Spinach, Onion, and Mushroom Quiche

I love to vary my standard recipe for Quiche Lorraine by modifying the veggies and cheese that I use. This Spinach, Onion, and Mushroom Quiche was a great combination and a real winner.

Quiche first came to the attention of the American public in the 1950’s. A combination of egg custard, bacon, and onions, baked in a pastry crust, it remains one of my favorites. I’ve loved this standard Quiche Lorraine recipe forever but occasionally feel like improvising and this Spinach, Onion, and Mushroom Quiche with White Cheddar Cheese was my latest revision.

As  you might already know, I don’t always sit down and plan recipes so much as I see what I have in the refrigerator and pull something together from those ingredients.

Often it’s a case of either use them or lose them, you know how quickly both spinach and mushrooms can change from perfect to perfectly unacceptable. I thought it was their time and this was the delicious result.

My first quiche experience is one I’ll never forget and I’m sure I’ve mentioned it in these pages before. I was a new transplant to Raleigh, NC with my new husband. We settled in an apartment building and were lucky that our next door neighbors were from my hometown of St. Louis too. We had a dog they loved, they had a daughter we loved and we became almost inseparable.

It was a great experience for someone moving away from their family for the first time and the friends I made and the cooking we did together expanded my cooking skills beyond what I would have done on my own; I will always treasure that time in our lives.

One afternoon there was a knock on my door and expecting to see Janie, I was surprised instead to see Alma, a nice older woman who lived on the first floor with her husband. We had waved to each other a lot but she was taking it a step further, she was inviting both couples to dinner at her apartment. Janie offered to bring a cocktail and I volunteered dessert and we were set.

If I’m honest, I was delighted to accept but I anticipated that dinner would be similar to what my mother-in-law cooked and I was prepared for a sort of stodgy casserole with some veggies on the side. Was I in for a surprise!

Alma turned out to be a fantastic cook and in the time we lived there, we dined together frequently and she taught me so much. My first lesson? French food. I had never had anything that would be considered French cuisine so when our first course was Quiche Lorraine I was intrigued. It was love at first bite. I still have that recipe card Alma gave me too; now it’s an antique!

Creamy egg custard with melted cheese, onions, and bacon swirled throughout all in a crispy crust; it was simply divine. Today I make it a part of my regular dinner rotation because it is SO easy and I’ve learned that mixing up ingredients means veggies running the gamut from A(sparagus) to Z(ucchini). While I love a great homemade crust, I will often use the prepackaged ones from Pillsbury to make this a really easy meal to prepare.

Quiche is also a perfect little dish to serve for so many occasions. It can be breakfast or brunch, could be an appetizer, it will make your meatless Monday meal delicious and in our home certainly it’s dinner with a gorgeous, crisp salad on the side. If it’s not something you’ve tried before, what are you waiting for…it’s for real men AND women!