Easy Veggie Quiche

The best easy veggie quiche recipe using milk, loads of vegetables and pre-made crust for a quick, healthy vegetarian breakfast.

Veggie quiches are one of those breakfast foods that make it look like you went all out and spent a lot of time and effort, when in reality they can be easy and stress free.

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

If you’re looking for a low carb quiche recipe, try this crustless quiche, these mini egg muffins, or these eggs baked in ramekins. Or for something sweet but still healthy try this strawberry banana steel cut oat bake.

Why you should make this veggie quiche

This tried and true recipe is just as delicious as it is healthy without all of the extra hassle! Here are some highlights on what makes this vegetarian quiche great:

• 12 grams of protein for each under 300 calorie serving
• 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 faster 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

Here’s what you’ll need and a few notes on what to use:

• avocado oil – this is my favorite oil to cook with due to it’s high smoke point but you can use whatever you prefer best
• onion – either red or yellow will do
• red pepper – I slice mine in strips and then chop the slices in half to make them easier to eat.
• minced garlic – jarred pre-minced garlic is fine here
• mushrooms – I just use crimini but shitake would be great too
• spinach – if spinach pieces are large, chop a few times to break up
• refrigerated or frozen pie crust – this is what makes it so easy! I use refrigerated if I want to use my own pan but the frozen ones come in disposable pie tins and typically turn out crispier on the bottom.
• whole milk – I use whole milk and recommend that but 2% will work ok. Whatever you do, DO NOT use non-fat or your quiche will be a watery mess.
• eggs – I prefer eggs with dark yellow yolks but just get the best ones you can afford. Pasture raised is better than cage free but egg labeling is notoriously tricky. Often times the same eggs are labeled differently and listed at different prices under different brand names so be mindful of this, experiment and find your favorite.
• salt – I use himalayan pink salt in pretty much everything but table salt works fine.
• pepper – fresh ground is always best.
• nutmeg – just a sprinkle of ground nutmeg for that hint of extra flavor.
• grated cheese – I prefer either a sharp cheddar or gruyere but use your favorite here.

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.

First you start by sautéing the veggies in three stages:

4. Then you prepare the quiche filling by whisking the eggs, milk and seasonings together
5. Place the vegetables in the prepared pie crust
6. Sprinkle cheese on top
7. Pour the filling over the vegetables
8. Place the quiche in the oven and bake for 35-40 minutes
9. Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes before serving

What pie crust to use

While a homemade 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 they bottom can be kind of gummy without par-baking the crust. I now prefer frozen pie crust since it gets crispier on the bottom.

That being said, you can’t transfer the frozen pie crust to another pan so it won’t have that same homemade presentation. You can put the crust and it’s tin into another pie serving pan though to make it look a little more presentable.

I also usually 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.

Substitutions

There are many substitution options and here are a few notes on substitutions for the main ingredients:

• Cheese swapping is simple and as long as you use a good cheese it will work. Freshly grated melts best but pre-grated will work in pinch too. I love using either a sharp cheddar or gruyere but any cheese is welcome here. I’ve even done feta and goat cheese which was a nice change of pace.
• Vegetables can be swapped out for whatever you have on hand or according to your preference. Just make sure to cook them down and keep an eye on the moisture content.
• Gluten free is simple using a gluten free crust or even going crustless. If you choose crustless be sure to grease your pie tin very well or use a silicone baking mold.
• Garlic – you can use 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder in exchange for minced garlic.
• Nutmeg – just leave it out if you don’t have it.
• Milk – I recommend using whole milk but you can replace with 2% or cream, whipping cream or heavy cream. I have tried with oat milk as well to reduce the overall amount of dairy in the recipe and it wasn’t perfect but worked decently.

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.
• Broccoli cheddar – this one is great for kids! I’ve got a recipe for mini crustless broccoli cheddar quiches here if that’s more your style.
• 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.

More breakfast and brunch recipes

If you want other breakfast or brunch recipes you can always peruse our catalog of breakfast recipes or here are some of my breakfast and brunch favorites:

• oat flour waffles
• chorizo sweet potato hash
• almond flour pancakes
• whole wheat yogurt pancakes

(Recipe originally published January 31, 2014, but pictures and post text were updated May 20, 2019 and again on September 13, 2022. Recipe was also updated to use less liquid to easily fit into a 9″ pie pan)