Quiche is one of those meals that sounds fancy, but is actually so easy to make! It’s perfectly customizable for whatever vegetables you have on hand, but the combination of tomato, zucchini, and fresh basil makes a delicious meal. Serve this tomato, zucchini, and basil quiche up at your next brunch and everyone will be asking for seconds. 

THE INGREDIENTS: 

Pie Crust: Whether you use homemade pie crust, store-bought pie crust, or even go without it, this quiche will turn out delicious! This recipe requires just one pie crust that will go on the bottom of the pan. It provides a wonderful crunch which goes very well with the smooth texture of the egg mixture (and let’s be real, we all love some carbs). 

Eggs: The star of our show! It’s not a quiche without some eggs. Eggs have two important parts, the yolk and the egg white. The yolk is where the dense texture of baked goods comes from. Too many egg yolks makes a quiche overly dense. So, if you up the eggs in this recipe, you risk losing that smooth texture that the current egg to dairy ratio in this recipe gives. We already have a pretty high ratio, as the standard is 1 egg per ½ a cup of added dairy. This means that if you like your quiche even more custardy, you should be able to reduce it to a minimum of 2 eggs, but we believe it is best with 3-4 eggs due to our usage of sour cream (Read more below!)

Sour Cream: A traditional quiche does not actually use sour cream! For added dairy, it is usually a combination of cream and milk. However, there are two methods behind our madness. The first is that sour cream actually results in a wonderfully smooth texture without the need to add as much dairy. If this recipe were 4 eggs to 1 cup of milk, it would definitely be too dense for most people’s liking. We would replace the sour cream with anywhere between 1 cup and 1 and a ½ cups of milk. Now, why is this? It’s because sour cream is much fattier than milk! Healthline provides wonderful nutrition information for both milk and sour cream. Whole milk will get you about 3.25% milk fat, whereas sour cream comes in at a whopping 19%! Even if you use the low-fat sour cream, you’re still having a milk fat percentage around 12%. The second method to our madness is that we always seem to have a half-empty container of sour cream in our fridge, so we and many others are probably plagued by the question of “what do we do with this?”! Quiche is the answer. 

Milk: When it comes to the texture of quiche, the fattier the milk, the better! We recommend using the highest fat milk you have on hand, but you can still use skim milk if that is all you have. Also keep in mind that plant-based milks are generally lower in fat. To preserve a custardy-texture, you can reduce the eggs down from 4 to 3 to make up for the lack of dairy fat being added to the quiche. An amazing replacement for milk would also be cream. If all you have on hand is sour cream, you can try replacing the milk with about ¼ cup of sour cream. 

Cheddar Cheese: Cheddar cheese adds a wonderful amount of flavor and pairs well with eggs and dairy in a quiche. We do not recommend reducing the amount of cheese in this recipe, or else your quiche will not be as flavorful. However, if you prefer a cheese-less quiche, you can make up for flavor by adding another cup of mix-ins to your quiche. Cheddar cheese may be a classic breakfast cheese, but mozzarella goes very well with tomatoes and basil, so make the swap if that is what you have on hand. In fact, you can use just about any cheese you want. Keep in mind what vegetables are going in the quiche and decide what cheese you think pairs well with them. 

Salt: A necessity! Salt keeps your meal from tasting “flat” or missing that savory flavor. However, everyone has their own preferences for salt, so adjust to your liking. 

Black Pepper: Black pepper adds a small “zing” to the quiche and really helps contribute to the flavor. Like with most spices, everyone has their own preferences, so adjust as desired! 

Garlic Power: Although fresh garlic is better in many applications, this is a time we are actually reaching for the garlic powder! Being in power-form, it distributes itself more easily throughout the quiche. It also saves you time-no peeling and mincing today! We don’t find the amount we have added to the quiche to be overwhelming, so you can increase it just a tad if you’re a garlic person. 

Onion Powder: Just like garlic powder, onion powder also distributes itself more evenly throughout the quiche. In addition to that, however, we have texture in mind when it comes to onions. Onions usually add a good deal of moisture to your baked meals, such as meatloaf. However, we don’t want that moisture ruining our quiche’s texture. If you want to add fresh onions to your quiche, we recommend pre-cooking or even caramelizing them for a lovely onion flavor without the wetness.  

Tomatoes: If we aren’t adding fresh onions because they can make our quiche wet, why are we adding tomatoes? In this recipe, we are careful not to over-do it with the tomatoes, meaning our quiche’s texture is unaffected. We use either 2 small roma tomatoes or 1 medium roma tomato, giving us around ¾ cup of diced tomatoes. We definitely would not exceed 1 cup of diced tomatoes in this recipe. 

