Mushroom & Gruyere Quiche

This week's theme for Whip It Up is appetizers. I struggled quite a bit with this -- while I love to prepare (and eat!) a wide variety of appetizers, now that I'm living on my own, I have no reason to make them. I'm down to cooking once or twice a week and eating leftovers for the rest of the days, and well.... I just can't subside for multiple meals off of something based with spinach, artichoke, and puff pastry. So instead, I decided to make something that works for dinner as well as for appetizers -- a quiche. If I was going to make this as an appetizer, I'd press the rolled pie dough into muffin tins and spoon a bit of the filling into each to make a perfect two-bite sized quiche. But for me for dinner, I just made one big quiche. I use my own hand-rolled pie crusts (I really hate rolling out pie crust so whenever I need one, I'll roll out 6 at a time and leave the rest in my freezer), but I am quite sure that a store-bought pie crust would work just as well for a quiche.

Mushroom & Gruyere Quiche

Ingredients:

• 1/4 pound cremini mushrooms, quartered
• 1/4 pound portobello mushroom caps, diced
• 1/4 pound shitake mushrooms, quartered
• 1/2 medium onion, thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 pie crust
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
• 4 ounces gruyere cheese, shredded

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. In a large bowl, toss mushrooms with onion, olive oil, salt, and pepper, and place on a rimmed baking sheet in a single layer. Roast for 15 minutes, or until cooked and firm. Remove from oven and set aside.
3. Pick pie shell all over with a fork. Prebake for 10 to 15 minutes, until lightly browned.
4. Reduce oven temperature to 350F.
5. Whisk together cream and eggs with thyme. In a large bowl, combine roasted mushrooms and onions with the shredded gruyere. Spread mixture in the bottom of the pie shell in an even layer.
6. Pour cream-egg mixture over the mushrooms, ensuring that all of the mushroom mixture is covered.
7. Bake for 45-55 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the quiche comes out clean,