Herbed Quiche w/Blue Cheese {vegetarian}

I have what seems to be an endless amount of blue cheese in my refrigerator. I partially chipped away at one brick and have an entire untouched other brick in my fridge. I was looking for salad recipes that used blue cheese when I came across an interesting looking recipe for quiche at Emeril Lagasse’s website made with blue cheese and fresh herbs.

I’m a big fan of quiche. What’s not to love about eggs, cream and cheese baked into a crust? I never would have thought to use blue cheese as my cheese in quiche but since I love blue cheese I figured I’d give it a whirl.

While blue cheese has a very strong taste, folding it inside eggs and cream mitigates the strong taste (for those of you who do not like blue cheese or strong cheese in general). My recipe, below, is adapted from Emeril’s recipe in part because I wanted to add extra cheese and in part because I accidentally omitted the milk called for in the original recipe. Even still, the quiche turned out amazing with a rich custard-like texture.

Emeril’s recipe calls to make the dish in a tart pan, which I do not have. If you’re like me and do not have a tart pan, a pie pan works just fine.

ingredients.

1 Savory Pie Crust (such as this one)
8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
3 oz blue cheese, at room temperature
2 T. unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 eggs
1 c. heavy cream
½ rounded tsp. salt
¼ tsp. freshly ground black pepper
3 T. chopped fresh mixed herbs, such as parsley, thyme, oregano, etc.

directions.

Preheat the oven to 400°F.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pie crust dough to 1/8-inch thickness to fit a 9-inch pie pan. Fill the pan with the dough, easing the dough into the bottom and lightly pressing it against the bottom and sides. Trim off the excess dough and flute the crust.
Line the pie dough with aluminum foil, and fill it with ceramic pie weights or dried beans. Bake for 9 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the filling. In a medium bowl, whisk together the cream cheese, blue cheese, and butter. Whisk in the eggs until well blended. Stir in the cream, salt, pepper, and herbs.
Remove the pie pan from the oven and cool. Reduce the oven temperature to 375°F. Remove the foil and the weights.
Pour the filling into the partially baked pie shell. Return the pie pan to the oven and bake, rotating the quiche halfway through, until it is puffed and golden brown, 35 to 40 minutes. The quiche is done when the center is no longer jiggly and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
Remove from oven, garnish with additional fresh herbs, and cool for at least 5 minutes before slicing. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature.

We let this cool about an hour because we started out with a salad, and, I have to say, the temperature was really quite perfect after an hour. Warm but not piping hot. I liked the temperature so much that when reheating the quiche I reheat it only to slightly warm.

Recipe rating: 