I do love me some quiche, how about you? It’s been a long time since I’ve made Quiche. I’ve been all about the Frittatas lately. I think I had just forgotten how good Quiche can be, and then we made this Broccoli, Ham & Cheese Quiche. I gotta say it really hit the spot.
This quiche crust was brushed with egg white.
I love quiche and one of the best things about any quiche is it can be made and serve slightly warm or room temperature or made ahead and served chilled. It can also be reheated very gently if you’d like, just to a bare warm. That makes it an ideal brunch recipe, although truth be told, I’ll eat quiche breakfast, lunch or dinner.
About Broccoli, Ham & Cheese Quiche:
A friend and I got together to do a little cooking the other afternoon, and we knocked off a few recipes and divided the spoils. This Easy Broccoli, Ham and Cheddar Quiche was one of them.
I gotta say this is a pretty perfect quiche. It’s so tasty, absolutely attractive, and it’s easy to make. It’s a nice quiche for family or company, especially for a brunch. Now, I do have other Quiches on my site. There’s the incredibly rich and custardy Cook’s Illustrated Quiche Lorraine. They have a deep-dish version, but the one on my site is their standard size. And there is this no holds barred, absolutely over the top Simon Pearce Quechee Quiche. And both of them have their place, which is hopefully at my table, over and over.
But this easy quiche? Absolutely delish, and absolutely more than good enough! And sometimes you’re going to be more likely to make a quiche that doesn’t require a lot of heroics (or money) a lot more often. But speaking of making, my friend and I had quite a marathon and made this quiche, Copycat Panera Steak & White Cheddar Paninis, 30 Minute Instant Pot Roast, and these marvelous Roasted Sweet Potatoes & Brussels Sprouts. (They are perfectly good as is but drizzle them with the White Balsamic Honey Vinaigrette and I’m at a loss of words to say more!)
As she left, my friend said, “Next time we get together we’ll have to do something fun.” Like this wasn’t, lol? Good company, good food in the fridge, and a great dinner. You can hardly beat that in my book. Admittedly, my expectations of a fun time might be lower than most people’s!
Easy Broccoli, Ham & Cheese Quiche
Making Broccoli, Ham & Cheese Quiche:
But back to the Quiche. We adapted this from a recipe on AllRecipes, Easy Broccoli Quiche. This is a bit on the lighter side and chock full of broccoli, ham, and cheese. Of course, right off the bat, we knew we were adding ham but we made a few other changes, too.
We used deep dish pie pans, which was a good thing because there’s no way everything would have fit in a standard. We prebaked the shell (check my post on Blind Baking a Pie Crust if you need a review) and used a lot of cheese (which was finely diced rather than grated – try it, it’s amazing!) and whole milk and baked the quiche considerably longer than the original recipe stated.
It was only later that I went back and read the reviews on AllRecipe; it was a good thing we went rogue & took this in the direction we did. Our Quiche turned out beautifully, while others had issues with the original recipe. The main complaint: issues with the quiche not setting up properly.
To avoid that, use fresh broccoli instead of frozen, and cook it well enough (a little past crisp/tender) so there won’t be any weeping. Since this quiche uses milk with no heavier dairy, make sure to use whole milk, and do use lots of cheese. Starting the Quiche at 450 and turning the oven down to 350 and baking long enough is also key.
Saving Money on Broccoli, Ham & Cheese Quiche:
Depending on the price of butter, a store-bought pie crust is usually around the same price as homemade, especially if the store-bought is on sale. That being said, homemade will usually have an edge on taste, but the store-bought is so easy and behaves beautifully.
I gotta say I am a huge fan of fresh broccoli over frozen, especially during the summer/early fall months when it’s in season. As far as pricing, these days it’s usually priced by the bunch rather than the pound, and during the winter the bunches tend to be smaller. When comparing to frozen, keep in mind that a one-pound package of frozen broccoli contains 10 ounces of broccoli and 6 ounces of water. That really makes frozen broccoli almost always the more expensive option.
The most expensive part of this and most recipes is the cheese. Shop well for it. I look for grocery store sales which happen often, especially with store coupons or pick it up at Aldi for about the same as the grocery store prices. If you’re looking to upgrade your cheese, you can’t go wrong with picking it up from your buyer’s club if you’re a member. Cheese keeps for weeks not opened and can be frozen although the texture will change. It becomes crumbly, but still fine for recipes like this.
Easy Broccoli, Ham & Cheese Quiche; other veggies are just as easy to use!
Broccoli, Ham & Cheese Quiche
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes + cool
- Yield: 6 to 8 servings 1x
- Category: Breakfast or Brunch Dish
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1 9″ pie crust
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1/2 onion, diced
- 1 1/2 cups broccoli, cut into bite-sized florets *
- 1 to 1 1/2 cups (4 to 6 ounces) cheese, preferably finely chopped rather than grated, Swiss or a combo of Swiss & White Cheddar.
- 1 cup diced ham
- 4 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups whole milk
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
Instructions
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Fit piecrust into deep-dish pie plate, flute as desired. Prepare for blind baking using either method:
- Prick bottom and sides of pie crust, place in oven and bake about 10 minutes or until bottom looks dry and crust is beginning to pick up a little color. Remove and set aside, leaving oven on at 450 degrees.
- Fit pie crust with aluminum foil and add pie weights or beans. Place in oven and cook for about 10 minutes until the edges of the crust have started to pick up a little color. Remove from oven, remove foil & weights and place crust back in oven for another few minutes until the bottom looks dry. Remove and set aside, leaving oven on at 450 degrees.
Preheat oil in a pan, add onion and broccoli and saute for two or three minutes. Add about 3 tablespoons water, add lid and cook until broccoli is done, just a bit past the tender/crisp stage, stirring once or twice. If there is any remaining water, drain.
Add cheese first, then the ham to the pie shell, top with the broccoli/onion mixture (just pile the broccoli up and adjust it after adding the filling) and fill with the quiche mixture, below.
In a medium-sized bowl, add eggs, whisk, then add the milk. Whisk together and add salt and pepper.
Pour liquid into the crust with the cheese, ham & broccoli mixture. Place in oven. Turn heat down to 350 degrees and continue to bake until the quiche is golden and slightly browned in spots and when shaken, jiggles just a little bit in the very center of the quiche, 50 minutes to an hour or so.
Remove quiche from oven. Quiche will continue to bake just a bit as it sits and will firm up as it cools. Cool, preferably on a rack on the counter. If refrigerating warm quiche, cover loosely until cold (to prevent condensation) and then cover tightly.
Serve warm, room temperature or cold.
Note: leftover broccoli works well in this recipe and saves a step.
Keywords: Bargain Meal of the Week, Breakfast or Brunch Dish, Broccoli, cheddar, Cheese, Eggs, Ham, leftover broccoli, leftover ham, milk, Pie, Pie Crust, quiche, swiss cheese, white cheddar
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I’ll be linking Broccoli, Ham & Cheese Quiche up this week at Fiesta Friday 208. Be sure to stop by and see all the posts. 🙂
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