Bacon and Spinach Breakfast Quiche with a Potato Crust

I love quiche recipes.  This is a new one for me to try.
I found this one on Facebook from Bobby Parrish 

Ingredients:

1.5 lb small potatoes

Salt & Pepper

6 strips bacon

1 small onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

8-10 oz frozen spinach (thawed and liquid squeezed out)

6 eggs 

1/2 cup whole milk

Parmesan, grated finely

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F. 

Add the potatoes to a pot of boiling water and add a generous pinch of salt. Let it cook for 10-12 minutes. Then take a spring form pan, line the bottom with parchment paper, and drizzle some olive oil on the bottom then spread that around. Take the potatoes and dump them into the pan. Then take a small cup and gently press down on the potatoes to smash them. Creating one even layer of potatoes all around the bottom and about 1-1.5 inches up the side forming a ‘crust’. 

Drizzle some olive oil over top, add some salt and pepper, then put it in the oven to crisp up for 15 minutes. 

Next chop the bacon and add it to a lightly oiled ceramic pan on medium heat. Slow cook it until it’s cooked through, then remove it from the pan, saving about 2 tablespoons of the bacon fat in the pan. 

Dice the onion and finely chop the garlic cloves, then add that to the ceramic pan with the bacon grease, add a pinch of salt and cook it for about 6 minutes. When it has a nice golden color, add the thawed and drained spinach then add another pinch of salt and cook it for another 2 minutes or until the spinach is warmed through. Remove from heat and set aside. 

In a medium bowl, crack in the eggs, add the milk, and grate over some Parmesan (as much as you like), whisk to combine, then add in the bacon, onions, garlic, and spinach and give it another whisk up. 

Pour the egg mixture into the potato crust, and bake it in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the center is set and not jiggly. 

Let it cool for about 5 minutes before you run a knife around the edge and release the spring form. 

Slice in to cut your perfect piece and enjoy!

Spinach and Tomato Quiche

 I cut this out of The Milwaukee Journal on May 1, 1994. It is one of my favorites. The section was called "The Sunday Cook" and the author us Grace Howaniec.

Ingredients

• 1 unbaked (9inch - diameter) pie shell, homemade or commercial refrigerated crust. I make my own and prebake it.
• 1 pound fresh spinach, stemmed. (one 10 oz. frozen, thawed, uncooked drained chopped spinach may be substituted. I use fresh.
• 4 green onions, chopped (1/2 cup)
• 1 clove garlic, minced (1 teaspoon)
• 2 T. butter or margarine
• 6 ounces Swiss cheese, shredded (1 1/2 cup)
• 3 large eggs, lightly beaten or 3/4 cup egg substitute
• 3/4 cup skim or low fat milk
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1 t. leaf basil, crumbled. I use fresh basil
• 1/2 celery salt
• 33 medium fresh plum or Roma, tomatoes, thinly sliced crosswise
• 1 T. dry bread crumbs
• 1 T. grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

Line ungreased pie plate with crust fluting the edges as desired. (I use a quiche dish. I also precook the crust at 425 degree F using pie weights. This makes the crust a little crispy.) NOTE: use a glass pie plate for crisper crust

Cook the spinach and drain well. (should make 1 cup. I often don't make this much.) Squeeze out excess water, chop fine.

In a 10 inch skillet, saute green onion and garlic in butter until golden brown, about 2 minutes. Add reserved spinach; cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until all excess moisture evaporates, remove from heat.

In large bowl, blend together spinach mixture, Swiss cheese (i often use other cheeses but Swiss is the best.) eggs, milk, salt, basil and celery salt; mixture will be dense. Pour into prepared pie shell. Arrange tomato slices around the outer edge with slices overlapping. Bake at 425 degree 15 minutes; lower temperature to 350 degrees and bake 10 minutes longer.

Meanwhile, in a cup, mix bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese, When quiche has cooked 25 minutes, open oven and sprinkle the crumb mixture over the tomato slices. Make 10 minutes more (a total of 35 minutes), or until the top is puffy and center quivers slightly when quiche is removed.

Makes 8 servings.

I like to serve this with blueberry muffins, though any muffin will do. along with fresh fruit.

Picture taken in 2024, 30 years later.

Basic Crustless Quiche & Garden Quiche

 Basic Crustless Quiche

This recipe is from “The Frugal Gourmet” by Jeff Smith @1984. Serves 8 - 10. I usually make half for Mike and I and a few guests. This is one of my favorites.

½ cup (¼ pound butter)

10 eggs

½ cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 pound large curd cottage cheese

1 pound jack cheese, shredded (I use whatever cheese I have on hand and usually a combination of different cheeses.

DIRECTIONS

Melt butter. Whip the eggs until fluffy, and add the flour, baking powder, salt, cheese, melted butter, and half of the cheese. (At this point I add the ingredients from the Garden Quiche, Crustless recipe, see below.)

Place the mixture in a greased 9 by 13 inch baking dish. (When I half the recipe I use an 8 X 8 baking dish.)  Top with the remaining cheese, Make at 400° for 15 minutes. Then reduce temperature to 350° and continue to bake for 35 minutes to 40 minutes, or until the top is golden brown. 

Cool, and cut into squares for serving.

Garden Quiche, Crustless

Use whatever vegetables you have on hand. Add some oregano to give some Italian flavor.

2 yellow onions, peeled and chopped

Butter

8 green onions chopped or sliced leeks

Mushrooms (optional)

4 small zucchini, sliced

½ cup parsley, chopped

3 tomatoes, sliced very thin

DIRECTIONS

Sauté the yellow onions and mushrooms in butter. Add to the crustless quiche filling along with the green onions, zucchini and parsley. Top with the remaining jack cheese and then the tomato slices. Bake as per Crustless Quiche recipe.

Hash Brown Quiche

Recipe from: Addie Halfmann, Bountiful Brunches and Lunches 2001

Claire and Mike both love this dish, but I usually hold the green peppers.

Ingredients:
3 cups frozen shredded hash brown, thawed. I make my own shredded potatoes and combine sweet potatoes with white. 3 - 4 medium sized potatoes.
1/3 cup butter melted
1 cup diced, cooked ham
1 cup shredded Swiss or Cheddar cheese
1/4 cup diced green pepper (optional)
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp. salt
Dash of pepper
2 green onions, thinly sliced, including some green parts, optional

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Press hash brown between paper toweling to remove excess moisture. Press into bottom and up sides of ungreased 9-inch pie pan. 
2. Drizzle with butter. Bake in preheated oven 25 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees.
3. Meanwhile, in bowl, combine ham, cheese and green pepper; spoon over crust.
4. In small bowl, beat eggs, milk, salt and pepper. Pour over ham and cheese mixture. Sprinkle with green onions. Return to oven and bake at 350 degrees, 25 to 30 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.
5. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting into wedges. 

4-6 servings