Dr Mobeus
Budget Quiche Lorraine
Quiche Lorraine sounds like something that should come with a fancy price tag, but it is really just eggs, bacon and value pastry, which makes it one of the great cheap meals. A whole quiche feeds four generously and costs less than £3 to make.
The value block pastry is the honest shortcut here. It rolls out fine, bakes up crisp, and nobody has ever guessed it cost less than a pound. Blind baking it with baking beans or foil over some dried rice is the only slightly fiddly step, and it is the difference between a crisp base and a soggy one.
Bacon bits, the odd shaped offcuts sold cheaply in most supermarkets, are ideal here because you are chopping them anyway. The quiche is best slightly warm on the day it is made, but it is genuinely just as good cold in a lunchbox the next day.
Budget Quiche Lorraine
Ingredients
Method
- Heat the oven to 190°C (170°C fan). Roll the pastry out on a floured surface until it is about the thickness of a pound coin and line a 20 cm round or square tin, letting the excess hang over the edges.
- Line the pastry with baking paper and fill with baking beans, dried rice or a scrunched up sheet of foil. Blind bake for 15 minutes, then remove the paper and beans and bake for another 5 minutes until the base looks dry.
- While the pastry bakes, fry the bacon bits in a dry pan for 5 minutes until the edges crisp. There is usually enough fat in them that you will not need oil.
- Beat the eggs and milk together in a jug, stir in the grated cheese and plenty of black pepper, then mix in the bacon.
- Sit the tin on a baking sheet, pour the egg mixture into the pastry case and carefully slide it into the oven. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until the filling is set with a slight wobble in the middle and the top is golden.
- Let the quiche cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then trim the overhanging pastry with a sharp knife and slice. Eat warm or let it cool completely and keep it in the fridge for lunchboxes.
Tips and Variations
Any leftover pastry can be rolled out, filled with a spoonful of jam and baked for 12 minutes to make jam tarts. No bacon in the house works fine with just cheese and a sliced onion softened in the pan first. Let the quiche cool completely before covering and refrigerating, where it keeps for three days. Do not overbake it, the centre should still have a slight wobble when it comes out because it firms up as it cools.
