A basic quiche recipe without pastry, making it really quick to make.

It's very much like an omelette recipe when it comes to the fillings: if they are cooked already they can go straight in; if they normally need cooking they'll need cooking before adding to the quiche mixture.

This particular quiche recipe doesn't use a pastry base which makes it a lot quicker to prepare. As long as you have enough eggs, milk and some cream then it 'should' work. In the past, for cream, I've used single, double and crème fraîche, they all seem to work. The length of time you bake it for will depend on the finish you are looking for, some people like a nicely browned top and others prefer an omelette colour.

On to this recipe in particular, the list of ingredients below is enough for a 10.5 inch (27cm) diameter tart dish but this makes quite a 'low profile' quiche with the depth of the dish only 1.5 inch (4 cm). My dish is made of glass and I don't tend to bother greasing it because it never seems to stick. If yours is metal it may be worth considering this.

Quiche will serve around 3-4 people.

Ingredients for the basic quiche recipe:

• 4 eggs
• 250 ml of milk, preferably full fat, semi-skimmed will do, skimmed I doubt will work well
• 250ml of cream (either single, double or crème fraîche)
• salt and pepper

Ingredients for the quiche filling

• 1 courgette
• 1 small leek
• 1 box of 200g lardons (or ham, bacon etc)

How to make the quiche

Preheat your oven to 200°C (non-fan) you may need to try a little less for fan-assisted.

Chop the courgette up and begin frying gently in a frying pan with a touch of olive oil. Put the lardons in as well. Stirring now and again. Whilst it's sizzling gently chop the leek. Add this after a few minutes. Continue to fry until the courgette begins to change colour and is becoming soft, the lardons should also have begun to colour. Once they are looking ready turn off the heat and allow to cool whilst you prepare the quiche mixture.

In a fairly large mixing bowl add all the ingredients for the quiche, so that's the four eggs, milk, cream, a pinch of salt and 3-4 grinds of black pepper. Mix together so that the egg is well mixed in, I like to use a hand whisk and beat the mixture. Don't know if this does anything but I 'like to think I'm beating some air into it.

Tip the mixture in the tart dish, then add your cooked ingredients for the filling. Try to spread them out so that there's an even amount of ingredients, you don't want one slice having all the leek and another all the courgette.

Put this into the oven, be careful because there's quite a lot of liquid in there and we don't want to make a mess! Cook for about 35-40 minutes or until it has risen and taken some colour. Have a look after 25-30 minutes just in case you oven cooks things quicker.

Serve either straight from the oven hot, or allow to cool and eat cold. You can have anything you like with it, salad is always nice and makes it quite a light meal. A there you have it, a basic quiche recipe without pastry. Who needs pastry anyway :)

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