Fennel, Red Pepper, Kale, Tomato, Smoked Ham and Cheese Quiche

Yay for weekend breakfasts and brunches! They will always be my absolute favorite. This long weekend I was inspired to make a fresh, flavorful and colorful quiche using a bunch of delicious vegetables I had on hand from Taproot Farm! Quiche has never been a top breakfast food of mine (which is rare because I love most foods haha!), so I decided I wanted to change that by creating a version I felt I would really enjoy. For me, this meant including a ton of flavors aside of just the egg and also cutting out the richness of a traditional heavy cream and instead opting for a bit of cream cheese! The resulting creation was absolutely delicious and we had no leftovers to spare (always a good sign!). So, whether you are already quiche lover, a wanna-be quiche lover like me or just want to try making your own quiche at home, look no further! Enjoy and happy cooking! 🙂

Instructions:

1. First, cut up your ingredients if you haven’t already.
2. Next, if your premade pie crust isn’t already in a pan (mine was just the dough) then drizzle a teaspoon of olive oil in your pie pan and spread the dough in the pan with your fingers and press it into a pie crust shape. I made a very “free” looking pie crust haha and edged the ends with a fork, but you can do whatever your heart desires! Set this aside.
3. After that, combine the pieces of red pepper, fennel, garlic, onion, kale and 1 tablespoon olive oil in a sauté pan. Set to medium heat and cook 5 to 10 minutes (stirring as needed) until the vegetables are softened. Remove from heat and set aside.
4. Preheat the oven to 375°F.
5. Combine your eggs, whole milk and plain cream cheese in a mixing bowl and whisk to combine. You will see hunks of cream cheese floating around – this is ok and will incorporate into the quiche perfectly! Just try and break it up as much as you can.
6. Next, whisk in your cheese, ham, sautéed vegetables and cherry tomatoes.
7. Pour all of this into your pie pan.
8. Before putting your quiche in the oven, keep these two things in mind: pie crust edges brown SUPER quickly – to avoid this, either place foil around the edges and only remove when you have 15-20 minutes left of baking. Or you can do it like me and let the edges brown then add the foil halfway through baking (*this is a bit trickier since everything is hot, so just keep that in mind!).
9. Put your quiche in the oven and bake for 35 to 40 minutes. You can test the quiche by sticking a toothpick in and making sure it comes out clean.
10. Top with fresh torn basil and black pepper.
11. Let the quiche rest for 5 minutes, slice and enjoy warm! 🙂