Sweet Potato Crust Quiche

Book:  Our book club book for the month is “I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Changed the World” by Malala Yousafzai.  If you need a quick biography to read, then this book may interest you.  It is only 195 pages.  The person herself- Malala – is first-rate five stars wowzer person.  She is the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.  But the way the book was written I’d give it 3-4 out of 5 stars.  If I were critiquing the book as a Language Arts teacher, I would work on the cohesiveness of the history, politics and personal narrative.  To the personal narrative, I would like to see more of the five senses used:  the smells of the food from the kitchen, the floor beneath her feet, etc.  It reads like a first draft that would be sent for peer editing.  However.  The history and education that you receive from the book about Pakistan is amazing as well as the inspiring story of the girl who fought for education.

Recipe:  Most of the moms I know are trying to eat healthy and get a nice breakfast in to start their day.  Whether trying to lose weight or just maintain weight, I get a LOT of inquiries on eating healthy and how to eat the foods we enjoy while still eating REAL food.  So, for MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) I brought in a sweet potato crust quiche.  We loved it!  I had the rest for lunch with my five year old and she ate every single crumb.  Now that it has been kid-approved, I can post about it!

Healthy Eating Swap #1:  Sweet potato slices for pie crust
Healthy Eating Swap #2:  2 Tb. grated Parmesan cheese for the 2 cups of mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses in most quiche recipes

Need breakfast for the week?  Double this recipe and make it in a 9×13″ dish.  Simply cover and take out a slice from the fridge in the morning for breakfast.  Pop it into the microwave and in less than 30 seconds you have a super healthy breakfast or quick and easy after-workout snack.

Quiche and many other breakfast items have a carbohydrate-laden crust based on fat (butter, lard or shortening) and white flour (all purpose flour).  The extra 10 minutes of baking time was SO worth it.  Next time, I will make 2-3 of these and freeze the ones we won’t eat that day.
To freeze, you have two options.  One, to bake it in a disposable pie pan, cool to room temperature and seal in a freezer bag with foil all around.  Or two, lay foil down in your pie pan and then place the quiche inside to bake; once cool, cover and freeze; remove the foil frozen quiche from your pan and place in a freezer bag with foil all around.  This way, you get your pie pan back 😉  Pretty sneaky, eh?

Cutting the Sweet Potato:  The first couple of times I made the crust, I used my potato peeler to thinly slice the potato for layering.  But after 10 minutes in the oven, this will produce sweet potato chips.  Which still tasted awesome.  And using the peeler was a nice shortcut to having to cut the sweet potato with a chef’s knife.  Or, you could use a mandolin to thinly and evenly cut your sweet potato (Don’t forget the finger guard!).  See the crispy orange stuff?  That’s the crust!  Nom nom nom.

Sweet Potato Crust Quiche

 

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: Mary Ellen P. Riley / Whisk Together

Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 1-2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into ⅛"- ¼" thick slices
• ½T butter
• 1 shallot or ¼ yellow onion, finely diced
• 1 clove of garlic, minced or pressed
• 1 handful of baby spinach or spinach/kale mix
• 6 eggs
• 2 Tb. milk
• 2 Tb. grated Parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper to taste
• No-salt seasoning such as Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute, Mural of Flavor, Mrs. Dash, etc. (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Spray a pie pan with cooking spray.
3. Lay out the sweet potato slices onto the pie pan. Overlap as needed.
4. Bake for 10 minutes.
5. While baking, melt the butter in a small skillet over medium heat. Add onion/shallot. Stir and cook until transparent - about 5 minutes.
6. Add garlic. Cook 30 seconds.
7. Add the spinach. Coat in the butter/onion mixture. Stir until wilted.
8. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper and any optional seasonings.
9. Add the spinach mixture to the eggs. Stir.
10. Pour the whole egg mixture into the sweet potato crust.
11. REDUCE temperature to 350 degrees. Bake 25-30 minutes. The quiche will be done when you jiggle the pan and there is no liquid or heavy jiggling in the center.
12. Remove from oven and cool about 3-5 minutes. Slice into wedges and serve.

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