Bacon Cheddar Kale Quiche

This easy breakfast quiche recipe uses a prepared pie crust for convenience. It’s a homemade quiche that’s delicious for brunch or holidays. Bacon Cheddar Kale Quiche will delight your guests.

This easy breakfast quiche recipe is a case of opposites attracting. How else do you explain the unholy marriage of kale with bacon and cheddar cheese? I mean a kale quiche??? My father would decry this as blasphemous — and yet, he ate two slices of this Bacon Cheddar Kale Quiche. Yep.

I made this on Mother’s Day with ingredients that I already had in the refrigerator. Eggs? Check. Bacon? Check. But it needed a vegetable and though I had cauliflower and snap peas — neither one seemed appropriate in this quiche recipe. That’s when I spied the kale. Kale quiche, hmm. Kind of like spinach, but heartier, right?  Able to stand up to the other ingredients without wilting. I’ve used kale in quiche before and it’s perfect because it doesn’t really detract from the other flavors while adding a ton of vitamins and fiber. (Bonus).

Let’s begin with the pastry… This may seem like a cheat, but I keep 1-2 boxes of Pillsbury pie crust in my refrigerator (and freezer) at all times… for occasions like this.  Don’t judge.

How To Blind Bake Pie Crust:

1. Preheat the oven to 375°.
2. Fit the pastry into a pie plate and press the bottom and sides firmly against the dish.
3. Press the edges of the crust with your fingers to form a nice edge or alternately press the tines of a fork along the edge of the crust to form a pretty rim.
4. Prick the bottom of the pastry several times with a fork.
5. Place a piece of parchment paper over the crust and fill with pie weights.
6. Spread the pie weights out evenly and blind bake the crust for 8-12 minutes or until set but not browned.
7. Remove the parchment and pie weights and let the crust cool.

Cook the bacon. This is really a personal preference, but I like to bake my bacon instead of frying it on the stove.  There’s no splatters and smoke and my clothes remain blissfully grease free — that doesn’t happen when I’m jockeying bacon slices in a hot skillet — invariably the bacon grease spatters over my blouse and there goes my $14.99 TJ Maxx special.

I use my standard custard for this Bacon Cheddar Kale Quiche: eggs, half and half, salt, pepper and some nutmeg.  You can skip the nutmeg if you like or even switch it up with a pinch of cayenne pepper  for some heat.  Make it to your own tastes.

Mix the sautéed kale and onions into the custard mixture and add the bacon.

ProTip: When you cut the bacon, if there are any curly-que or ruffle-edged pieces, set them aside to decorate the top of the quiche before baking… It’ll give your pie personality.

Pour the custard into the par-baked pie crust and sprinkle on a final handful of cheese and those unusually-shaped pieces of bacon, pressing them slightly into the custard. Bake until set.

When baking, bacon cheddar quiche will inevitably fill your house with warm, inviting and, yes, bacon-y aromas — that’s just to get the attention of anyone in the vicinity, so they know it’s almost time to eat.  And lest you think that my Dad was just being nice having that second slice, he assured me that despite the kale, or maybe because of the bacon — this is the best quiche he’s had.

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