leek and tomato quiche and bacontarians

My friend Julie and her boyfriend Mike stayed with us this weekend. We had so much fun hiking and (yikes!) singing karaoke with them!  Mike has proclaimed that Camden is a karaoke town.  Julie is a vegetarian, so I found a great vegetarian quiche recipe to make for her that I want to share with you.

The best thing about making quiches (and maybe quiche purists would hate me for saying this...if there is such a thing as a quiche purist...) is that I can make them the night before and then just reheat them in the oven the next morning.  The extra minutes of sleep this allows me make me very happy.

We served it with fruit salad and home fries.  I think it would be great with bacon too, but Julie's a vegetarian, remember? Also, what wouldn't be great with bacon?  We had some guests this morning who told us that they used to be vegetarians, except that they still ate bacon.  They thought they were the only ones, until they started telling their friends.  Then they found out that being a vegetarian who eats bacon is actually quite common and even has it's own name: bacontarian.

Leek and Tomato Quiche

slightly adapted from allrecipes.com

2 tbs butter

2 cups leeks, washed and sliced

1 nine inch pie crust

1 cup shredded Swiss or Gruyere cheese

1/4 cup shredded Romano cheese

1 tbs all purpose flour

4 eggs

1 3/4 cups heavy cream (I used half and half and it turned out fine)

1 tomato thinly sliced

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Saute the leeks in butter until soft and slightly translucent.

Meanwhile, line a 10" quiche dish or deep dish pie plate with the dough.  Layer the leeks on the bottom of the crust.

Combine cheeses and flour.  Layer over leeks in pie crust.

Whisk together eggs, cream and salt and pepper to taste.  Pour into pie crust.

Top with slices of tomato.

Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature to 325 degrees and continue baking for about 30 minutes or until crust is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle of the quiche comes out clean.  Serve warm or at room temperature.