Quinoa-Crusted Chipotle Cheese & Veggie Quiche

This take on quiche, with its crunchy quinoa crust and smokey chipotle-flavored cheese and vegetable filling, is pretty quick to put together and perfect for “Meatless Mondays” or anytime you want to eat a bit lighter. *Bonus* – It’s gluten-free, too!

If you’ve been here before, you’ll already know that, as far as I’m concerned, chipotle-anything should qualify as its own food group. And cheese? Please! So, when I was asked to try Sartori’s new Chipotle BellaVitano® cheese and use it in a recipe, how fast do you think I said yes!? (How do you punctuate that sentence, anyway?) This recipe, along with others by several other food bloggers, will be featured tonight (Monday, July 18th) on the weekly Twitter chat, #Foodiechats! I hope you’ll join us on Twitter tonight at 8:00 pm (U.S. Eastern time), as food lovers from around the world gather to chat for two hours about food and yes, cheese! Just search the hashtag #Foodiechats, and of course follow me (@RJFlamingo), Foodiechats (@Foodiechats), and Sartori (@Sartori_Cheese). It’s fast, fun, and full of inspiration!

Coincidentally, I’ve actually been toying with this quiche recipe recently. Mike has taken to cooking vats of quinoa or rice on the weekends, so when I come up blank for supper ideas, or forget the time, or get too involved with making jam to think about supper during the week, there will be a ready-made base to start with. One of his better ideas. 🙂  Anyway, this weekend he made quinoa, and we’ve been looking for all kinds of ideas to use it that don’t involve salad. And while using quinoa to make a crust isn’t exactly a new idea – neither is quiche, for that matter – I had to make it more flavorful. Because “bland” isn’t in my vocabulary.

Now, the BellaVitano® cheese, itself, is more savory than I expected, and has a parmesan-like quality and texture. It makes a lovely blank canvas for the smokey (but not hot) chipotle, garlic, and onion flavor rubbed into the edible rind. While it’s perfect on its own or with a variety of foods and drinks, when you shred it and cook with it, you’ll find that it melts beautifully and adds a subtle smokey roundness to anything you add it to. In my mind, it’s a natural to enhance the flavors of all sorts of vegetables and other dishes.

So, let’s go for it, eh? (A small nod to my Canadian friends and family)

Chipotle Cheese & Veggie Quiche in Quinoa Crust

For the Crust

Ingredients:

• 2 cups cooked quinoa (white, preferred)
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1/8 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• cooking spray for the pie plate

For the Filling:

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbs olive oil
• 1 16 oz package frozen mixed vegetables (for this, I like the “spring” mix – broccoli, red pepper, onion, squash, etc., but you can use whatever combination you like)
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup milk of your choice
• 1 5.3 oz chunk of Sartori Chipotle BellaVitano® Cheese, shredded
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 375º F. Prepare a 9″ pie plate by spraying well with cooking spray.  Set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine all of the crust ingredients. It should be well-mixed and all of the quinoa should be coated completely with the beaten egg.

Spread the quinoa mixture evenly in the pie plate, and up the sides.  Bake the crust for 20 minutes, or until lightly golden, and set aside to cool. Keep the oven on.

In the meantime, make the filling.

Heat the olive oil in a non-stick pan over medium-high heat.  Add the frozen vegetables to the hot pan, add a pinch of salt if desired, and stir to separate. You might want to give the unopened bag a good whack on the counter, first, to get the separation process started. Reduce the heat to medium, cover the pan and allow to cook for 5 minutes. Uncover the pan, stir again, and continue to cook for another 2 or 3 minutes, until all liquid has evaporated and some of the vegetables appear to start browning.  Set the pan aside to cool.

In a small bowl, mix together about 1/4 cup of the Chipotle BellaVitano® and 1/4 cup of the mozzarella and set aside for the quiche topping.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs until well-blended. Whisk in the milk and salt and pepper.  Stir in the remaining shredded cheeses. Add the cooled, cooked vegetables and combine well.

Pour egg/cheese/veggie mixture into your now-cooled pie crust. Sprinkle the top of the quiche with the reserved shredded cheese.  Bake for 35-40 minutes. The quiche should be set and the top nicely browned when done.

Slice into wedges and serve as a main course with soup and/or salad, or as a side dish to whatever you choose.

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If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the Comments section, below. Or better yet, join us tonight and every Monday night on Twitter for #Foodiechats!

 

While I was provided samples of Sartori’s new Chipotle BellaVitano® cheese to play with, I was not compensated to write this post, and all opinions are very much my own.