Roasted Vegetable Quiche

On Sundays sometimes my friends and I get together at someone’s house for a potluck dinner, conversations and DVDs. We call this event “Sunday Club”. 


Around 70% of my friends are vegetarian so contributions to the potluck dinner are always vegetarian friendly.  My contribution to Sunday Club last night was a roasted vegetable quiche, we also had some cheese and crackers to start the night, creamy mushroom and leek soup, and chocolate mousse for desert. After dinnertimes we watched a DVD of clips from "Everything is Terrible” and we watched the worst music clip ever - “Room Service”!


It was my first time making a quiche, I read a few recipes and it looked pretty simple – pasty case + vegetables + egg, milk and cheese mixture, then bake. I didn’t follow a specific recipe, except for the quiche pastry case where I used a recipe from Food Safari and doubled the quantity as I had a larger pastry case. For the egg, milk and cheese mixture I found that most recipes used around 4 eggs to 1 cup of milk to around 170g of grated cheese and I used this as a guide and made everything else up as I went.

My quiche turned out pretty good.

Pastry
• 250g cold butter, diced
• 2 eggs yolks
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 500g plain flour, sifted
• rind from 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 3-4 tablespoons chilled water


(For a 10inch/26cm, 1.5 inch/4cm pastry case)


For something to make with excess dough cuttings - twisted pastry strips.


Method
Place the flour, salt and butter in a food processor and process until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Add the eggs, lemon rind, lemon juice, water (add the tablespoons of water in gradually until the mixture starts to cling together) and process until the mixture is combined and comes together. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and knead gently until smooth. Form into a disc, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 2-3 hours.


Preheat the oven to 175C. Roll out the pastry to 5mm thick and line a pastry case. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Prick the base of the pastry with a fork and line with baking paper, fill with pie weights and bake for 20 minutes, then remove the pie weights and baking paper and bake for another 20 minutes until the pastry is golden brown.


The pastry case for the quiche is done!


Quiche Filling
• olive oil
• red wine vinegar
• 1 carrot, chopped into chunks
• 2 small baby eggplants, chopped into chunks
• 2 red capsicums, cut into quarters
• 1 zucchini, chopped into chunks
• 6 mushrooms, sliced
• 2 shallots, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup cream
• 1-2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• nutmeg
• salt and pepper
• ~ 150g grated cheddar cheese


Method
Cut the capsicum into quarters and remove the seeds. Put the capsicum skins on a baking tray and roast for 20 minutes until the skin starts to brown. Remove from the oven, peel off the skin and chop the capsicum into chunks. 


Put the chopped carrot, eggplant and zucchini into a bowl – drizzle over some olive oil, add a dash of red wine vinegar, and season with salt and pepper. Roast veges on a baking tray for 15 minutes. Put all the roasted vegetables into a bowl.

Melt butter in a frying pan, add shallots and fry for few minutes until the shallots have soften, then add in garlic and mushrooms and cook for 8 minutes. Then add in 1 teaspoon paprika, 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, pinch of salt and pepper, thyme and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Remove pan from heat and set aside.

In a bowl add the eggs, mustard, pinch of salt and pepper, and a grating of nutmeg. Whisk to combine, then add in the cream and whisk until well combined and smooth. Stir in grated cheese.

Prepare quiche – 
• Spoon some egg/cheese mixture on the bottom of the quiche pastry case.
• Spoon roasted vegetables on top.
• Add the sauteed mushrooms on top of roasted vegetables.
• Pour remaining egg/cheese mixture on top.

Bake in oven at around 175C for about 40 minutes until set, when a knife inserted into the quiche comes out clean.