of meat, bacon or vegetable, onion, cheese etc. on a pie or pastry crust and pouring a mixture of eggs and cream on top and baking it in the oven.

The word ‘quiche’ is from the German ‘Kuchen’, meaning cake.Although quiche is now a classic dish of French cuisine, quiche actually originated in Germany.Today, one can find many varieties of quiche, from the original quiche, to ones with broccoli, mushrooms, ham and/or seafood (primarily shellfish). Quiche can be served as an appetizer, for lunch, breakfast or an evening snack.

Chickpea Vegetable Quiche

I made the pie crust with chickpea flour and ghee as I want to avoid maida or all purpose flour. And it gives excellent result. My whole house was flavoured with the aroma of pie crust while baking . I had some colourful vegetables and greens in my kitchen and used them to make the stuffing. The final result was very satisfying.

Recipe

• Preparation time: 30 min
• Baking time: 40 min
• Serves: 6
• Difficulty level: Medium

Ingredients for crust

• 1 cup Chickpea flour
• 1/4th cup Wheat flour
• 4 tablespoon  Ghee
• 1/4th teaspoon Salt
• 1/4th teaspoon red Chilli powder
• Chilled water as requred

Ingreients of  filling or stuffing

• 1 small size green capsicum
• 1 small size red capsicum
• 1 large size onion
• 1 small piece of purple cabbage
• 2 tablespoon green peas(I used frozen)
• 2 tablespoon sweet corn( I used frozen)
• 2 tablespoons blanced and minced spinach
• 4-5 cherry tomatoes (halved)
• 1 teaspoon chilli flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon kasuri methi
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Salt to taste
• 2 tablespoons grated cheese

For the liquid filling(egg mixture)

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup  cooking cream(you can use fresh cream)
• 1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes
• 1 pinch nutmeg powder
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 tablespoon of chopped coriander leaves

Method

To make the pie crust, first put together chick pea flour, wheat flour, chilli powder, kasuri methi and salt  into a bowl.

Mix together. Add in ghee and mix together with your finger tips. Make a breadcrumb like crumbly mixture.

Now make a rough dough with a little bit of chilled water.

No need to be too smooth, the dough will be a little stiff.  I used 1/4thcup of water to make the dough.  Your case may be a little more or less.

Cover and leave the dough in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Keep   pie dish(7″size)ready by brushing some oil.

Take the pie dough out of the refrigerator after 15 minutes  and roll it to 1/4th inch thick  round disk.

Now transfer the sheet to the pie dish and spread by pressing them on sides and bottom of the dish.Trim the sides.

Prick the base of the pie with a fork so that it will not puffed up while baking.

Now cut the baking paper or foil into rounds and place it on the base of the pie.

Spread some dry beans like rajma/kidney beans over the butter paper/foil. This will prevent from swelling up the base of the pie crust while baking.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C for 10 mins. 

Bake the pie crusts for 15-20 minutes (until the side of the pie turns a little reddish).  This is called blind baking.

After cooling, remove the butter paper/foil and dry bins.

Now for the filling, chop the vegetables thin long strips. Also chop onion.

Heat 1 tablepoon oil in a non-stick pan and add in chopped onion. Saute until onions become translucent.

Add in the vegetables and cook on high heat for 3-4 minutes. Also add in green peas ,corn and minced spinach.

Stir well with salt,  chili flakes, nutmeg powder and kasuri methi  for more 2-3 minutes.

At last add in cherry tomatoes. Remove from heat.

Take the baked tart and spread grated cheese at the base of the tart.

Spread the prepared fillings over the cheese.

Break 2 eggs in a bowl.Beat well with a fork and add 1/2 cup of  of cream, chilli powder, nutmeg powder , chopped coriander leaves and salt.

Now pour this mixture over the filling of the pie.

Keep them  again in the preheated oven at 180 degrees C and bake until a little golden color.  I baked for 20 minutes.

Delicious and healthy quiche is ready now. Your house will fill with nice aroma of baked quiche.

Cut in triangles and serve warm as snack, side dish for lunch or even as breakfast. You will fill little crunch of the crust with creamy fillings and wonderful flavour.