Zucchini: Zucchini goes very well in this recipe, giving us nice, crisp bites of fresh flavor. We do not recommend dicing the zucchini as it is more likely to get lost and is more prominent sliced. We also do not recommend dramatically increasing the amount of zucchini in this recipe, as it could make our meal soggy. However, if you have other vegetables on hand, now is the time to make some substitutions. A bell pepper about to go old? Welcome to the party! Mushrooms, spinach, kale, even broccoli-come on in! Keep in mind how moist your vegetables are and consider pre-cooking them.

Basil: Even though there is only a tablespoon, basil makes its presence known! You don’t have to worry about the meal being bland, between all of these mix-ins, spices, and now fresh herbs. We recommend using fresh basil or basil paste as the flavor of dried basil is not nearly as prominent. If you have to, however, the best conversion is 1 teaspoon of dried basil per tablespoon of fresh basil. 

Parsley: Parsley is such a versatile herb that tastes delicious in rich meals like this one. Although it is weaker than basil in flavor, it still has a nice, distinct taste. If you are unable to add fresh parsley or parsley paste to this recipe, we do not recommend replacing it with dried parsley unless you want the appearance of your quiche to be more herby. Dried parsley is relatively flavorless compared to its fresh counterpart. We’ve left it out before-still delicious! 

KEY INFORMATION: 

Pre-Baking Pie Crust: If you don’t pre-bake your pie crust, you risk a delicious meal ruined by soggy, undercooked dough. Once your pie crust is in your pan, we recommend blind-baking it. We personally go for 425 F and have found that it takes about 10-15 minutes. If you don’t want to just consider the time, however, wait until the edges start to have a golden-brown tint! Before pre-baking, you can also poke your dough with a fork to prevent your dough from puffing up. 

Layering Your Quiche: Why do we add half of the zucchini in the middle and half on the top? Quite simply, because it doesn’t all fit on the very top. If you just have the top layer of zucchini, you really aren’t getting too much zucchini per serving. Feel free to customize what goes in the middle of your quiche-it will be a nice surprise to bite into! 

Don’t Add Everything at Once!: We’ve all been there. We read the ingredients list and figure we can wing the rest. As small as it might seem, it is really important to mix the eggs, milk, and sour cream together before adding the mix-ins. Otherwise it gets very difficult and you have to put in a lot of effort to make sure you don’t have sour cream chunks in your quiche. 

Good Ways to Use Up Veggies You Already Have: Recipes can almost always be tweaked to use up what you already have. Nearly any vegetable will go in a quiche, just take into consideration the amount and how wet are the vegetables you are adding. Some vegetables, like onions or mushrooms, are best pre-cooked in your quiche. Broccoli and especially cauliflower, if not cut into small pieces, might also need to be cooked beforehand. You can even mix up the flavor-if basil wont go well with what you have, but other herbs will, go ahead and make the swap! As long as you keep the eggs, milk, and sour cream, this recipe is quite changeable without having to worry about any cooking fails. 

What Goes With Quiche?: What main meal doesn’t benefit from some sides? When we’re feeling healthy, we like to pair our quiche with fresh fruit (those tiny mandarins are the best!) or even a side salad. Otherwise, breakfast potatoes or some form of toast are staples around here. If you need a bit more protein to balance your carbs, go ahead and pair it with some breakfast meats: think turkey bacon or some kind of sausage. 

Crustless Quiche: Whether you don’t like the flavor of pie crust or you just want to lower your carb intake for this meal, crustless quiche is the way to go! All you have to do is skip the pie crust preparation steps in this recipe and you’re all set. No other alterations needed. 

Does Quiche Taste “eggy”? Honestly, no! The eggs combine with all of the other ingredients to have a more custardy, unique flavor. If you don’t want the flavor of eggs to be overly apparent, don’t let yourself think this recipe isn’t for you! If you are looking for that distinct “eggy” flavor, however, we recommend going for a frittata. There is far less dairy per each egg. 

Is Quiche Healthy? Everyone has different nutritional needs! However, with the presence of protein and vegetables in this dish, we’d say this is a safe option if you’re looking for clean eating choices. The presence of cheese, sour cream, and milk means that this is not a low-fat meal. 

SOURCES TO CONSIDER: 

Arnarson, Atli. “Milk 101.” Healthline, Healthline Media, 13 June 2023, www.healthline.com/nutrition/milk.

Hill, Ansley. “Is Sour Cream Healthy? Nutrients and Benefits.” Healthline, Healthline Media, 5 Oct. 2020, www.healthline.com/nutrition/is-sour-cream-healthy#nutrients.