Crustless Quinoa Quiche

Over at Tali's Tomatoes, you will find the original source for this particular recipe. I first liked it on Facebook because it looked interesting and healthy.  One of my friends tried it and gave it rave reviews.  He has an adventurous palate like my own, so I wondered how my family would react.  Then my sister tried it and her husband and kids thought it was delicious.  So I tried it for my meat loving husband, who went back for seconds.  That was enough for me. In terms of healthy eating, I think it gets an A+.   I used 1/2 egg beaters and 1/2 whole eggs to cut back on fat.  I also added more spinach to add more veggie impact.  Try it...and visit Tali's Tomatoes too:  http://talistomatoes.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/crustless-quinoa-quiche.html

What you need to serve 4 people:

• 6 eggs
• 3/4 cup Greek yoghurt
• 1/2 cup quinoa
• 1 cup vegetable stock
• 4 mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
• 1 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes (optional)
• 1 1/2 cups spinach or kale cut into thin strips
• 1 punnet cherry tomatoes, each tomato chopped in half
• salt and pepper to taste
• butter or oil for cooking (I used coconut oil)

How to make it:

Preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F) and grease a quiche dish with butter or oil. Rinse the quinoa, add to a saucepan and then cover with the stock. Bring the stock to the boil and then reduce to a simmer and cook until all of the stock has been absorbed and the quinoa is cooked.

While the quinoa is cooking, add some oil to a frying pan and saute the onions and garlic until soft and fragrant. Add the spinach and  mushrooms and stir until the spinach has just wilted. Set aside to cool.

Whisk the eggs with the Greek yoghurt until frothy. Add the spinach mixture, parmesan cheese, cooked quinoa, nutritional yeast and salt and pepper and mix until well combined. Pour the mixture into the greased quiche dish.

Carefully place the cherry tomatoes seed side up all over the top of the quiche and place it in the oven. Cook for approximately 45 minutes until golden.

Make it Naughty: add some tasty cheese and bacon pieces.

If you would like to see a video on how to cook quinoa, there is a quirky video available here - http://vimeo.com/21870705.