Mushrooms add “meatiness” to this quiche, creating a satisfying vegetarian meal. Recipe below.
YEARS AGO, CARLY SIMON’S SONG “ANTICIPATION” was brilliantly coopted for a Heinz Ketchup commercial, turning the frustration of their famously slow-flowing condiment into a delightful moment. For us, that anticipation could also be applied to quiche. One of the pleasures of making quiche is seeing leftover quiche in the fridge, wrapped in plastic and awaiting reheating. Yes, we made quiche again. And yes, seeing it in the fridge is making us quite happy.
The quiche in question is Mushroom Spinach Quiche, a satisfying vegetarian meal. If you’re trying to eat less meat—and we are—mushrooms are a silver bullet. They are naturally chewy and packed with earthy umami, and they readily take on flavors of whatever they’re cooked with—herbs, aromatics, sauces—creating a complex savory flavor.
One of our favorite meat substitutions we’ve done with mushrooms here is a dead-on convincing red eye “sausage”gravy for biscuits and gravy. In this quiche, the mushrooms don’t fool you into thinking you’re eating meat; they just make you not miss it.
We’re calling this weeknight quickish. Totally doable if you use a store-bought pie crust and you’re working from home, as we are, with no commute time. But you can always make it ahead and reheat it the next night. Serve it with a salad and you’ve got dinner.
Mushroom Spinach Quiche
Ingredients
- 1 store-bought pie crust, a deep 9-inch one, if frozen (see Kitchen Notes for other options, including a recipe for making your own)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium shallot, chopped—about 1/3 to 1/2 cup
- 2 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced (we used button—see Kitchen Notes)
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon or 1 teaspoon dry (optional, but nice)
- 5 ounces baby spinach, coarsely chopped
- salt
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 cup half & half
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1-1/2 cups coarsely grated Gruyere
- 1/4 cup coarsely grated Parmesan
Instructions
- Par-bake the crust. Preheat the oven to 375ºF. While the oven is heating, put the pie crust in its tin on the counter and let it thaw slightly, so you can prick it all over with a fork. Line the pie shell with foil or parchment paper, then weight it with dried beans or pie weights. Bake the crust until slightly golden on the edges, about 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack and remove weights, simply picking the foil or parchment at the corners.
- Meanwhile, make the filling. Heat the oil in a large sauté pan over medium flame. Add shallot and cook, stirring frequently, for a minute or two. Add mushrooms and toss to coat with oil. Add tarragon and toss to coat. Cook for about 3 minutes, turning the mushrooms halfway through.
- Add chopped spinach to pan, salt lightly and toss to combine every thing. Cover with a lid and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring once or twice. The mushrooms will release liquid, helping spinach cook down. Uncover pan and cook another 2 to 3 minutes, allowing excess liquid to cook off.
- Beat eggs in a bowl, then add half & half and beat to combine.
- Assemble and bake the quiche. Spread the Dijon mustard in the bottom of the crust (this is optional, but the mustard sharpens the cheese flavors without imparting its own taste). Put mushroom/spinach mixture into the crust and gently spread with a fork to evenly distribute it. Sprinkle cheese evenly over the filling. Pour the egg mixture over the top, using your fork to gently help it settle in around the filling.
- Transfer to the middle rack of the oven and bake the quiche until it has puffed up and is set and beautifully browned, about 25 to 35 minutes. You can test with a sharp knife to make sure the middle is set.
- Cool on a rack at least 10 minutes, then serve. You can also serve it room temperature, but I think warm is best. See Kitchen Notes about reheating leftovers.
Kitchen Notes
- Remove quiche from fridge and let it come to room temperature.
- If you’re just reheating a slice or two, cut those and transfer to a sheet of foil that will fit in the toaster oven on its wire rack. You might also put strips of foil over the crust edges to keep it from browning too much.
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Transfer quiche slices, still on the foil, into the oven. Heat until thoroughly warmed through, 10 to 20 minutes—you can remove the foil from the crust for the last few minutes to let it brown a little.
- If you're reheating an entire quiche, definitely use your oven; you can leave it in the pie plate to do it.
- Do NOT microwave your quiche. The crust will turn soggy.
Quiche is so good, and I’m SO out of the habit of making it. Really need to get back to it — such a tasty dish. I really like the mushroom/spinach combo. Good stuff — thanks.
Gruyere and mushrooms are a magical combination. This quickish quiche sounds delicious and practical for a weeknight.
John, we were out of the habit too, for too long. I’m glad we’re back now. Thanks!
Thanks for stopping by, Judee!
We tend to only make quiche for brunch. At least we always make two at a time and freeze one to have in a month or so, usually for dinner with a salad. At least we don’t only make them for holidays.
I have my own quiche “base” and our family favorite add-in is spinach. We’ll definitely be having it with the mushrooms. And I can’t wait to try the
Dijon!
I’ve yet to be disappointed with any of your recipes I’ve tried, Terry (and Marion.)
And I remember those commercials. And no squeeze bottles.
We’ve become addicted to five kinds of French supermarket pre-prepared pâtes: pizza (both round and rectangular); feuilletté with pure butter, brisée; sablée, which is wondrously thick and crunchy; and Brik, which is essentially filo but infinitely thinner and harder to work with, if you can imagine.
We use them all with abandon at all times of year. Yesterday I used a store-bought puff pastry to make a simple fig and goat cheese tart: roll out the pastry (it comes already on parchment paper, and you keep that on when baking), get out your best scalloped-edges ceramic tart pan and line it with the pastry and the parchment paper it comes in, stab it like a madwoman with a fork until no surface of it hasn’t been violated with dozens of jabs, and bake it in the oven at 180 for about 8 minutes; take it out of the oven and let it cool; slop on a jar of good-quality fig jam, cut up a log of good goat cheese into 3-cm slices and slap them on the top of the jam-topped pastry in whatever pattern amuses you. Go out to the garden and cit a few sprigs of rosemary and bring them inside and chop them finely à la Gordon Ramsay and sprinkle them all over the tart. Bake at 180C for about 10minutes until the already bronzed pastry shell is turning brown. Serve hot, at room temp, or cold; it doesn’t matter. Everyone will swoon.
I do the same with pâte brisée and fresh tomatoes and basil and these days with fresh asparagus and cèpes and for dessert pâte sablée with fresh raspberries and mascarpone.
i love a quiche and i love mushrooms. i use the ruth reichl recipe from her book my kitchen year.
Aw, thanks, Dani! I need to think about freezing quiche.
Mellen, we seriously need to come see you, just to shop, cook and eat with you guys.
Sherry, I need to look up that book.