Eat Well, Be Well, Live Well

I simply love this dish! It’s easy to prepare, chock full of many of my favorite things, and I love that you can serve it for breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner. For breakfast or brunch, I like to serve it with a beautiful bowl of ripe berries or other fruit. For lunch or dinner, I’ll pair it with a simple side salad. It also fits with my long-time mantra: “eggs with anything.”  In the past, when I’d found dinnertime nearly upon me, the day having zipped by without a chance to run to the store of think of a meal, I would whip up an omelet or quiche using whatever ingredients could be found in my fridge. It’s a trick of the French, and it will never fail you.

But back to the quiche. I’ve made it using a regular as well as a gluten-free crust. Both hold up fine in this dish, so take your pick. Although the recipe below calls for kale, chard works equally well. You can also substitute goat cheese for feta, although I’m really in love with sheep’s milk feta at the moment. It doesn’t seem to aggravate my stomach the way cow’s milk products do.

Ingredients for the crust

1/2 cup all-purpose gluten-free flour

1/2 cup sorghum flour

1/4 cup almond flour

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, chilled (or use coconut oil if you’re dairy-free)

1/4 tsp sea salt

2-3 tbsp ice cold water

Ingredients for the filling

1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1 tbsp butter or ghee

1 large leek, trimmed, thinly sliced (white and light green parts only) and carefully washed

1 handful fresh kale, carefully washed, ribs removed and chopped into 1/2-inch strips

3 strips thick-cut quality bacon

1/2-2/3 cup feta cheese

A few tbsp fresh herbs, such as basil or oregano, chopped (optional)

4 large eggs

1 cup milk

Sea salt and fresh-ground pepper

Preparation

Heat the oven to 375F.

In a medium-size bowl, whisk the flours and salt until combined. Slice in the chilled butter, and mix with the flours using a pastry cutter, two knives or your hands  until there are no chunks larger than pea-size. Sprinkle in a little ice water–1 tbsp at a time, and continue mixing until the dough holds together well. Scrape the contents into a 9-inch pyrex or ceramic pie dish and press the dough into the bottom and up the sides to form your crust. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, then set aside.

While the crust is baking, fry the bacon strips over medium heat until cooked but still tender, not crisp.