Broccolini Quiche with Potato Rosemary Crust (Gluten-Free)

Dear Readers,
I love a good quiche. What's not to like? Eggs, cheese, veggies, and a buttery crust. Yum. Yum. Yum. Quiche is perfect for breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner. It's leftover keep well for me to nibble on all week.

My co-worker Kelly & her partner operate Happy Tortoise Farm on Sauvie Island and I'm getting fresh delicious eggs from their flock every week. Once you've had fresh eggs, there is no going back. The yolks are an amazing shade of bright orange and incredibly dense. When you whisk fresh eggs they have a completely different texture and a brightness of color that store bought eggs can not compare. With these beautiful eggs I was eagerly planning a quiche recipe for this week.

Then my friend Carrye forwarded me a link about a gluten-free quiche crust challenge from the blog "The Gluten-Free Homemaker." Game on. I'm up for a good challenge. Rather than construct a standard pie crust-flour, butter, cold water with a gluten free flour I went for the extraordinary. I created a gluten-free pie crust out of grated red skin potatoes, fresh rosemary from my herb garden, toasted pecans, and of course butter. It's flavors are amazing. The edges of the crust peaking up above the custard get toasted brown & crunchy tasting like heavenly little potato chip bites. And, while this gluten-free crust doesn't have the same flaky consistency of a flour based pie crust, I believe it totally holds it own.

For the filling I choose broccilini, because it just looked so seductive in the produce market. Often my ingredients choose me. It's rarely the other way around. It seems they see me coming a mile away and put on their best and freshest faces. Broccolini is basically a type of broccoli with loose flowerettes, rather than forming a tight head like typical broccoli. I combined the broccolini with bright gold ribbed swiss chard and mushrooms. For cheese I choose Chevre, because it's creaminess is a perfect compliment to the eggs in the custard. And Asiago cheese for it's nutty flavor.

This recipe is a little labor intensive, taking in total about 2 hours to prep, cook, and bake. It might be a little quicker for you if you aren't taking photos and writing notes every step of the way. Ha! Everything in my kitchen takes longer. Thankfully, it's a labor of love.

If you take the gluten-free quiche crust challenge and create your own recipe, be sure to leave me a link in your comments. I'd love to check it out. Have a wonderful day.

In Health,
Miss Jolie Ann









Broccolini Quiche with Potato-Rosemary Crust
Makes 6 servings

Gluten-Free Crust:
3 red skin potatoes
1/4 of a red onion
1 tsp fresh rosemary, minced
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp toasted pecans
1 beaten egg
2 tbsp butter
1/4 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Mix

Filling:
1/2 purple onion, minced
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
sea salt & black pepper
1 bunch broccolini, chopped, about 2 cups
8 mushrooms, coarsely chopped
2 large swiss chard leaves, stems & greens chopped
1 tsp lemon zest
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/4 cup Asiago cheese, grated

Custard:
6 eggs
sea salt & black pepper
1 tbsp fresh chives, chopped
1/8 tsp dried mustard
2 oz Chevre goat cheese


Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Grease a 9 inch pie pan

1. Wash and peel the potatoes. Peel the red onion. Using the shred attachment on your food processor, drop in the potatoes and onions. Remove the shred attachment and add the normal blade to food processor. To the shredded potatoes and onions now add the rosemary, lemon zest, sea salt, pecans and butter. Pulse a few times to combine. You don't want it to turn to mush.
2. Remove this mixture from the food processor. In a bowl combine with the beaten egg and gluten free baking flour. Stir until just combined.
3. Press crust batter into the greased pie pan.
4. Bake uncovered at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside. Turn down oven to 350 degrees.

While pie crust is baking, prepare the quiche filling:

5. Warm the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onions with a dash of sea salt & black pepper and saute for 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and saute another 5 minutes. Add the broccolini and swiss chard. Add the lemon zest and squeeze in the juice of 1/2 a lemon. Saute for a few minutes more. You only want the broccolini and chard to slightly wilt. They should still be crunchy and bright green. Remove from heat.
6. Place the cooked veggie mixture in the cooked pie crust. Sprinkle on the grated asiago cheese.

Set aside while you make the custard:

7. In medium sized bowl beat the eggs with a metal whisk. Add the chopped chives, a pinch of sea salt & black pepper, and the dried mustard. Whisk until combined. Crumble the Chevre into small pieces and add to the eggs. Whisk until combined. There will be pieces of Chevre and that is just perfect.
8. Pour the egg mixture over the waiting veggies in pie crust.
9. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
10. Let cool for 10 minutes before cutting. Serve hot or at room temperature.