Gruyere, Leek and Roasted Red Pepper Quiche

We had some guests around on Saturday night for dinner and as it is finally summer on the west coast and we’re enjoying some warm days, I didn’t want to be in the kitchen too long cooking. So I made my go-to quick dish that still impresses, because the flavours are so intense: a quiche.

In fact, I made two quiches, a gruyere, leek and roasted red pepper quiche which I had never even road-tested before, and a mushroom goat cheese quiche that I have made in the past and that I blogged about over on Guiltless & Gourmet (click here to read it; I will be transferring my posts to this blog one by one so that recipe will also appear on The Guiltless Life at some point in the near future!).

I served it with a simple salad with homemade vinaigrette and just offered up pita chips and a store-bought artichoke and asiago dip as a starter. Dessert was my favourite brand of vanilla ice cream with fresh, in-season BC strawberries. Simple and quick but delicious! I was really pleased with how the gruyere quiche turned out; I ate the mushroom as it is my favourite but I taste-tested the gruyere quiche and my mom said that, out of all the quiches I have made so far (I also made a cheese and tomato quiche a couple of months back; click here for that post on Guiltless & Gourmet), this was her favourite.

The recipe was largely taken from a post by Housewifery.

INGREDIENTS (serves 4-8):

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 small leeks, sliced (light green and white parts only)
salt and pepper
1 jar sweet roasted piquillo red peppers
4 eggs
3/4 cup half and half
1 1/2 cups grated gruyere cheese
Generous pinch of ground nutmeg
1 frozen pie shell (can use gluten-free pie crust)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Take pie shell out of  freezer to defrost at room temperature for 10 minutes or so. Preheat oven to 400 F.

2. In a large frying pan, heat oil and add leeks and salt and pepper. Stirfry about 10 minutes or so until leeks are cooked:

3. Beat the eggs into a bowl and then whisk in the half and half. Add the nutmeg and a packed 1/4 cup measurement of the gruyere cheese.

4. Prick the pie crust with a fork all over the base and sides. Pre-cook the pie crust for 10 minutes or until it is just starting to brown. When it’s done, reduce the oven heat to 350 F.

5. Slice about 1 1/2 cups worth of the jarred peppers into thin, julienned slices.

6. When the pie crust has been removed from the oven, take a baking sheet and line it with foil. Place the pie case on top of the foil and sprinkle about 1 cup of the gruyere cheese into the base of the pie shell. Layer the sliced peppers over the cheese and top with the leeks.

7. Because the pie case will be very full when you add the eggs, I like to put the baking sheet on the oven shelf at this point. Pull the shelf out so you don’t have to reach into the hot oven. Now take the egg mixture and pour it evenly over the pie. Sprinkle the remaining gruyere cheese on top.

8. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until a knife inserted in its centre comes out clean. Enjoy!

Below is the nutritional information for each serving if the quiche serves 6: