Green Bean Mini Quiches

When I got asked to bring a dish to a party this weekend, I knew I had to find some way to use both the eggs and the green beans that have been crowding our refrigerator. Thus was born the green bean quiche! The green beans are shredded in the food processor so that they are barely recognizable in the finished product.

Makes 4 dozen.

The Beans

While you are making the crust recipe below, you want to go ahead and cook your green beans so they’ll be ready for making the filling. Use about 1 C. fresh green beans, chopped into 1-2″ lengths. Put them in a small saucepan and almost cover with water. Heat to boiling, then simmer for 5-10 minutes, until they’re just starting to turn from bright green to a duller green. Then remove them from the heat and save until later.

This is how it should look after you’ve finished cutting the butter in but before you’ve added the water.

The Crust

In a large mixing bowl, combine 3 C. flour with 1-1/2 tsp. salt. Add 1/2 C. shortening and cut in with a pastry cutter until very fine. (If you don’t have a pastry cutter, use your fingers!) Add 1/2 C. cold butter and cut in with the pastry cutter until the largest pieces are about pea-sized. Sprinkle with 7 or 8 Tbsp. water. With your hands, mix the dough. When it all sticks together in a big ball, you’re done! (Your bowl should be practically clean now.)

You’ll need 2 mini-muffin pans (with a total of 4 dozen muffin “holes”). Butter the pans, not so much to prevent sticking as to give the bottoms of the quiches a golden glow. Now pinch off 1″ balls of dough and, with your fingers, spread each into a hole so that the edge of the crust comes up even with the top of the pan. You want the crust to be about 1/8″ thick on both the sides and bottom. Once all of your crusts are pressed into place, brush them with egg white. (This will require less than one egg’s worth of white.)

The Filling

Preheat your oven to 375°F.

You should have already cooked your green beans. Drain them, then pulse them a few times in the food processor (or, alternatively, mince them by hand, but they need to be really small). Set aside.

Grate about 4 oz. Swiss cheese and put just a few gratings in the bottom of each quiche crust.

In a medium mixing bowl, lightly beat 2 eggs. Add 1-1/3 C. milk or cream. (I used whipping cream, because that’s what I had on hand.) Add 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/8 tsp. pepper, a dash of nutmeg, and 1 tsp. chopped chives. (I cut my chives with scissors right over the bowl.) Mix well. Then add the processed green beans.

Fill the crusts with the mixture, almost even with the top. (I used an old-fashion ice cream scoop to do this.) Make sure that, if the green beans sink to the bottom of your mixing bowl, you still get some in each quiche.

Bake at 375°F for 25-30 minutes, until the crust and filling are both golden brown. Gently remove from the muffin tins and cool on a wire rack.

Serve warm but not hot.

Warning: These are so delicious that, if you’re making them to take to a party, you will need to prepare several extra. You’re not going to be able to resist snacking on these after they come out of the oven! (They go wonderfully with a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon….)