Easy Veggie Quiche

This meatless veggie quiche recipe uses whole milk, loads of vegetables, and premade crust, for a quick breakfast. It’s an absolutely delicious vegetarian meal with spinach, peppers, mushrooms, and so much flavor!

Quiches are one of those breakfast foods that look like they take a lot of time and effort to make. The truth is, they are easy and stress free to make.

With this vegetarian quiche recipe, you can have the meal prepped and ready to go in the oven in under 15 minutes. This makes it a perfect brunch, holidays, a potluck, or just to eat and horde to yourself since it reheats so well.

If you’re looking for a crustless quiche recipe, try this crustless quiche with ham and broccoli, these mini egg muffins, or these salsa eggs baked in ramekins. Check out my breakfast recipes archive for more delicious ideas!

Why you should make this veggie quiche

This tried and true recipe is not just tasty, it’s hassle-free! Here are some highlights on what makes this vegetable quiche great:

• Reheats and freezes well making it perfect for meal prep or making head of time.
• So versatile you can sub with other veggies or cheese you need to use up easily.
• Appears fancy so great for entertaining at a brunch or breakfast get together.
• It travels well so you can bring it to a friend’s place.
• Crust doesn’t need to be par-baked, making it quicker to make than a standard quiche.
• Easy as can be since there’s no meat to cook, the veggies cook fast and the crust is store bought.

Ingredients and Substitutions

See the ingredient image below and a list of ingredients is in the recipe card.

What pie crust to use

While a homemade pie crust is delightful, my love affair for quiches really started when I discovered refrigerated pie crusts. I started out using the Pillsbury brand refrigerated ones that you roll out but, as with homemade crust, I found the bottom can be kind of gummy without par-baking (blind baking) the crust with pie weights. To avoid the need for par-baking, you can place the pan in the bottom 1/3 of the oven to make sure the bottom crust browns.

You can also choose to use a frozen pie crust in a metal disposable pan. But, they tend to be smaller, so you may need to reduce the milk to 3/4 cup and only use 4 eggs.

I also sometimes use one of these pie shields to keep the top crust from getting overly browned. It isn’t entirely necessary for quiches since they aren’t in the oven as long as pies and you can always pull the quiche out and tent foil strips around the edges if you notice the top crust is browning too fast.

Gluten free is simple using a prepared gluten free crust, a gluten-free pie crust mix, or even going crustless. If you choose crustless be sure to grease your pie tin very well, or use a silicone baking mold.

How to make a vegetarian quiche

It takes a fair amount of time to bake, but the hands-on time is truly minimal. The steps below show how simple it is to assemble.

1. First you start by sautéing the veggies in three stages over medium-high heat in a large skillet:

4. Then you prepare the quiche filling by whisking the eggs, milk and seasonings together.
   
5. Place the vegetables in the prepared pie crust that has been pressed into a pie dish.
   
6. Sprinkle cheese on top.
   
7. Pour the filling over the vegetables and cheese.
   
8. Place the quiche in the oven and bake for 35-40 minutes.
   
9. Remove from the oven once the quiche is baked and golden brown. Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.
   

Different Variations

There are more vegetarian quiche combinations than I could possibly list, but here are a few to get your ideas churning:

• Caramelized onion, mushroom and gruyere – add a splash of balsamic during the last minute of caramelizing those onions for extra flavor.
• Goat cheese, cherry tomatoes and fresh herbs – just make sure to get most of the juice out of the tomatoes to keep them from making the quiche watery.
• Mediterranean with feta, kalamata olives, cherry tomatoes, red onion and fresh basil and maybe some spinach.
• Asparagus, sun-dried tomatoes, fresh herbs and either goat cheese or feta.

Really the possibilities are endless and it’s fun to play around with quiche ingredients. Just make sure not to add too many veggies or the overall egg to filling ratio will be off.

Freezing and Reheating Quiche

For freezing, the best way is to freeze the crust and filling separately prior to baking. Prep all of the filling (veggies + milk and egg mixture) and then put it into a bag or freezer safe container and freeze for up to 3 months. I often meal prep several at a time when doing this.

To reheat a full quiche that you’ve already fully baked, let it warm in a pre-heated 350° (175° C) oven until the center is warm (30-35 minutes if reheating from refrigerator).

Part of the beauty of a vegetarian quiche is how easy it is to meal prep and how well it reheats! See notes in the recipe card for additional details on various freezing and reheating situations.

Why is my quiche watery or soggy?

There are a few things that can lead to a soggy quiche. First, not cooking all of the water off of the vegetables. Sautéing instead of steaming helps with this but you need to make sure the mushrooms release all of their water and you can squeeze out any excess with a kitchen towel if the spinach releases water at the end.

Another culprit is over baking. Quiches are finicky and need to be baked until the center has just set. They will start releasing water when over baked.

(Recipe originally published January 31, 2014, but pictures and post text were updated May 20, 2019 and again on September 13, 2022. Based on reader feedback, the recipe itself was updated to clarify that a deep dish 9″ pie pan is needed. Instructions for reducing liquid for using a regular 9″ pie tin were also added.