Recipe: Cheesy Light Zucchini Quiche

My lively Estonian aunt, who lives in the wonderful backwoods of Oregon, close to the tiny town of Independence, with her two elderly birds Cockatoo, 25, and Mickey, 30, and surrounded by goats, horses, dogs, cats and ponies, whipped up this special quiche for us when I visited her recently.

Not too cheesy, light, it's a versatile recipe that can be adapted for all sorts of vegetables and can have several kinds of meat additions.

It stores in the fridge well and lasts for several days.

She used Bisquick which I have provided a substitute for in this preparation.

Auntie Mai's Zucchini Quiche

Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 3½ cups round slices of zucchini, unpeeled
• 2 tbsp chopped parsley
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 cup maida or all-purpose flour
• 1½ tsp baking powder
• ½ cup oil
• 4 eggs
• ½ tsp black pepper powder
• 1 tsp salt or to taste
• ½ cup grated cheese, ideally Parmesan
• ½ tsp butter or a little vegetable oil for buttering the pie pan

For serving

• Hot sauce or Tabasco, drizzled

Method

• Heat the oven to 190 degrees C.
  Butter the pie pan.
• Mix the zucchini, parsley, onions.
  Keep aside.
• Mix the flour, eggs, salt, nutmeg, pepper, baking powder, oil, cheese.
  Pour into 10-inch pie pan and bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until golden.
• Serve each piece drizzled with hot sauce or freshly made Hollandaise sauce.

Note: This quiche can be made using many kinds of vegetables in place of zucchini or with zucchini, like broccoli, red, green or/and yellow capsicum, potatoes, chives, leeks, spinach, kale, slices of jalapeno, asparagus, carmelised onions, sun-dried tomatoes. Instead of regular grated cheese you could add feta or goat cheese or mix grated cheese with tiny pieces of paneer.

For a mushroom quiche, replace the zucchini with chopped mushroom and 2 tsp chopped garlic.

For a mixed vegetable quiche use 3½ cups chopped cauliflower, finely chopped beans and finely chopped carrots.

For a meat addition, reduce the vegetable quantity by half a cup and add ¾ cup crumbled bacon/chopped ham/sausage or crabmeat.

In addition to black pepper powder you might consider adding a pinch of nutmeg or a little rosemary or fresh thyme.

Making this quiche vegan or Jain might be a touch difficult, but try using egg replacer powder, available online and vegan cheese, also available online. And also omit onions for a Jain version.

To make Hollandaise sauce try this recipe [external link].

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