It’s a fact that meatless meals are an easy way to contribute to less waste. This doesn’t mean that we have to go all in and become vegetarians. Michael Pollan talks about how if we all went vegetarian, that would cause some issues in itself. However, we can incorporate maybe 2-3 vegetarian meals per week to help with waste. So where do we start? Yeah, we know how to make a salad and a handful of veggie sides but a whole vegetarian meal? Well, it doesn’t come as naturally to us carnivores. I want to dedicate some posts this next month or two to help you out. My hope is that the meals will be “weekday meals,” meaning they won’t take a lot of time or effort, and tasty enough that your family won’t miss a night without meat. I should warn you that I don’t create original recipes. Why would I waste my time doing that when there are better people out there already doing that? However, I do adapt recipes to better fit my tastes so that’s what you will often see here.

The first meal I want to start with is quiche! I love this quiche so much that even though I am constantly riffing on it, I never change the base recipe. For this recipe, you can throw in an obscene combination of veggies, topped with cheese (goat is what I always use) and finish it with a mixture of egg, milk, salt and nutmeg, (yes, I said nutmeg. It’s brilliant in this quiche.) and you’ve got yourself one of the most indulgent dinners out there.

Some veggies that I’ve used include: caramelized or sautéed onions, mushrooms, asparagus, tomatoes, spinach, bell peppers, and zucchini. I would choose maybe a combination of 2-4 veggies per quiche. You want to make sure you taste each flavor. I sauté most veggies except tomatoes and those, I deseed. Otherwise, there will be too much liquid and you will be baking that thing for days to get the middle cooked through. Also, I make my own pie crust. This is best practice for less waste. I understand that this isn’t always doable after walking in from work in the evening so might I suggest taking 10 minutes on Saturday or Sunday to make a double batch of pie crust dough, one to use for the quiche later that week and one to freeze for another time? You won’t regret taking that 10 minutes.

Here’s my take on the recipe. I got the original from the no-longer-in-existence food blog “The Spoon and I.”

Versatile Veggie Quiche

• 1 pie crust (homemade is preferable but I get it if you just can’t.)
• 2 cups sautéed veggies (see above for veggie options)
• 4-6 oz goat cheese or other cheese of your choice
• 6 eggs
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• Salt to taste (for me, this usually ends up being about 1 tsp during veggie sautéing, and 1 to 1.5 tsp in the egg/milk mixture) Remember, you can always add salt at the end if you didn’t put enough in during the cooking so don’t overdo it. As you make this more often, you will learn how much to add during the cooking process so hopefully you won’t have to add more at the end.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Place the pie crust in pie dish and score side and bottom.
3. Sauté the veggies in olive oil and salt as needed (keep in mind that most veggies shrink when sautéing and you want about 2 cups of sautéed veggies in the end)
4. Layer veggies on top of pie crust.
5. Sprinkle goat cheese (or other cheese) on top.
6. In separate bowl, whisk eggs, milk, nutmeg, and salt.
7. Pour egg mixture over veggies.
8. Place in preheated oven for about 30-35 minutes, checking after 20 minutes to see if the top is getting too done. If it is, place some aluminum foil over it so the top stops cooking but the middle continues to cook.
9. It is done when you pull it out and the middle doesn’t jiggle. (Sorry that sounds a little gross but it is an accurate description.)

Some easy sides that work well with this are potatoes in some form (sweet potato fries, baked potatoes, tater tots, etc.) and buttered peas or asparagus or corn, steamed broccoli with grated Parmesan, or roasted brussel sprouts or roasted beets/avocado/arugula salad with olive oil. Whatever you have time for.

And of course some fresh fruit and/or a fruit smash seltzer really have a way of rounding out the meal.

Let me know if you have any questions and have fun making this recipe your own by putting your own twist on it!