Bacon, Onion, & Cheese Quiche

Aug 21, 2022 · 62 Comments

Quiche. It’s great for breakfast, lunch, or a light dinner, and serves deliciously both fresh from the oven or chilled from the fridge. As a nice bonus, it keeps for several days.

Today’s quiche features a savory mix of bell pepper, lightly crisped bacon, and nutmeg, along with plenty of mozzarella and grating cheese. However, you can tweak this combination of ingredients to suit your palate – more on that below.

The crust for today’s quiche is, in my opinion, one of the stars of the show. It cooks up flaky and buttery, and is delightfully simple to put together. However, you can of course get away with using a store-bought crust to save on time and ingredients. That said, I really do suggest that you try your hand at a homemade crust, since it’s just so satisfying when a homemade crust comes out ‘just right.’

Today’s quiche would pair deliciously alongside something like an Acai Yogurt Bowl. Conversely, if preparing this for dinner, a basket of dinner rolls would be absolutely lovely. Regardless, be sure not to skip the perfectly brewed coffee when preparing today’s quiche.

Now, let’s get to it and prepare some quiche.

Ingredient Checklist and Notes

Salt. Not a lot to say here. Plain table salt is all you need.
Grating Cheese. Stick with Parmesan or Romano cheese. Freshly grated is always best, but pre-grated is fine too.
Black Pepper. Pre-ground or cracked pepper is really all you need for today’s recipe, no need to fuss with grinding.
Nutmeg. The spice that tastes like Christmas. This delightful spice is super versatile, and well worth learning how to use, as it can fancy up everything from roasted vegetables to beef roasts. If you don’t have nutmeg on hand, there are some substitutions below.
Water. As a rule of thumb, I only cook or bake with water that I would personally drink and enjoy.
Butter. As usual, I highly recommend using unsalted butter for the purposes of today’s recipe.
Bell Pepper. I’m using green bell peppers, but obviously any color will do. Naturally, feel free to spice things up by subbing in your favorite spicy peppers. Suggestions and substitutions below.
Bacon. Plain, standard cut back is really all you need here. Though, of course, feel free to experiment with whatever your favorite variety happens to be. See below for bacon substitutes.
Red onion. Adds a bit of color, and cooks up sweet. That’s why I prefer Red Onion. Substitutes below.
Mozzarella. Pre-grated is fine, and I really don’t suggest trying to fancy things up with fresh mozzarella. Fresh has ‘a lot’ more moisture than standard, and that moisture will risk saturating the crust. However, provided you properly strain out your fresh mozzarella, it likely ‘would’ enhance the flavor quite a bit.
Milk. Whole fat milk is what you want to go with. We want the added fat. Substitutes below.
Eggs. Not a whole lot to say here, other than these help bind it all together and add fat for moisture and flavor.

Substitutions

Nutmeg. Mace or cinnamon in roughly equal amounts. However, this recipe ‘does’ work best with nutmeg, since neither quite captures the warming-yet-sweet essence of nutmeg.
Butter. There are several substitutes. Shortening is probably the best, at a one-to-one ratio. Conversely, you can also use buttermilk, olive oil, or whole fat Greek yogurt. Buttermilk substitutes at a one-to-half ratio, butter to buttermilk. Olive oil substitutes at a one-to-three quarters ratio, butter to olive oil. Greek yogurt substitutes at a one-to-half ratio, butter to yogurt.
Mozzarella. Oaxaca, gouda, Manchego, and Jarlsberg would all work fine in today’s recipe.
Bacon. Ham, prosciutto, salami, or mortadella would all work just fine in today’s recipe. You could also substitute chopped up sausage – just be sure to cook the sausage before adding it into the quiche mixture. Really, there is no ‘rule’ on which meat would or wouldn’t work in today’s quiche.
Red Onion. Sweet onion would be the best substitute, but ‘any’ type of onion would work. Yes, these are used at a one to one ratio in place of the red onion.
Milk – Lactose Free Substitutes. Any plain, full-fat milk substitute. No sweeteners, no flavors, no reduced fat. I would stick with plain soy or almond milk, as these are the most flavor neutral milk-substitutes. Use them in the same quantity as whole milk.

Variations

More Meats. Here again, it’s about the combos. Prosciutto, salami, and mortadella would make for a delicious combination. As would bacon, ham, and sausage. Remember to fine tune your cheese selection to your meats!
Spice It Up. Hot peppers. Jalapenos, habaneros, seranos, you get the idea. Mixing and matching is the best way to go here.
Mix up the Cheese. You don’t need to stick to just one cheese. Try a combo of mozzarella, gouda, and Manchego. Or, if you’re spicing up the quiche with hot peppers, try a mix of Gouda and cheddar.