This Use-It-Up Quiche Recipe Is a Weeknight Miracle

When I first saw this quiche recipe in our April 2024 issue from Frances Largeman-Roth, RDN, a registered dietitian nutritionist and author of four cookbooks, including Everyday Snack Tray, it was a lightning bulb moment. I’ve long thought of quiches and frittatas, their Italian cousin, as ideal clean-out-the-fridge meals, but most recipes are too prescriptive in terms of ingredients and require too many mental gymnastics to make swaps for what I actually have on hand. Happily, this recipe is different.

Why I Love This Use-it-Up Quiche Recipe

Instead of calling for specific ingredients (such as 1 cup broccoli, 1 cup mushrooms, 1/2 cup ham, and 1/2 cup shredded cheddar), it calls for 2 cups of veggies, 1/2 cup of meat, and a 1/2 cup of cheese. (If you don’t want to use meat, just use 2 1/2 cups veggies.) This allows for an amazing amount of flexibility.

For example, I recently used a combined 2 1/2 cups leftover roasted sweet potato, cooked broccoli florets, mustard greens, and some chopped sundried tomatoes in the quiche. Another time I used leftover roasted potato, smoked salmon, spinach, and bell pepper. No recipe would have given me these specific combinations. Largeman-Roth often incorporates restaurant leftovers. Genius!

And here’s the best part: you use a frozen pie crust! (Here are our faves!) I don’t even thaw mine first, and there’s no blind baking required. Just remove the shell from the freezer, fill, and bake.

The whole recipe is a cinch, and it has single-handedly helped me reduce food waste.

I usually make the quiche for dinner, then eat leftovers for breakfasts and lunches. Keep store-bought pie shells in the freezer, and you too can be just 20 minutes of prep time away from a delicious, healthy, food-waste-busting dinner any day of the week.

Ingredient Tips

• The vegetables – The ingredient list calls for 2 cups of raw and/or cooked vegetables. How do you know which should be raw and which should be cooked? Here’s the trick: any vegetable that will be soft after the five minutes of cooking time in Step 2 can be raw. This includes things like leafy greens and bell peppers. Vegetables that would still be hard—think potatoes, broccoli, and squash—should be cooked, and leftovers are perfect.
• The meat – Make sure meat is cooked and chopped into bite-sized pieces. This could be leftover chicken, ham, salmon, prosciutto, or cooked bacon. If you don’t want to use meat, just add another 1/2 cup of vegetables.
• The cheese – The recipe calls for grated cheese such as cheddar, Gruyère, Monterey Jack, or mozzarella. You could also crumble in feta, goat cheese, or Boursin. Instead of whisking these into the egg mixture, just sprinkle them on top once the pie shell is filled.
• Extras – If you have soft herbs like parsley, cilantro, tarragon, basil, or chives hanging out in your crisper drawer, throw in a handful (chopped) when you whisk together the egg filling.

This recipe was developed by Frances Largeman-Roth.