Quiche Lorraine recipe: 10 ideas to improve your quiche (2024)

Want to taste a delicious quiche lorraine? Discover our 10 ideas to improve this classic of French gastronomy and delight your taste buds.

1. Making homemade shortcrust pastry

Before going any further, the best way to improve the quiche lorraine is to make a homemade shortcrust pastry rather than using a ready-made one bought in a supermarket with palm oil, preservatives and other additives (cross out the unnecessary mention).

The ingredients of a good shortcrust pastry

• 250g T55 flour,
• 125g butter,
• 1 egg yolk,
• 1 pinch of salt,
• A little water if the dough is too dry.

Preparation steps

Pour the flour and salt into a bowl and mix. Cut the soft butter into cubes and mix it with the mixture until you obtain a sandy powder. Add the egg yolk to the powder and gradually add the water until it forms a ball. Mash the dough to hom*ogenize it (crush the dough with the palm of your hand). Form into a ball and chill for at least 30 minutes before using. Your pie crust is ready.

2. Change flour

You can give your quiche lorraine a more rustic feel by using other flours in the recipe or a mixture of flours. Here are some ideas to change your shortcrust pastry:

• Use whole wheat flours from T80 to T150 in whole or mixed with your usual wheat flour,
• For the taste, mix buckwheat or chestnut flour with wheat flour (10 to 30% maximum),
• Use half rice flour for a lighter touch,
• Try spelt flour for a light nutty taste.

3. Butter the base of your quiche with mustard

This is a cook's secret for many pies and quiches. Using a brush, spread half a spoonful of mustard on your dough once it is placed in its mold (not a thick layer). The mustard subtly enhances the taste without being spicy.

Another tip for the bottom of your dough to prevent it from getting soggy, you can also brush the bottom of the quiche with egg white and bake the bottom of the quiche for 5 minutes without filling to get a crispy bottom.

4. Choose better bacon bits

Rather thanbacon bitsof supermarket, you can use dried or smoked brisket, or smoked bacon from your favorite butcher. Your quiche will gain an extra flavor. If, like us, you have a taste for food, you can replace thebacon bits with Italian guanciale or Colonnata lard (the fatty part of a good country ham works well as well as the beginning of a white ham). If you are in the South-West of France, use dried duck breast, in an Anglo-Saxon country, bacon, and for vegetarians, smoked tofu previously fried in oil.

Remember to use less salt in your quiche maker if you use pieces that are saltier thanbacon bits, to avoid salt overdose.

5. The pepper that makes the difference

There are many varieties of peppers that can give your quiche a different color. Here is our selection of peppers that will spice up your quiche lorraine. Since they have a lot of character, use little or nobacon bits with too much flavor at the same time at the risk of causing a collision of flavors.

6. Lighten the quiche lorraine

Here are 3 tips to lighten your quiche lorraine:

• Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the mixture, mixing well (the objective is not to make a soufflé or an omelette). The recipe is not lighter in calories but the pie will be a little more airy.
• Boil the lardons in advance, fry them over a very low heat to get rid of the fat without frying them.
• Replace the cream or butter with cottage cheese (in whole or in part).

7. Cheese without abusing it

The version of the quiche lorraine with cheese is called quiche vosgienne. We won't get into regional quarrels but quiche lorraine with cheese is diabolically good. The only condition to respect with cubed or grated cheese is not to drown the quiche under a mountain of cheese so that you can still smell the different ingredients in the recipe.

If grated Emmental is the easiest solution, we advise you to try Comté, Cantal entre-deux, real grated Gruyère, Parmesan, Abundance, Maroilles, Ricotta, fresh goat cheese... It's up to you whether you put it in thetoppingor just on top of it to bake in the oven, and you can reduce the amount of charcuterie a little.

8. Long live herbs and spices

You can add ground nutmeg to improve the taste without distorting the idea of quiche lorraine. You can also go on an adventure with other herbs and spices to radically change the recipe, which will no longer have anything of Lorraine but will offer you a quiche with different flavors. Here is our selection of spices that go well with the traditional quiche lorraine. Think also of the garlic which allows to raise the taste with delicacy. Spices can also be incorporated into the pie crust.

9. Get rid of the bacon bits!

We arrive at the ninth point and it's time to replace thebacon bits with other meats or fish. We are definitely leaving Lorraine with this selection: poulet mariné, salmon or smoked salmon, chorizo, tuna, ham, Morteau sausage.

Choose ingredients with lots of flavour and combine them with seasonal vegetables: onions, mushrooms, spinach and chard, leeks, candied or dried tomatoes... you have an infinite number of combinations that make quiche a pleasure that can be renewed without tiring.

10. To accompany the quiche lorraine

Cold or hot, quiche can be served as an appetizer or as the main element of a meal. Since quiche is a rather hearty dish, be sure to serve it with a side dish that does not contain too much fat or salt.:

• With a small salad, lamb's lettuce is very suitable for quiche lorraine but any tasty salad will do, such as arugula, endive in season or a curly salad,
• Assortment of raw vegetables for the cold quiche and to garnish your salad (if you like onion in salad, don't hesitate),
• Spinach, chard in season, beans with garlic, asparagus...

As for wine, quiche lorraine goes rather well with Alsace white wines.

11. Some final thoughts

We avoid the puff pastry to replace the shortcrust pastry. The quiche lorraine is very moist and the puff pastry will have a hard time making a soggy bottom. Reserve the puff pastry for less liquid and heavy fillings.