Spinach Mushroom & Cheese Quiche

It is 3pm in the afternoon and I send an email home to say I don’t think we have enough leftovers for dinner.   My daughter throws out a couple of ideas including a quiche.  Easy, very adaptive and light.  Those are good characteristics for creativity and a low-fat meal.  It is also a good way to clear the fridge of leftovers.

So where did quiche originate?  France?  Come on, what do you think?  Say it, France.  It has to be France.  The word quiche is French.  Alright, You want to know?  The answer is Germany.  What I researched said that it developed in the German medievel Kingdom of Lothringen.  The French eventually occupied the land and renamed it Lorraine – hence the familiar name of quiche Lorraine.  The word quiche derived from the German word “kuchen” meaning cake.

Ingredients – crust adapted from food.com:

1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup olive oil or 1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup ice water

6 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup of skim milk

1/2 bag of baby spinach

6 mushrooms

1 shallot

1/4 Orange pepper, diced

1/2 cup of Mexican cheese

1 tbsp canola oil

1 tsp each salt, pepper and paprika
Directions:

Mix flour and salt.  Beat oil and water with whisk to merge.  Pour the wet ingredients into flour and mix.  Put into 9″ dish pressing the dough down and up the sides.  (We increased the original recipe by 1/2 to get enough dough.)

Heat the oil in a skillet and cook the shallot for 1 minute.  Add in the mushrooms and cook for 2 minutes.  Season with salt, pepper and paprika.   Next, add the spinach and cook until wilted (just means until it shrinks).

In the last minute, add the orange pepper to soften just a little bit.

In a bowl, beat the eggs with the milk.  Add the vegetables, cheese to the eggs and mix.  Next, pour the quiche mixture into your crust

and bake at 400F until done.  It took about 15 – 18 minutes.  With about 2 minutes left of cooking, top the quiche with a light sprinkling of the cheese.

Enjoy!