This broccoli Cheddar quiche is made with eggs, cheese, milk, and, yes, broccoli—everything you’d expect—and yet tastes so superior to every other iteration of this classic quiche that we’ve experienced.
This quiche relies on that inspired pairing of broccoli and Cheddar cheese. It’s made with everything you’d expect—milk, eggs, cheese, and, yes, those wee green trees—and yet it tastes so superior to every other iteration of this classic quiche that we’ve ever experienced. You could even add bacon, ham, sausage, a smidgen of smoked or salty cheese, or other veggies. Although honestly? We wouldn’t change a thing. Originally published September 27, 2015.–Renee Schettler Rossi
☞ Contents
Broccoli Cheddar Quiche
Ingredients
- 1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 small head broccoli trimmed and cut into small florets
- 1 small onion diced
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 2 single-crust pie crusts (regular or deep dish) in their pans
- 12 large eggs
- 1/4 cup whole milk, half-and-half, heavy cream, or buttermilk (either low-fat or full-fat)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- Handful finely chopped fresh herbs, crumbled bacon, diced ham, sautéed mushrooms, or whatever else you’d like (optional)
- 1 heaping cup freshly shredded yellow sharp Cheddar cheese
- 1/2 cup freshly shredded white Cheddar cheese
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (204°C).
- While the oven heats, in a medium sauté pan, heat the oil and sauté the broccoli for 10 minutes. Add the onions and garlic and cook until the onion is translucent, 5 to 10 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and let cool. (If you add the warm veggies to raw eggs, they’ll scramble. So don't be tempted to rush things.)
- While the veggies cook, bake the pie crusts, uncovered, until lightly golden, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack.
- In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and whole milk, half-and-half, heavy cream, or buttermilk with salt and pepper to taste until a slight froth forms at the top. Add the cooled onions and broccoli and the cheeses and gently incorporate them into the eggs. If desired, stir in fresh herbs or meat or whatever you please.
- Evenly distribute the mixture in the prebaked pie crusts and bake until the quiche no longer jiggles when nudged, 20 to 35 minutes, depending on the size and depth of your pie crusts. Let the quiche rest for a few minutes prior to slicing each into 6 to 8 wedges. Serve warm or at room temperature.
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Recipe Testers’ Reviews
This is a basic quiche recipe that can be tweaked and customized. The result of very little effort was enough quiche to feed several people and a pretty killer combination of broccoli and Cheddar, if you ask me.
I found it came together very quickly, especially because I used frozen pie crusts. I used buttermilk as I already had some in the fridge. It took 35 minutes before the filling was set and didn’t jiggle upon moving.
I think you could get 6 servings out of each quiche as a light breakfast or lunch with a salad. Both reheated and room-temp were delicious!
This is a recipe for a broccoli Cheddar quiche that’s about as perfect as perfect can be.
I only made 1 quiche so I halved the recipe. I also made my own pie crust. It’s so easy to make a pie crust that I rarely use store-bought crusts. However, this quiche is so delicious that I don’t think a store-bought crust would detract in any way. I used heavy cream rather than buttermilk because that was what I had on hand.
This simple recipe is a bit more complicated than it seems but produces a decent quiche without too much fuss.
Because the pie crusts have to cool after blind baking and the vegetables have to cool before being added to the egg mixture, there are several stop and start points in the the recipe. I weighed and chopped the vegetables while the oven was preheating and shredded the cheese while the crusts were blind-baking, but I still had gaps in time when I was waiting for things to cool so I could proceed. Even so, the crust was still a little warm when the liquid filling was poured into it.
The combination of broccoli and Cheddar made a good base. My head of broccoli had already been somewhat trimmed at the store. The quiches could’ve used a bit more broccoli, but it wasn’t an inadequate amount. I used Kirkland sharp Cheddar and Cabot 3-year-aged. I used full-fat buttermilk. Next time I might sauté some mushrooms to add to the vegetable mixture. I’d probably halve the recipe if making it again unless it was for a party as 2 quiches is way more than the 2 of us can eat in a reasonable time.
