I like eggs. No, I love eggs! People talk about cheese as the food that keeps them from “going vegan”, but for me it’s eggs. (And maybe ice cream/gelato, but that’s another discussion altogether.)
As much as I enjoy eggs, though, I’ve never eaten a lot of quiche. I don’t find the idea of an egg pie appetizing. My partner, Fálki, though — I discovered during one recent discussion — has enjoyed quiche on many occasions.
During that discussion, she mentioned a hashbrown-crusted quiche, and my curiosity was piqued. Hmmm… Now that sounds interesting!
I searched the internet to see what a basic quiche recipe with a potato crust looked like. I found one at Tasty and used it as a model.
(I like Tasty for recipes, btw, because they get directly to the recipes, instead of the way we bloggers like to talk a lot first. Fwiw, I try to keep my chatter to a minimum, because I do feel your pain.)
My biggest issue with the Tasty recipe is that it uses fresh potatoes for the crust. I don’t like the flavor of raw potatoes pan-fried/cooked plain. I make potato pancakes on the stovetop every so often that way, and it’s not my favorite. (So why do I make it, then? Because I’ve found my palate changes over time, and I want to make sure I still don’t like it.)
When Fálki mentioned “hashbrowns” before, I thought of hashbrown patties. You know, like the kind you get at fast-food restaurants. So that’s what I went with, and the quiche and crust came out great!
For the record, all my ingredients are Trader Joe’s house brands. You can get this stuff anywhere, though.
I recommend adding plain, whole-milk yogurt to the ingredient list, as I found the quiche delicious with a large dollop of yogurt on the side.
Quiche Ingredients
- 8 eggs
- 1 cup plain oatmilk (I’d have used cashew milk, but didn’t have it on hand)
- 2-3 strips of bacon, chopped
- 5 hash brown patties
- 3/4 cup Mexican Style blend cheese
- 1/4 cup Quatro Formaggi cheese
- 3/4 cup chopped mushrooms
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1/2 tablespoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
Pico de Gallo Ingredients
- 6 tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons red onion
- 1/2 avocado
- 2 cloves garlic, diced
- salt & pepper
- squirt of sriracha
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- While the oven is heating, fry the bacon in a 10″ cast iron skillet.
- Remove the bacon from the skillet and set aside for later. Leave the bacon fat in the skillet, with the burner on medium-low.
- Place 4 hashbrown patties in a star pattern (or however you like) in the skillet. Cut a 5th hashbrown patty to fit into the gaps. All the gaps don’t need to be completely filled, but try to get it somewhat tight.
- Cook hashbrowns in the 400 oven for 10-15 minutes.
- While the crust is in the oven, whisk together the eggs and milk until just barely foamy.
- Add the cheeses, powders, mushrooms, and bacon, and stir to incorporate into the egg-milk mixture. NOTE: You can add pepper, too, but don’t add salt to the mixture, as salt during cooking makes eggs less tender. That’s a tip from Chef Robert Irvine during his segment about how to make great scrambled eggs.
- Once the hashbrown crust has cooked 10-15 minutes, lower the oven heat to 350°F and remove the skillet.
- Pour the egg mixture into the skillet over the hashbrowns.
- Put the skillet back into the overn and bake the quiche at 350°F for 40 minutes or until the top is nicely browned, as it is in the photo above.
- While the quiche is baking, make the pico de gallo by chopping the tomatoes and avocado, dicing the onions and garlic, and mixing them together in a small bowl with some salt, pepper, and the squirt of sriracha. Let it sit, stirring to recombine every so often. NOTE: I used sriracha, because I had no hot peppers, but a dice of jalapeño would be nice instead.