A mixed vegetable quiche is a classic British dish that comes out very cheap with a bit of frugalisation. If you think quiche or flan sounds like something your granny makes, you could always call it a tart and feel all contemporary. If you decide to use the oil pastry, it is lovely and short and the filling delicious and sustaining, whatever you decide to call it.  There are lots of different vegetarian quiche ideas, see the bottom of the post for a few.

What ingredients do I need to make a mixed vegetable quiche

For the filling you need

Onion – 1 onion. If I have a red onion, as here, I like to quarter it and slice into slivers, rather than chop it. Using a red onion doesn’t really make any difference to the taste, I just happened to have a lot of them when I made this.
Peas – I use the cheapest frozen peas. No need for tender petit pois in this. I use them straight from the freezer without waiting for them to defrost.
Carrot – a medium carrot, grated, no need to peel if it’s in good condition
Cheese – a mature cheddar if you have it as it has more flavour. Or you could use a blue cheese. I wouldn’t use a mozzarella as it so mild it wouldn’t provide any flavour.
Eggs – 2 medium or large eggs. The size doesn’t seem to make much difference. Please try and use free range if you can, it makes a huge difference to the life of a hen.

For the pastry you need

Self raising flour – I use the cheapest. If you only have plain it won’t matter too much
Rapeseed oil – I use rapeseed as I always have that, but any neutral oil can be used. I’ve used olive oil in pastry before and it adds a lovely flavour

How much does vegetable quiche cost to make

For 4 portions – priced at Aldi 23rd March 2023
80g mature cheddar, £2.79/400g, 56p
2 eggs, 12 medium eggs £2.19, 36p
1 medium carrot, 60p/1.5kg, 9p
1 onion, 89p/kg, 11p
100g frozen peas, 89p/900g, 10p

180g self raising value flour 1.5kg/69p, 8p
60g rapeseed oil, Aldi 1.99p/litre, 12p
Total cost £1.42p. Serves 4,  35p a serving

What pastry should I use to make a vegetable quiche

I always use oil to make pastry as I love the easy method and the delicious short pastry . There is a really easy method to make pastry using oil, fully explained here.

Or if you are a confident pastry maker, you could use the rub in method and make the pastry using a solid fat. This could be butter, margarine, lard or fat saved from a roasting joint.

If you’d rather not make pastry, shop bought is fine. You have the option of using shortcrust or puff pastry.

Is this vegetarian quiche gluten free?

In the recipe given, the pastry is not gluten free. But if you make the pastry using gluten free flour, everything else is gluten free. Gluten free pastry is a tricky beast. My brother is coeliac and when I make something using pastry for him, I usually don’t attempt to roll it out, but press it into the tin and the resulting tart or whatever bakes just fine. Or I have occasionally rolled it between 2 sheets pf greaseproof paper and that seems to work alright.

How do I make this easy vegetarian quiche

I use oil pastry most of the time as I like it. So, first of all, make the pastry using the oil and the flour.  Tip the flour into a bowl, add the oil. Add about two thirds of the water and stir it in, you may need the rest, you may not, flours differ as to how much water they will absorb. Be confident this process will work even though the flour, oil and water look a bit like a batter at first. You just need to gently stir everything together. You need to add the water so that you can roll the pastry out, without it, the pastry will be too crumbly to roll.  The dough will be a soft one, not as firm as a pastry made with butter.

If you can, leave the dough to rest and absorb the water for a few minutes.

While the dough is resting, make the filling. Crack the eggs into a bowl. Add the grated carrot, the chopped or sliced onion, grated cheese and the peas. Give it all a good stir, season with salt and pepper.

Roll the dough out on a floured surface to fit a 20-22cm tart tin or 4 individual tartlet tins.  If you are unfamiliar with rolling pastry and it won’t behave for you, roll it out as best you can and use it to patch the base and sides of the tin, it will taste just as good, and practice makes perfect. You will get better at it.

Bake in a medium oven for about 25-30 minutes until the filling is set and the pastry looks cooked.

Vegetarian quiche ideas

• The carrots and peas are in there to stretch out the more expensive eggs and cheese.
• Replace them with wafer thin slices of fennel and peas,
• or use beetroot and feta instead of the carrots and cheddar.
• Roast the onion and carrots before adding them to the mix to give a different flavour using the same ingredients.
• Use 200g veg from a frozen bag of mixed veg instead of the carrots and peas.
• Or some broccoli florets and 2 or 3 asparagus spears.
• Use spinach leaves from the garden and sliced radish,
• or a couple of celery sticks very finely sliced with a grated apple and a scattering of walnuts.
• Use a value blue cheese, feta or emmental if  you’re feeling flush.
• Personally, I don’t like cream in a quiche/tart, but if you do, and you have some, add it in if you want to.

This is lovely hot, or cold in a packed lunch with a bit of salad, or potato salad to go with it. If there are 2 of you, you could have half one day, half the next day, or take it as your lunch, it’s sturdy enough to survive a packed lunch box.

Got some leftover pastry?

I usually have a little pastry leftover and it’s enough make a little individual tart of some kind. I always do something like that, and they rarely get the chance to go completely cold, they get scoffed before that.

I often make a little jam tart with the pastry trimmings using some damson jam I made ages ago.

Or you could try making a little French apple tart. Peel an apple (you’ll need half an apple per tartlet) quarter it, and slice as finely as you can. Line a tartlet tin and place the apple slices in a spiral. Brush generously with butter and sprinkle with sugar. Bake it in the oven with the quiche. Cooks perk?