Fortunately, my husband needed to bring a dish to a picnic a couple of days after I made these, so we had a spare quiche for him to take. We’ve eaten pieces both hot and at room temperature, and they tasted fine without reheating.
This was an easy recipe that delivered tasty results. I made this for a party and everyone who had a slice loved it.
Use a nice, flavorful Cheddar, as the cheese makes all the difference in this dish! The dish was perfect on its own but I’d certainly add ham or bacon next time if I had either on hand. (I mean, if you had bacon, why wouldn’t you?)
I was in a bit of a hurry to finish the dish so that I could take it to a party. To speed the cooling, I transferred the vegetables to a bowl and popped it in the freezer for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, I prepped the egg mixture using half-and-half for the dairy. I served the quiche at room temperature and cut each into 8 slices, which was a nice serving size for a party where other foods were being served. For a meal at home, 6 slices might be better accompanied by a green salad.
This dish is definitely best served the day it’s made. The crust wasn’t as crisp the next day.
I’ve made a lot of quiche recipes because we like quiche, so I might be a bit biased, but it’s hard to make a bad quiche. What I liked about this broccoli Cheddar recipe is I have always used whole milk or half-and-half or sometimes skim milk if I’m feeling like we need a healthier version, but I have never used buttermilk. I was pleasantly surprised. It didn’t taste sour or bitter. This is a great option for a healthier quiche.
Originally published April 17, 2019
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I have been trying to make meals using what I already have in the house, and, not wanting to leave the house today because of the rain, I thought, I can make a quiche! I have all of the ingredients! But when I found the recipe I wanted for broccoli and cheese, I realized, I DON’T HAVE 12 EGGS! 12 eggs?
After closer reading I realized that was for 2 quiches. I only needed one quiche, it’s just the two of us, but I only had 3 eggs. I decided to try it anyway, thinking, as long as the eggs can bind all of this together I should be ok. This recipe served as a good guideline for me. I’ve made plenty of quiches in my day, but haven’t made one in a long time, so I really needed a recipe to follow. Here’s what I did do: I used a Mrs. Smith premade 9” deep dish flaky pie crust. I already had some broccoli that I had steamed, I sautéed fresh mushrooms, onion and garlic in some butter, then stirred in some chopped rosemary ham, the broccoli, and shredded cheddar cheese. To the eggs, I added heavy cream and a little milk, salt and pepper. After cooking the pie crust I added the filling to it and then evenly poured in the egg and cream mixture. Cooking times were perfect as directed in the recipe.
I served this for dinner tonight with a green salad and it was very tasty! I was surprised at how good the store-bought pie crust tasted, and how perfectly everything was cooked. I CAN make a quiche with only 3 eggs! If I had 4, I would have used 4, but I don’t think 6 is necessary unless I use one of my larger pie plates. The nice thing about quiche is that you don’t have to be too exact about your measurements. I can’t wait to try one of the other quiches on this site, like butternut squash!
Lorna, another winner for you! And I’m glad the recipe worked with half the eggs!
So how much does 1 heaping cup freshly shredded yellow sharp Cheddar cheese weigh? I realize that accuracy isn’t terribly important here, but gosh, it’s so much less messy to just grate cheese into a bowl on a scale than to grate it and stuff into a measuring cup.
Sara, thanks for the reminder. I added the weight to the ingredients list.
I recently heard a guy on tv say he didn’t eat quiche & I thought, “Do you eat omelets? Do you eat pie? It’s the same thing!” I’m not a cooked broccoli or cabbage fan (it’s an odor thing), but love quiche. This recipe looks great – maybe I’ll try it with zucchini.
Dottie, let me know what you think!
I love quiche, too, but I’m a girl. I remember when quiche became popular. I still have a quiche cookbook from the ’70s that I occasionally will look through. I forgot about making it, though, and with fall just moving into the midwest it’s the perfect evening meal with tomato soup. Thanks for reminding me. I’ll have to make some this week. Yours looks delicious!
Vicki, what a lovely note to find waiting for us. Yes, quiche is rather under appreciated and definitely worth having again some night soon. Enjoy yours this week and kindly let us know if you happen to try this one!