Quiche is probably my favorite breakfast construct. You can put almost anything into a quiche, which makes them super flexible and useful as a way to eat up leftovers. They also work double-duty as a solid option for either breakfast or dinner! I use this basic blueprint for most any quiche, swapping out approximate ingredients for whatever I have on hand.
It's worth noting that with all the cheese and heavy cream in here, this is not really a "healthy" meal. It's still kinda-healthy-ish though. Let's get cooking!
OVERVIEW
Prep - About 30 minutes
Cook - 45 minutes, then another 15
Serves - 6 or more adults easily
You'll need - Cooked lentils, button mushrooms, shallots or onions, cheese, eggs, and a pie crust
RECIPE
Start with the oven, bringing it up to 400 degrees, or 200c if you call cilantro 'coriander.' You'll use that temperature for the mushrooms, and then again later the quiche itself.
While the oven warms, prep the 'shrooms; you'll need about 8 or 10 button mushrooms for this. You'll want to get any debris off of them with a damp cloth, trim the bottom part of the stems, then quarter them and toss them with salt, pepper, and a couple tablespoons of oil. Spread them over a sheet pan (you don't need to wait for the preheat to finish for this, just check them regularly) and pop them into the oven. They'll need about 20-25 minutes; you want them to shrink up, turn golden, and to lose a lot of their moisture. If you don't let them cook out their moisture, the quiche will be too wet.
While they cook, you'll prep your onions and/or shallots - you'll need about 1 cup of onions/shallots in total. You're looking for thin, regular slices, nothing bigger than a quarter inch thick, so that they break down well. Trying not to cry, toss them into a frying pan with 2 tablespoons of butter. Stir them regularly over low/medium heat and they should finish around the same time as the mushrooms, about 20 minutes. If they're browning too fast, turn the heat down and take your time.
While the veggies are cooking, crack 8 eggs and pour 1.5 cups of heavy whipping cream into a large mixing bowl. Whisk that (I use a fork for this, since I find whisks tedious to clean) until smooth, adding salt and pepper to taste. Once the eggs are mixed, grate up about 2 cups of cheese - I usually make this with 2 parts cheddar to 1 part whatever-I'm-using-up (in this case, it was a smoked gouda) and add that to the bowl as well.
Spread out your pie crust into a pie pan, pinching any cracked parts back together again so it forms a coherent surface for your quiche. Now you've just got to put it all together.
As they finish, add the mushrooms, onions (you cooked them with lots of butter, right?), and 2 cups of cooked lentils to the bowl, mixing until it's all incorporated. Tip that mixture into the pie crust, taking care not to overfill it.
Put the pie crust onto a baking sheet (in case it overflows) and pop it into the oven with a loose tent of foil overhead to keep it from burning. Set the timer for 45 minutes. Once the timer finishes, you'll want to remove the foil but leave the quiche in there for another 15 minutes, then check it. If it's looking nice and browned around the edges, and no longer (very) loose in the center, you can pop it out to let it cool, otherwise check it every five minutes or so until it's ready.
NOTES
On lentils. I tend to cook lentils in batches in an instant pot - they cook up pretty quick and easy that way, and I'll generally split the result and make a curry out of half a batch, with the other half reserved for a future use (like for this recipe). I used brown/yellow lentils here, but any sort will do.
Extra mushrooms. If you've got more mushrooms on hand than this recipe calls for, cook 'em up on the sheet pan and then reserve them after that step - you can easily toss them into a future soup, egg dish, or whatever else. Warm them and put them into a dish with some mint and olive oil for a tasty side to a future meal. I generally find that cooking food ahead of time leads to easier meal-prep the next day.
Onions or shallots? They're not the same thing, but I generally find them pretty interchangeable nonetheless. I initially planned to use yellow onions for this recipe, but one had gone moldy so I subbed in some shallots and liked the way it worked out.