Hey! Welcome to my site! I’m excited to share this Mega Veggie Quiche Recipe with you! It’s loaded with so many vegetables yet they aren’t even noticeable! Who will like this quiche? Both people who like veggies and those who don’t. This quiche is for all because it’s loaded with vegetables! What a great way to get stocked up on veggies in your diet right away in the morning than with a Mega Veggie Quiche that is filled with vegetables. This recipe is low in carbs too, and the veggies are the crust or bottom layer of the quiche. It’s a winner meal with my family of five! Plus, I get my boys to eat more vegetables and that’s a win too!
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Making a Quiche…It’s a Breakfast Casserole!
I’m in Minnesota, and a “hot dish” or casserole is a common meal for many families in our culture. The quiche is basically a casserole for breakfast, so yeah, more casseroles! They’re not just for dinner! They are an easy meal to make that is often loaded with vegetables and protein, and often grains too. Fruit is not a food group often seen in casseroles, at least not in Minnesota (though tomatoes are the exception to this rule)! True you might find a bit of pineable or apple or something, but the other food group are more commonly found in casseroles. Minnesota is a hot dish obsessed state! We love our casseroles.
Moreoever, as a busy mome, I like casseroles. And I’m including quiches here in the casseroles category because at the end of the meal, there’s generally just the one pan to clean. Whoop! And sometimes, when we have leftovers, the leftovers stay in the pan. It’s easy peasy because they just get wrapped up so there are no dishes to do at the end! Woohoo! I often will wash up my prep dishes while the quiche/casserole is cooking so that I can just enjoy the meal with my family and the clean-up is majorly easy. A one-pan meal is my favorite way to go for family meal time!
Eggs for Dinner! This Quiche for Dinner!
This quiche works great for dinner or even lunch/brunch as well. It’s loaded with 10 eggs, skim milk, cheese, and cottage cheese so it’s high in protein. It’s loaded with cauliflower, mushrooms, onions, peppers, and wheat germ so it’s high on the fiber scale as well. Eggs for dinner are a great option anyway they are fixed. But in a casserole, it’s again the beauty of a one-pan recipe. It’s a juicy quiche and not at all dry.
I adore this because it’s so versatile as a dinner meal as well because I can add meat for the meat-eating members of my family. This makes it one of my hybrid recipes.
What’s a hybrid recipe you ask?
A hybrid recipe is one I call hybrid because it feeds both vegetarians and meat-eaters in one recipe. When cooking for a split table (also see How to Cook for a Split Table of Vegetarians and Meat Eaters ), like I do every day for my family, the cook must figure out how to make the meal work for both types of diets. This can be a challenge with meat-lovers and vegetarians. In this type of recipe, I simply add the meat last to the dish to just one half or three-quarters of the dish, depending on which of my family members are going to be eating the meal. This recipe is a simplistic malleable approach to feeding a split table of eaters.
In this recipe, I use ham chunks. I add it to half the pan, unless I know I will need more meat portions, then I’ll likely do three-quarters of the pan. I’m the vegetarian, so based on if I’m going to be the one eating the leftovers, then I’d likely make just half the pan with meat, or even less. With teen boys whose schedules constantly change, it can be hard to plan meals! They are always on the go and we never know when things will change.
Want more hybrid meal ideas? Check out my cookbook: Hybrid Recipes One Dish Two Diets: The Cookbook Reviews
Get my cookbook here, available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook (I narrated it): https://amzn.to/3QCDcoA
Ingredients for the Mega Veggie Quiche Recipe
What ingredients will you need? Here’s the list!
- 8 ounces coarsely chopped fresh mushrooms
- 1/4 cup finely diced onion
- 1 tablespoon chia seeds
- 1/2 cup wheat germ
- 12 ounces riced cauliflower (cooked per package instructions)
- 1 tablespoon butter (to cook mushrooms and onion in)
- 1 tablespoon water
- 2 cups shredded cheddar jack cheese
- 1/2 cup cottage cheese
- 10 eggs
- 1 cup skim milk
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground marjoram
- 1 pepper chopped (any color but I like to use red)
- 1/2 teaspoon ground thyme
- 1 cup cubed ham (optional)
- 1 teaspoon walnut or olive oil (why these oils? keep reading to find out why).
Instructions to make this Mega Veggie Quiche Recipe
This is an easy recipe to make. There’s chopping, sauteeing, and combining of ingredients, then pop it in the oven. There’s nothing difficult or overly intricate nor heavy on the labor components, it’s simple. I like simple! As a busy mom, I also like easy! And good! The three main criteria I often consider as the top most important ones for when I’m cooking for my family.
Please note: the prep for this recipe usually takes me about 45 minutes to an hour. Then add on the cooking time of one hour so about two hours in all are needed to make this mega veggie quiche recipe.
The How-to-do it:
- Cook the onions in a tablespoon of butter until soft, then add the mushrooms to the pan. Cook until both are cooked and soft.
- Add 1 tablespoon of chia seeds to a bowl. Add 1 tablespoon of water. Stir.
- Add cooked mushrooms and onions to the bowl with chia seeds and water. Set the bowl aside to sit (the seeds will soften and absorb water as it sits).
- Cook the riced cauliflower according to the instructions on the package. Add the cooked hot cauliflower to the mushroom/onions/chia seed mixture. Stir.
- Add 1/2 cup wheat germ to the bowl. Stir.
