I have written many times about the joy of spending an afternoon in the kitchen with the gluten free teen. This time together has truly been one of the blessings of celiac disease.
Yesterday started like most evenings with me pondering, what's for dinner tonight? How many times have you had the same question? Will it be tacos, or quesadillas, too late for anything marinated and grilled, maybe spaghetti? Nothing was sounding too appealing.
Then the Gluten Free Teen saved the day once again (how did she get so smart?). She said Mom "I feel like quiche."
"Quiche?" I replied.
Who knows why this particular craving hit on this day. We had not had quiche in years.
"Quiche" I asked again.
And, by the way, we are gluten and dairy free and how was I to make a dairy free quiche that tasted good?
If we would not have had frozen gluten free pie crust in the freezer, I would of ditched that idea from the start.
But we had the crust and came to the compromise that if she made the standard Quiche Lorraine (loaded with cheese), I would make a dairy free quiche.
And so the contest began -
Whisking our eggs elbow to elbow, we each created our own quiche.
Can you tell which one is diary free?
And so another lesson was learned - don't let your diet stop your cravings, you can have your quiche and eat it too!
Now for the recipe.
If you are lucky you will be able to purchase a ready made crust. I say lucky because with the crusts already made this is a very easy recipe.
I also say lucky, because the supply of ready made gluten free crust is pretty limited.
Whole Foods Bakehouse has a gluten free crust, but it unfortunately has dairy in it.
If you live in Seattle, Flying Apron has a gluten and dairy free crust but it is not our favorite.
Our favorite, as we noted before, is the Bavaria Mills gluten free and casein free crust. They are absolutely beautiful, reasonably priced and they taste great. You can purchase them at Savory Moments in Redmond or you can call Mike at 1-360-571-7611 and order them for delivery. I bought a dozen last time and stuck them in the freezer.
If you live in another part of the country and know of other great pre-made gluten free pie crust, please add your information to the comments below.
To make your own crust, try this recipe for Gluten and Casein Free Pie Crusts. I have not tried it but have heard that the Gluten Free Pantry Pie Crust mix is also pretty good.
Now for the insides:
For the dairy version, the Gluten Free Teen made the standard Quiche Lorraine:
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4 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled (optional of course - you can also use chopped ham)
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2 eggs
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1 cup milk
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2 cups shredded Swiss cheese
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salt and pepper to taste
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1 small tomato, thinly sliced
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The GFT sprinkled some rosemary from the garden on top
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1 8 - 9 inch gluten free pie crust, unbaked
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F
In a small bowl, beat eggs and milk with a fork until blended. Season with salt and pepper.
Sprinkle a thin layer of Swiss cheese in the pie crust.
Add the bacon and then pour the egg mixture over the top. Sprinkle with the remainder of the cheese.
Sprinkle with rosemary or thyme, and arrange the sliced tomato on top.
Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F and continue to bake for an additional 30 minutes or until crust is browned.
Now for my version:
The Gluten and Casein Free Quiche
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1 cup coconut milk
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4 large eggs
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2 t ume plum vinegar (if you are regularly cooking dairy free then this should be standard in your kitchen. It adds a great salty cheese-like quality to cooking)
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1 minced garlic clove
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1 t nutritional yeast (optional but strongly recommended as it once again adds a great cheese flavor to casein free food)
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1 t dry mustard powder
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1/4 t salt
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1/4 t pepper
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1 - 2 green onions, chopped
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1 8 -9 inch gluten free pie crust (unbaked)
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thinly sliced tomato for the top
Optional add ins - I call these optional, because you can add anything you desire at this point. For a vegetarian quiche add 2 - 3 cups chopped vegetables. Meat lovers will love this quiche with some crumbled and cooked GF sausage. I added Beelers Maple sausage and it was delicious.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
With fork, mix together the coconut milk, eggs, vinegar, garlic, yeast, mustard powder, salt and pepper. The powdery substances will be a little lumpy but just mix as well as you can. They seem to dissolve while baking.
For a vegetarian quiche, saute the vegetables over medium heat until softened. This will only take a few minutes.
For a meat quiche, crumble and cook the sausage until done.
Add either the veggies or the sausage to the gluten free pie crust, add egg mixture and top with the green onions and thinly sliced tomato.
Bake for 45 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
Okay, have you figured out which one is the dairy free quiche yet?
It is the one on the left and, for the record, the Weekend Chef liked it better!
