I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who didn’t like brunch. It’s like, Airport Rules…anything goes. You can have breakfast. Craving a burger? You can have that, too. Trying to kick that hangover? Mimosa or Bloody Mary is completely acceptable at 11am. It’s the best! I may also be a little biased, since breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. I love how it’s so versatile. You can go either savory or sweet, and feel completely satisfied afterwards. Contrary to my boyfriend’s opinion, you can even have breakfast for DINNER! Give me eggs in the morning, noon, or night, and I’ll be a happy girl.
A brunch specialty that I think is overlooked and severely underrated, is the quiche. It’s the best of both worlds of an omelette and a frittata, with a buttery flaky pie crust. It’s one of those meals where you can literally put ANYTHING inside, and it will taste so good and bake up beautifully.
I decided to do a spin off of potatoes and eggs, and then add some wilty green spinach and the salty bacon. Figured it would be the perfect combination, and it was!
A few weeks ago I made pop tarts using a recipe from Blue Bowl Recipe’s. I fell in love with the flaky pie dough that surrounded my homemade blueberry filling, and knew that I would be using this recipe for other things, like this quiche! I’ve linked her recipe here. She gives you AMAZING tips and tricks for making the perfect pie dough, which let’s be honest, like any sort of dough, can be suuuuper finicky. It’s a double recipe, so it’s more used for pies that have a bottom and top crust (I’m looking at you, apple pie). So if you only need one, like for this recipe, it’s the *perfect* opportunity to freeze the other half and always have homemade dough on hand!
Anytime you bake something that has vegetables, you always want to cook the vegetables separately first, before you bake it. That goes for any sort of stromboli, pizza roll, or omelette. Trust me on this, the outcome will be a world’s difference. So I started by sauteing the bacon and onion together, and adding the thinly sliced potatoes once the onions were translucent. I then added in the spinach, and cooked everything together so all of the flavors married.
Once that mixture is cooled, I whisk in my eggs, milk, and cheese along with the spinach mixture until it’s all combined, and poured it into my par-baked pie dough. I baked it for about 45 minutes, or until the eggs are set (all ovens are different). Both the spinach mixture and pie dough can be made ahead of time, even the day before. I kept my mixture in the fridge, and after I par-baked my pie dough in the pie plate, I tightly wrapped it with saran wrap, and it was perfect the next day, ready for the egg filling to be poured in.
Quiche is such a sophisticated, versatile dish. You can swap out any of the cheeses for something you like better. Mozzarella or Fontina would work great in here, or Parmesan instead of Pecorino. You can also add in vegetables (mushrooms would be a great addition) or omit the bacon if you’re vegetarian. Make it your own!! Enjoy!
Spinach, Bacon and Potato Quiche
Equipment
- 9″ Pie plate
Ingredients
Ingredients:
- Basic Pie Dough see recipe
- 1 package of frozen spinach thawed (or 4 cups of fresh spinach)
- 6 baby potatoes or 2 large russets – thinly sliced.
- 1/2 cup of Pecorino or Parmesan plus 1 tablespoon
- 1 small onion
- 1/2 cup of Pecorino plus more for topping
- 2 strips of bacon
- 1 cup of milk
- 1 cup of cheddar cheese plus 2 tablespoons
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley chopped
- 1 tablespoon fresh basil chopped
- Rosemary and thyme leaves few sprigs each, stems removed & chopped
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Instructions
Preparation:
- Using a paper towels or a clean kitchen towel, ring out the thawed spinach to get rid of the excess water.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Dice the onion and bacon, and sauté in the olive oil on medium heat. Once the bacon starts crisping and the onions turn translucent, add the potatoes in, and cook about 10 minutes until the potatoes are soft. The rendered bacon fat will help keep the sauté going. Add in the spinach and sauté together with some fresh pepper. Once it’s all combined and spinach is wilted, turn off the heat and cool. Add salt to taste.
- Crack the eggs in a large bowl, and whisk in the milk, 1 cup of cheddar, 1/2 cup of Pecorino, fresh herbs, and a dash of salt and pepper. Add in the cooled spinach mixture, and make sure everything is combined.
- Pour the eggs into your par-baked pie crust. Using the leftover residual egg from the bowl, brush the sides of the pie crust. Add remaining cheeses.
- Bake for 45 minutes, or until the eggs are set. Be mindful of the edges not getting too browned. If they start to, carefully cover the quiche with aluminum foil.
- Serve with a sprinkle of Pecorino and fresh parsley. It’s great right out of the oven, and can also be served room temperature!
That’s such a gorgeous quiche!! I’m glad you loved my pie crust recipe! Your kind words have me blushing. Happy baking!