April 11, 2010

Shepherd's Quiche



I'm not in the most talkative of moods this evening, but I do have one word of advice: before pouring (or worse, squeezing) a condiment/dressing/bottled food product, be WELL aware of the dispenser top that said bottle has. On TWO occasions this evening I overdosed because I thought my soy sauce and my ranch dressing had that kind of top with the little hole that you have to shake and/or squeeze the bottle to dispense out of.

As you can probably tell from the name of this post, this quiche is inspired by Shepherd's pie, a well-known, delicious, all-in-one food. Unlike classic shepherd's pie, however, it is vegetarian and lacks potatoes (because I didn't have any). I filled a pie crust with a "meaty" mixture of mushrooms, onions, and Morningstar Farms meat-like crumble, included some corn, and rounded it all out with an egg/milk mixture and some cheese. I like both eating and making quiche, except for the few issues of filling leakage (solved by baking on a cookie sheet) and the edge of the crust breaking off (let me know if you've solved that one). I served this one with a(n unfortunately overdressed) salad. I used bottled ranch dressing because I was in the mood for something creamy and my fridge lacked the goods for a homemade one as it is still a post-passover wasteland.

Ingredients
1 premade pie crust
1/2-3/4 cup shredded cheese
2 TBSP butter
1 cube frozen chopped garlic
8 cremini mushrooms, chopped
1/2 white onion, chopped
3/4 cup meat-free crumbles
1/2 can corn
3 eggs
1/4 cup milk
splash soy sauce
S+P

Directions
Saute garlic, mushrooms, and onions in butter until soft. Add frozen "meat" and heat through. Sprinkle some cheese on the bottom of the pie crust, then spread the "meat" mixture on top. In a separate bowl, mix eggs, milk, soy sauce, S+P, corn and some more cheese (reserve some for the top). Pour egg mixture over the pie contents, you want the corn to sit on top of the meat like it does in shepherd's pie. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top. Bake at 400 F for 30 minutes. Let sit for 5-10 minutes before slicing and serving.