Garden Vegetable Quiche

Yum

It's the height of summer. You have a garden and the plants are producing a bounty of vegetables. So far you've steamed, sauteed, grilled and coated and fried the vegetables so many times. What's next? Quiche of course!

What a wonderful addition this Garden Vegetable Quiche makes to a Brunch Menu. Perhaps you need to bring a food dish to a baby or wedding shower - this is it. How inexpensive as well.

When we finally sat down to eat this meal I asked my husband what he thought of the quiche. He said with a smile, "I thought quiche had eggs in it?" I loved it. Each vegetable added texture and lots of flavor along with the seasoned egg mixture.



(The night before we made BLT's with the first tomato pick of the season. I saved the bacon fat and used a bit of it to caramelize the onions and saute the vegetables until crisp, tender.)

• 1 ready to use pie shell (usually found in the freezer section)
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup half and half
• 1/2 cup shredded cheese
• a big handful of Parmesan cheese
• 2 summer yellow or zucchini squash (or a combo of each) medium dice
• 1 lrg. green bell pepper - small dice
• 1 red banana pepper - diced
• 1/3 cup sweet onion - small dice
• 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes - halved or whole tomato cut up
• salt and pepper to taste
• bacon fat or 2 tbsp. butter

Prepare all of the vegetables - including the onion.

Mix the four eggs with lots of cracked black pepper and the half and half until smooth and creamy. Then whisk in the Parmesan cheese.

To a deep skillet over medium heat, melt the fat. Add in the diced onion, and turn the heat to medium low and cook until the onions begin to caramelize. Grind some black pepper on top of the onions as well during the process. This takes around 15 minutes, so have patience. A good time to sip on a glass of wine.

Then take the rest of the diced vegetables - MINUS the tomatoes and saute until crisp tender.

Toss the tomatoes in last and stir and remove from the heat. Let the mixture cool down before adding to the egg mixture.

Get your pie shell ready to fill.  Place it on a foil lined baking sheet, then add in the vegetables, and the egg mixture.

Last, top with the cheese - use as much or as little as you like. I happen to have a Mexican blend of shredded cheese so I used that.

Preheat your oven to 425°. Bake the quiche for 15 minutes and lower the heat to 350° and bake for another 30 minutes or so until a knife inserted comes out clean and the pie shell is a golden brown.

Mine did fall apart when plating. Don't sweat the small stuff in life. Of course it may not have if I had taken a dainty slice; just look at the size portion I took for gosh sakes! Look at all those vegetables, just so tasty.