Hash Brown Quiche

My friend and former roomie Sarah is visiting from Alaska (by way of South Dakota), and she had a late night hanging out with some other friends last night. I figured I’d throw together some brunch for her rather than waking her up bright ‘n’ early with breakfast. Because I’m a bright ‘n’ early kind of gal.

Unfortunately, we haven’t gotten groceries since before we left town for the holidays, so my options were a bit limited. (Yes, I could have gone to the store. But that would have required me to leave the comfort of my candy cane-striped pajamas, which I’m just not ready to do.) So I threw together some muffins and a hash brown quiche.

This quiche recipe comes from my ol’ Swenson family reunion cookbook, and I’ve used this many, many times when entertaining or for potlucks. The crust is hash browns instead of pastry, and while this looks more like an egg bake than a quiche, the filling only has a few eggs. So it is actually more quiche-like. But with lots more cheese.

This recipe uses ham, but you can substitute other meat and/or veggies. Toss in some sautéed onions and peppers with the ham if you want more of a Denver omelet-type quiche. Or use peppers, onions, and mushrooms for a vegetarian option. You can also substitute whatever cheese you prefer; this morning, I used half pepperjack and half Colby Jack.

I halved the recipe for brunch this morning; this dish is quite rich, and with only three of us, we definitely didn’t need a full-size pan. And one should really eat only so much leftover quiche.

Hash Brown Quiche
Serves 12

32 oz. frozen shredded hash brown, thawed
2/3 c. melted butter
2 c. diced ham
½ c. shredded pepperjack cheese
1 c. shredded Swiss cheese
2 c. shredded cheddar cheese
1 c. cream
4 eggs
Salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2. Place hash browns in a 9x13 baking dish. (I used a 9" pie plate since I was halving the recipe.)

3. Brush melted butter over hash browns. Bake 30 minutes. (You can actually do this step the night before and refrigerate the crust.)

4. Sprinkle ham on crust.

5. Beat eggs and add cream, then stir in cheese. Add salt and pepper.

6. Pour egg mixture over ham and cover with foil.

7. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees , and bake 30 minutes. Let set 5-10 minutes before serving.