- Grease a 9×13 inch glass baking dish with walnut or olive oil. I spread it around the pan with a paper towel to coat all the surfaces inside the dish.
- Press and flatten the vegetable mixture in the greased dish. I use the back of a large serving spoon for this.
- Scramble 10 eggs with 1 cup of skim milk in a bowl. Thoroughly scramble them until they are fully mixed. Stir in cottage cheese. I use a hand blender to mix it well.
- Add 1/2 teaspoon salt, marjoram, and thyme to the egg and milk mixture. Blend well. I like to use an electric hand blender (or manual) to get the herbs and spices as evenly distributed as possible.
- Immediately pour the egg mixture over the vegetable layer in the pan.
- Sprinkle 2 cups of cheddar jack cheese evenly across the pan.
- Sprinkle in the red pepper chunks evenly across the pan.
- Press ham chunks slightly into the quiche for one-half or three-quarters of the pan with your fingers.
- Cook quiche for 60 minutes at 350 degrees. Quiche is done when a knife is inserted in the center and comes out clean. Let the quiche sit for 10 minutes. Cut and serve.
Leftovers!
My husband and I love leftovers. We both work from home so leftovers mean easy lunches! Our kids are less enthused about leftovers, but for us, they are a gift! Such different perspectives in life right? It’s funny to me how kids are not as into leftovers. They want something fresh and new for the most part. I love the easy heat up of a leftover casserole or quiche. This quiche is good as a leftover. If we ever can’t eat all the leftovers, I freeze them in single portions. This is a great idea because then we have a single-serve frozen ready-made meal! It just makes eating lunch during a busy work day so much easier, efficient, and good at the same time!
Olive Oil, Walnut Oil, or Avocado Oil are Good Fat Choices to Cook With
Above I promised to let you know why I suggested you use olive oil or walnut oil in this recipe (FYI avocado oil is good too). These oils are healthier for humans to consume. The vegetable and canola oils that are so prevalent on grocery store shelves in the US are actually less healthy for people. I’ve recently learned this fact in talking with people who are health and dietary professionals. So as a result, I’ve really started using a lot of olive oil in my cooking, in addition to walnut oil, and avocado oil. I’ve completely ditched using vegetable oil, canola oil, peanut oil, and coconut oil completely. I hadn’t realized that vegetable oil and canola oil are actually bad oils to use. And I’ve even been trying to avoid all foods with these oils in them.
What makes olive oil, walnut oil, and avocado oils better to cook with? Both olive oil and avocado oil are good fats, monounsaturated fats, and they contain antioxidants. I’ve heard overall olive oil has the most benefits. Walnut oil has way more healthy omega 3 fat than olive oil and it has polyunsaturated fats. Olive oil tends to be easier to find and cheaper than avocado and walnut oil. Even though these oils tend to be more expensive than the vegetable and canola oils, the health benefits you will get from cooking with them will by far outweigh the cost difference. It’s totally worth spending the extra money on these oils.
Mega Veggie Quiche
Ingredients
- 8 ounces mushrooms, fresh
- 1/4 cup onion
- 1 tbsp chia seeds
- 1 tbsp water
- 1/2 cup wheat germ
- 12 ounces cauliflower, riced
- 1/2 cup cottage cheese
- 10 eggs
- 1 cup skim milk
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground marjoram
- 1/2 tsp ground thyme
- 1 red pepper
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 cup ham chunks
Instructions
- Cook onions in a frying pan with 1 tablespoon melted butter until soft. Add coarsely chopped mushrooms to the pan. Cook until both vegetables are soft
- Add 1 tablespoon of chia seeds to a bowl. Add 1 tablespoon of water. Stir. Set aside so seeds can soften and absorb water.
- Cook riced cauliflower according to the instructions on the package. Add cooked cauliflower to the mushroom/onion mixture. Stir.
- Add 1/2 cup wheat germ. Then stir.
- Grease a 9/13 inch glass baking dish with 1 teaspoon olive oil or walnut oil. Use a paper towel to spread it all across the inside surfaces of the dish.
- Press and flatten the vegetable mixture into greased baking dish. Use a large serving spoon to flatten the mixture evenly across the dish.
- Scramble 10 eggs with 1 cup skim milk using a hand mixer. Stir in cottage cheese.
- Add 1/2 teaspoon each of salt, ground marjoram, and ground thyme to the egg and milk mixture. Mix with a hand blender to evenly distribute herbs and spices in the mixture. Pour this mixture over the vegetable mixture in the pan.
- Sprinkle 2 cups shredded cheddar jack cheese evenly across the dish.
- Sprinkle diced bell pepper evenly across the dish.
- Press 1 cup ham chunks into half or three-quarters of the pan to make it a hybrid dish for both meat-eaters and vegetarians.
- Cook quiche at 350 degrees for 60 minutes. Quiche is done when a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Let quiche sit for 10 minutes. Cut and serve.
Nutrition
Enjoy this Mega Veggie Quiche!
Thank you for reading this post! I sincerely hope you enjoy this recipe. Get all the veggies you can in your daily diet, and this recipe helps with that immensely! Please let me know if you liked it or not. I’d love to hear from you about your experience with it. Enjoy and have a wonderful day!
More quiche recipes: Hawaiian Bread Spinach Quiche
Low Carb Quiche with a Mushroom Whole Wheat Crust
Hybrid English Muffin Bread Tofu and Ham Quiche
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