I needed a quick weeknight dinner but was craving breakfast and did not have any cream in the house. Thus, this cottage cheese quiche was born. Usually I’m a quiche purist and would have a tough time veering from tradition, but I’m so glad I did. Breakfast with a dinner twist anyone?
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For years, my husband would only eat spinach Quiche Lorraine with swiss and gruyere. Every time I tried a different recipe, my husband would say to stop changing up his favorite.
That all changed when I made this weekday surprise. The rich and creamy texture is perfect for dinner and the full fat makes even just one piece very filling. Though we definitely could fly through the whole pie in one night if it wasn’t so rich–definitely comfort food.
Did you know that to be considered a Quiche Lorraine it must have cream, swiss cheese, and bacon? This is definitely not a Quiche Lorraine, but a recipe that can be easily modified with what you typically keep in your fridge. In that sense, I think I should’ve named this the ‘Kitchen Sink Quiche.’
I serve this for dinner with a salad and a light fruit dessert. Right now we’ve been into peaches with a homemade granola crumble on top.
Feel free to add red peppers, green onions, mushrooms, broccoli or any other vegetable you prefer. Personally we fell in love with the cheddar/cottage cheese/spinach blend, but you could easily change the filling choices and even the canadian bacon. This recipe is very easy to customize for your own taste buds and what you have in the house.
Keep in mind that the more vegetables you add, the more volume in the pie, so you might even get 2 pies out of this quiche recipe. For me that’s a major plus! If you prefer to modify the recipe and use a different vegetable, keep the proportions to just 1 cup of veggies.
What I love about quiche with cottage cheese is there is a nice rise without much sinking back down. My experience with cream quiches is you have to add enough excess liquid to account for a rise and then a settling in the baking dish.
Though any type of cottage cheese works, I typically use full fat cottage cheese. Keep in mind that if your cottage cheese is salty, it’ll really stand out in quiche, so make sure you use a cottage cheese you enjoy when eaten plain.
You could also put the eggs and cottage cheese in a bowl and whisk it instead of blending, however, I prefer the perfectly creamy texture created in the blender. I think full fat cottage cheese also adds a little more structure to the egg mixture and prevents it from sinking.
For the pie crust, I love using Chef John’s recipe with Einkorn flour (ancient grain), but you can use whatever pie crust you prefer, or even use a gluten free flour.
Usually I double or triple Chef John’s recipe, roll it out, and then put in between plastic wrap. Then I roll up my pie crust dough and put it in my freezer.
This pie crust freezes very well and is incredibly useful to keep on hand. My favorite rolling ‘cheat’ is to use my pasta roller on my Kitchen Aid to roll my dough out for me. My crusts are very uniform this way with little effort on my part.
Though this pie doesn’t have the sophistication of a cream quiche, it has a Southern comfort food charm we look forward to regularly. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
- prepared pie crust
- 16 ounces cottage cheese
- 4 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese shredded
- 8 slices Canadian bacon chopped
- 1 cup spinach Raw and chopped
- dash pepper
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Preheat oven to 350°F.
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Prepare pie pan: Add a bit of butter (or cooking spray) to the bottom of the pie dish (to prevent any sticking).
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Lay pie crust in pie pan and cover with shredded cheddar cheese, then chopped spinach, then canadian bacon.
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Prepare egg mixture: In a blender, blend eggs, cottage cheese, and pepper.
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Pour egg mixture over pie shell (and cheese/spinach/bacon).
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Bake 40-50 minutes at 350°F. Quiche may appear a little liquid-y but not jiggly.
Topping options: Serve with freshly grated parmesan cheese and fresh herbs or nothing at all.
*Salt was not needed at all because the cottage cheese had a salty taste already. However, feel free to add it if you tend to add salt at the breakfast or dinner table.
I had doubts about this recipe but needed to use up some cottage cheese and spinach. It turned out great! I substituted chopped mushrooms for the Canadian bacon and sautéed them with the spinach first.
Thank you so much for sharing how you substituted. I love seeing how ou personalize recipes to make it your own. 🙂