Easy Kale Quiche Recipe (2024)

  • Savory

This quiche is loaded with kale in a buttery breadcrumb crust.

By

J. Kenji López-Alt

Easy Kale Quiche Recipe (1)

J. Kenji López-Alt

Culinary Consultant

Kenji is the former culinary director for Serious Eats and a current culinary consultant for the site. He is also a New York Times food columnist and the author of The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science.

Learn about Serious Eats'Editorial Process

Updated September 11, 2020

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Easy Kale Quiche Recipe (2)

Why It Works

  • This quiche is loaded with a full pound and a half of kale, a great way to use a large bunch.
  • A simple coating of butter and breadcrumbs will keep your pie from sticking to the pan, giving you a nice bit of flavorful browning around the edges.

If there's one thing I took away frommy month of veganism, it's that kale is one magnificent green. I've got a bit of a kale hoarding problem. When I see it on supermarket shelves or at the farmers' market, I instinctively grab a bunch. Sometimes I call my wife and ask her to pick up some kale on her way home, knowing full well that I'm going to be picking up another bunch myself, all while holding a perfectly usable bunch in my bag.

Having an overflow of kale is not a bad thing, but it does mean that I need to figure out where to put the stuff. This is not a problem. Marinated in salads, grilled, on pizza, braised in sandwiches, simmered in soups and stews, it's just so incredibly versatile and tasty that it's hard to think of a situation in which youwouldn'twant to use it.

Quiche is not one of those situations (that is, you wouldn't not want to use it in a quiche—you with me here?). Though a quiche really only has a few ingredients—cream, milk, eggs, pie crust—the concept can seem a bit daunting at first—a delicate custard set in a crisp, tender, and flaky pie crust is a great testing ground for perfectionist technique. And true, a really perfect quiche—one with a moist, barely-set center that jiggles gently under your fork pressure with no hint of curdling and the most delicate scent of nutmeg—is not an easy feat to accomplish.

Then again, not all skates are rollerblades, and there are times when I'm perfectly content to wheel around the block on my good old-fashioned boxy four wheelers.

Quiche at its heart is a rustic dishand for me, part of its charm lies in its imperfections. I like the little brown spots that form on the surface. I like that the edges are a little more well-done than the center, giving you some nice textural contrast from the first bite to the last. Besides, the version here is far more kale than it is quiche. A full pound and a half gets packed down into a single pie. It's a great way to stash an extra bunch when your vegetable drawer is already packed too tightly. (That should be all the time in the spring).

If you have the time and inclination, you could make a true pie crust and par-bake it in the shell (here's a great, foolproof recipe), butif quick and easy is your goal, a simple coating of butter and breadcrumbs will keep your pie from sticking to the pan, giving you a nice bit of flavorful browning around the edges.

Finally, cheese is not an absolutely necessary ingredient in a quiche, but it sure makes it taste better and it adds a few extra calories and calcium so you'll be extra energetic for the next round of hide the kale.

March 2012

Recipe Details

Easy Kale Quiche

Active20 mins

Total60 mins

Serves6to 8 servings

Ingredients

  • 1 large bunch (about 1 1/2 pounds) kale, thick stalks discarded, leaves roughly chopped

  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

  • 1 1/2 cups half-and-half

  • 2 whole eggs

  • 4 ouncesgrated gruyère or Comté cheese

  • 1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

  • 2 slices high-quality sandwich bread or rustic country bread, crusts removed

  • 2 tablespoons butter

Directions

  1. Adjust oven rack to center position and preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add kale and press down with a metal fine-mesh strainer to submerge. Cook until barely tender but still bright green, about 3 minutes. Transfer kale to a colander and run under cold water until chilled. Squeeze out excess moisture then transfer kale to the center of a clean dish towel. Roll up towel to encase the kale, then twist the ends to wring out excess moisture. Transfer dried kale to a cutting board and chop into 1- to 1/2-inch pieces. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

  2. Combine half-and-half and eggs in a large bowl and whisk until hom*ogenous. Season with 1 teaspoon salt and a pinch of black pepper. Add kale, cheese, and nutmeg and mix with hands to combine.

  3. Place bread in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until fine crumbs are achieved. Grease a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate or a cast iron skillet with butter. Add bread crumbs and rotate plate while shaking to coat bottom and sides. Discard extra crumbs. Pour kale filling into prepared pie plate.

