No-Crust Garden Quiche

Farm Lesson #1: Chickens will eat their own eggs

...and a recipe for No-Crust Garden Quiche

I'm sure that if you were raised in a rural setting, this lesson about the cannibalistic nature of poultry has been common knowledge to you since you were a kid. I however, grew up in a neighborhood in Fort Collins, Colorado: a city of about 150,000 people. I did not know that chickens eat their own eggs, take dust baths, or sleep while balancing on a wooden bar. This is just the beginning of the list of things I have been learning as a Coloradoan transplant living at a small farm in the Willamette Valley, Oregon. Something I have brought with me is a love of food and cooking that I inherited from my parents and grandparents, and a passion for eating sustainably with fresh and local ingredients. 

This first recipe I'd like to share is a simple crust-less quiche made with local ingredients. The veggies were grown by Cole in our garden, the eggs produced by our aforementioned chickens, and the milk is from a local dairy called Lochmead Farms which is a few miles down the road.  I served it with a side of farmers market garlic bread and pesto. Enjoy!

 No Crust Garden Quiche 

makes one 9 inch pie plate quiche

Ingredients:

7 eggs

1 1/2 C milk

Olive oil for sauteing  

2 shallots

1 small yellow onion

1 large tomato

2 green bell peppers

1/3 C shredded cheese (can be cheddar, mozzarella, feta, parmesan)

1 t. salt

liberal dash of pepper 

pinch of nutmeg

Instructions:

1. Dice all vegetables.  

2. Heat a drizzle of olive oil in large frying pan and saute the shallots, onion, and bell peppers until onions become translucent, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool. 

3. Whisk eggs in a medium sized bowl. Add milk, cheese, diced tomato and seasonings. Add sauteed veggies from pan to the egg mixture, stir. 

4. Pour into a greased 9 inch pie plate and bake at 375 for about 40 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean in the middle of quiche and the inside is no longer runny.