Zucchini Crust Quiche

Here we are again at breakfast. That magical meal that, for me, is only substantial on the weekends. Monday through Friday breakfast is a banana in my car while I'm also holding a cup of coffee and hoping it doesn't spill. At best, it's a chia seed pudding (which is great, but not a quiche).

I don't feel like the weekend is a success if I don't have at least one well prepared hot breakfast. Last weekend, this quiche did the job just nice.

If it was 3 weeks from now, I would have been able to get half of the ingredients from my own backyard. But, alas, the onions are still not big enough and tomatoes are all still green. But the thyme and the ZUCCHINI I grew, so there's that. Let's make a quiche, shall we? Oh, and hey, let's use the zucchini to make a pie crust so it's a bit lighter and summery-er. K?

Get ready, this recipe is all about multitasking!

While the bacon is cookin', we're going to follow these steps to prepare our zucchini so that it doesn't leave our crust soggy. Once it's ready, we'll mix the zucchini with salt & pepper, flour, and olive oil.

Until it is thoroughly combined.

Pour all of the zucchini mixture into a greased pie pan

And spread it out evenly to form a crust

While the crust is in the oven, throw your veggies on the stove to saute and prepare the egg filling.

In a large bowl, whisk together 6 eggs, a cup of milk, thyme, and S&P.

Once your crust is baked, the veggies are sauteed, and your filling is ready. All that's left is to throw it together and bake! We're going to do lots of layers here, so bare with me.

Start with a layer of cheese on top of the crust.

Add half of the bacon

And then the egg mixture.

Now, dump those veggies into the mix making sure that they are spread out evenly and then top with the remaining cheese and bacon.

Bake that bad boy for 35-45 minutes and then give it a good cool down before cutting into it.

Your crust will be crispy and brown and your cheese with be extra melty and delicious.

Zucchini Crust Quiche
Ingredients:
For crust:
3 cups grated and packed zucchini
3 teaspoons salt, divided
1/3 cup flour (can be all-purpose or even almond/ coconut flour)
2 tablespoons olive oil
For filling:
6 eggs
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons fresh thyme, chopped
2/3 cup tomato, diced**
1/2 cup onion, diced
2 big handfuls of spinach, chopped
1 cup of grated cheddar cheese (or other cheese or choice)
6 slices of cooked bacon, cut into 1 inch pieces
**These veggies measurements are not exact. You can really put more or less as you wish. You mainly just want to end up with about 2 cups of sauteed veggies in the end.

Directions:
Pre-heat panggangan to 375 degrees F.
1) Lightly grease a pie pan.
(for next few steps on preparing zucchini, see pictures from this post)
2) Shred zucchini using the shredding attachment to a food processor or a box grater. Place in a medium-large bowl.
3) Sprinkle zucchini with 2 teaspoons of the salt, toss well, and let sit for 10-20 minutes. This draws out a lot of the water from the zucchini so that the crust won't end up soggy.
4) Place in a strainer and give the zucchini a good rinse to get most of the salt off.
5) Using either cheese clothe or your hands, gather a bunch of the zucchini into a ball and SQUEEZE until you get as much of the water out as you can manage.
6) Moisture removed, place zucchini in a medium bowl and thoroughly mix in 1 teaspoon of salt, the flour, and 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
7) Put the zucchini mixture into the pie pan and evenly spread it out to the cover the dish. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until nice and browned.
8) While crust is baking, put your veggies in a pan to saute and prepare your egg filling....
9) In a large bowl, whisk together 6 eggs, a cup of milk, thyme, and S&P.
10) Layer half of the cheese on top of the crust and then evenly spread out half of the bacon on top of that.
11) Pour the egg mixture into the pie crust followed by the sauteed vegetables, evenly spread out.
12) Top with the remaining cheese and bacon.
13) Bake quiche for 35-45 minutes until firm.
ENJOY! You earned this breakfast!