  4. Place pie plate on a rimmed baking sheet and bake until center is just barely set but still jiggles when touched, about 35 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool at least 15 minutes before serving. Quiche can be served warm, at room temperature, or straight out of the fridge.

Special Equipment

Food processor, 9-inch deep-dish pie plate or cast iron skillet, rimmed baking sheet

Notes

If you have the time and inclination, you could make a true pie crust and par bake it in the shell, using this great, foolproof recipe.

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
168Calories
14g Fat
4g Carbs
8g Protein

×

Nutrition Facts
Servings: 6to 8
Amount per serving
Calories168
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 14g17%
Saturated Fat 8g41%
Cholesterol 86mg29%
Sodium 370mg16%
Total Carbohydrate 4g2%
Dietary Fiber 0g1%
Total Sugars 2g
Protein 8g
Vitamin C 3mg13%
Calcium 208mg16%
Iron 0mg2%
Potassium 106mg2%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

Easy Kale Quiche Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Should you saute veggies before adding to quiche? ›

Cook the Veggies First

"Vegetables will take longer to cook than your egg custard, so always sauté onions, steam broccoli, etc. before you add them to your egg mixture to ensure every bite of quiche will be perfectly cooked," says Kristin Beringson, executive chef at Henley in Nashville.

Is milk better than heavy cream in quiche? ›

Heavy Cream and Milk – For the best tasting quiche, use a combination of whole milk and heavy cream. (Or simply use half-and-half.) Using just heavy cream produces an overly thick filling. Whole milk is great, but a combo of heavy cream and milk is better.

Do you have to Prebake crust for quiche? ›

This is how to prep your quiche crust using the homemade or refrigerated option. And yes, as you'll see, you should always prebake quiche crust to avoid a gummy pastry.

How do you sauté vegetables without getting soggy? ›

Non-stick pans are a great choice as well, it's just harder to get those browned edges that taste amazing. You really want to use medium-high heat when sautéing veggies to keep them nice and crisp so that any water coming out of them will evaporate quickly and not make your vegetables soggy.

Which is healthier, quiche or frittata? ›

While often compared to quiche, a frittata is a healthier option because it doesn't have a crust. The benefits are a lot like those of an omelet. At home, you can pile on vegetables and control the amount of oil you use to make it even healthier.

What do you call a quiche without pastry? ›

A frittata, sometimes called a crustless quiche, has no crust, and you can bake it directly in a pan or skillet.

What does Lorraine mean in quiche? ›

History. According to Larousse Gastronomique, quiches (sometimes spelled kiches) originated in the eastern French region Lorraine. The name may derive from the German Kuchen, a term used for similar dishes.

Is it OK to bake quiche a night before? ›

You can blind bake the crust up to a day in advance or bake the entire quiche 3 days before serving.

How do you make the bottom of a quiche crust crispy? ›

Blind Bake the Crust

One of the fool-proof ways to ensure a crisp bottom pie crust is to do what is called blind baking. This simply means that you bake the crust—either fully if you are adding a custard or cream that won't be cooked, or partially if the whole pie needs to bake—before adding the filling.

Do you poke holes in quiche crust? ›

Poking holes allows steam to escape

Air bubbles can also lead to cracks, and cracks inevitably lead to leaks. Therefore, for a level, leak-proof crust, a perforated crust is key. If, however, the recipe you're working with has a particularly liquidy filling, poking the bottom isn't a necessary step.

Does spinach need to be cooked before putting in quiche? ›

To give fresh spinach a softer texture, you can cook it first before adding it to the quiche. This guarantees the spinach is soft when your quiche is finished cooking. It also allows you to cook the spinach with other ingredients, which may give it more flavor.

Should I sauté vegetables before adding to casserole? ›

While certain vegetables can work just fine added directly to simmering soups and stews (say, carrots and celery), other vegetables (onions, garlic, and the like) will almost always need at least a brief sweat in a fat-based liquid before adding the remaining ingredients.

Should you sauté veggies before adding to omelette? ›

Because vegetables release water when they cook, they can completely sog out an omelet if you add them raw. Cooking the ingredients first drives out the moisture and concentrates the flavors. This helps keep the vegetables–and their flavors—inside the omelet rather than all over the plate.

Should you sauté vegetables before making stock? ›

Brown the onions in olive oil for a good 5 minutes. This develops so much of the base flavour of the stock! The carrots and celery get some light browning as well. This process offers the same benefits of a roasted vegetable stock, but keeps the cooking all in one pot.

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