I love cooking, but I can’t be doing with all that weighing out and spending hours slaving over a hot cooker so this really fitted the bill.

I had a quick squint through my fridge and vegetable rack and discovered that I had two manky looking sweet peppers in the fridge – one red and one yellow – and there was one lonely little red onion in my vegetable rack.  It’d been rolling around for a week or more and was beginning to shoot.  I then discovered a few spoonfuls of green pesto sauce which was probably getting past its best in the fridge.  I knew I had some pastry that had been sitting around in my freezer for at least six months so decided to whip up a quiche.

Being EXTREMELY lazy I’ve now given up making my own pastry as I find Jus-Rol ready made is of equally good quality and, as they now produce round sheets which are already rolled out for you and fit most round pie dishes, I grabbed one of those.  They may be more expensive than making your own or buying in a block, but as we rarely eat pastry it made sense to just buy a couple of sheets in a pack.  Besides that, working freelance from home, I often don’t have time during the day to make up pies or indeed have the inclination to do so when I finish work at around 6.00 or 7.00 in the evening!  Admittedly I did have to take the short crust pastry out of the freezer a couple of hours before I needed to start cooking but that was the only thing I needed to plan ahead.

So, here’s my cheap, quick and easy recipe!

Preheat your oven to around 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4

Grease and line a 6″ round baking tin or pie dish

Place the short crust pastry into it and then prick it extremely liberally with a fork to prevent it from rising, and then place it in the oven for 10 minutes or so until the pastry is dry but not yet brown.

Take the case from the oven and turn the oven up slightly to around 190C/375F/Gas Mark 5

Spread pre-made pesto sauce to lightly cover the bottom of the pastry case.

Finely chop a mixture of sweet peppers, onions, mushrooms and a couple of cloves of garlic and place them on top of the pesto.  There’s no exact science as to what proportions of vegetables you need to chop.  I just did enough to come about half way up the pastry case.  You could, if you wished to, add some tinned sweet corn to your vegetables, but make sure you drain it well and dry it off with a clean cloth.  The last thing you want is a soggy bottom … I’m talking quiche here, not you personally!

Place some grated mature cheddar on top of the vegetables or, if you’re in a particular rush or feeling incredibly lazy, just thinly slice some cheddar from a block!  I like a good amount of cheddar on mine so I tend to cover the whole of the vegetable layer but again, it’s down to individual taste.

Put the pastry case to one side while you make up the custard.

Place one large free range egg into a measuring jug, top it up to about half a pint with milk (a little bit under is better than a little bit over as it makes for a firmer filling!).

Add some mixed herbs – either dried or fresh.  I had some fresh oregano so I finely chopped about half a handful and then mixed in a bit of dried basil.  As a suggestion, you could use parsley and/or chives.  Add seasoning, again according to your taste – some people prefer the bite of a bit of pepper, others prefer salt.

Whisk the mixture vigorously until the milk, egg and herbs are well combined.

Pour most of the liquid over the vegetables but leave a minuscule amount in the bottom of the jug. 

Use this tiny amount to brush around the edge of your pastry case as a glaze. It really doesn’t matter if there are one or two tiny pieces of herb left in the mix.

Place in the oven and cook for around 30 minutes or until the custard is firm to the touch and the pastry case is golden.

Now, all you need to do is wait for the quiche to cool down a bit and enjoy!  Adam and I ate it as was.  We had pastry for carbohydrate, cheese, eggs and milk for protein and calcium and numerous vitamins in our diverse range of vegetables so we really didn’t need anything else!!