Creamy Asparagus Quiche with Gouda Cheese

Need a brunch-worthy dish that will serve a crowd? This Asparagus Quiche celebrates the fresh flavors of spring, with a buttery crust and creamy egg filling to showcase the fresh asparagus!

In this homemade quiche recipe, you will learn how to make a simple quiche crust in the blender, the best way to store, prep, and blanch your asparagus for use in the quiche, how to serve your quiche, and how to store and reheat leftovers.

As a mom juggling her time with a love for great food, an elevated brunch recipe like this that feeds a lot and can also be pre-made and reheated is much appreciated!

Asparagus Quiche Ingredient Highlights

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For the crust, use frozen, unsalted butter. It must be frozen so the blender or food processor doesn’t completely break it down. Ideally, you’ll be left with some butter chunks even after blending.

You’ll also slowly add cold water to the dough while the blender is on, to help bring the dough together without melting the butter.

This recipe uses less milk and more cheese than a lot of other quiche recipes, and I find this gives the best texture and flavor to both the filling and the crust.

Mild gouda cheese is ultra creamy, and adds just enough cheesy flavor while still allowing the asparagus to be the main flavor profile. You can also opt to use cheddar in place of gouda in this recipe if you prefer.

I know, I know. It’s a whole extra step to grate your own cheese, especially when the grocery store sells perfectly packaged cheese that is already shredded. So why should you take this extra step?

Well, pre-shredded cheese has extra preservatives to keep it from sticking together. And while you may not be able to taste any difference in terms of flavor from the extra preservatives, there is a notable difference in texture.

Free from those excess preservative, freshly hand-shredded blocks of cheese undoubtedly produce a silkier, creamier, cheesier quiche.

Asparagus Quiche Tips and Tricks

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How to Make Quiche Crust in a Blender

Start by adding the flour, salt, brown sugar and frozen butter to the food processor. Turn it on to high. While it’s on, slowly add the water.

Watch closely as the water helps to bring the dough together. The key here is to not over-blend. Ideally, we want there to be some remaining butter chunks remaining in the dough.

This will make for the most buttery, crumbly quiche crust.

Once your dough comes together, remove the blade from your food processor or blender and turn the dough out into a 9.5-inch quiche, tart, or pie dish.

Using clean hands, start pushing the dough into the dish, spreading it out until it’s in a roughly even layer across the dish. Then, use your thumbs and forefingers to pinch dough up the sides of the dish. This will form your outer edge crust.

Once you’ve shaped your crust, bake it without the filling. This process of pre-baking the crust before adding the filling is also known as “blind baking”.

We do this primarily because the crust needs a longer baking time than the filling. Blind baking also ensures that the filling doesn’t permeate the crust dough and make it soggy.

After removing the crust from the oven, make sure to immediately set the oven temperature to 325°F to allow ample time for the temperature to come down.

How To Make Quiche with Asparagus

Start by peeling and mincing your garlic.

I find the easiest way to peel the outer layer off the garlic is by crushing it first. Lay individual garlic cloves flat on your cutting board and use the flat end of your knife to push down on the garlic until you hear a crunch.

This will split open the outer layer, making it much easier for you to peel it back. Then, use a sharp knife to mince it.

Rinse or soak the asparagus to clean it before blanching it. Asparagus tips have little nooks and crannies, so soaking it is a great way to remove any grit or dirt that may be hiding in the tips.

Asparagus is notorious for having those tough-to-chew “woody” ends. For the perfect bite, we have to remove them.

The easiest way to remove those tough ends is by simply breaking them off. Hold the asparagus in your two clean hands and snap the pieces into two so the asparagus automatically breaks right at the point where the ends start to get woody.

Next, blanch the asparagus. This will just keep the vibrant color and earthy taste of the asparagus even as it bakes in the quiche.

Blanching asparagus also keeps it crisp yet tender for the best texture in every bite. Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil and add the asparagus for 5 minutes.

Set the blanched asparagus aside to cool and dry so it is ready to add to the quiche once the filling is prepared.

Just like any other onion, shallots have many layers, making them easy to dice (minus the eye tearing 😆). Start by chopping off both ends of the shallot and slicing it in half long ways.

This will make it easy for you to peel off and discard the outermost layer. Lay the shallot halves flat on your cutting board and start to dice. Once your shallot is cut into smaller pieces, use your hands to separate the layers.

Then, crack all your eggs into a bowl and check for shells. Add the milk, salt, pepper, and nutmeg and whisk until the whites and yolks are seamlessly integrated and the egg wash is thick and smooth.

Fold the grated cheese, the garlic, and about half of the diced shallots into the egg mixture. Pour the mixture into your baked crust.

Then, use the spatula to spread the filling evenly throughout the crust.

Next, add the blanched asparagus on top in a single layer, leaving a little space in between each stalk.

Then, sprinkle the remaining diced shallots on top and you’re ready for the oven! Bake until the filling is firm and the outer crust edges begin to brown.

How I Store Leftover Quiche

This quiche feeds 8, so you may have leftovers! The great news is it will last covered in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.

You can reheat in the oven at 350°F for 10-15 minutes until heated through. If you want to reheat an individual serving, I still recommend heating in the oven on a baking sheet.

In a pinch, you can cover and microwave an individual portion for 2-3 minutes, until heated through, but this may change the texture slightly.

You can either freeze the quiche before or after baking. I prefer freezing it after it’s fully cooked because it’s a little easier to manage, and less likely to leak or spill in your freezer.

However, freezing before baking will get you the freshest taste!

To freeze before baking, make sure you wrap it tightly in saran wrap—the tighter the better! You want to keep out as much air as possible to avoid freezer burn. You can freeze it like this for up to 3 months.

The frozen pre-cooked quiche will need to be thawed completely before you bake it. The best way to thaw it is by transferring it to your refrigerator the night before you plan to bake it.

Alternatively, you can opt to use the defrost setting on your microwave, but this is a little bit tricky to get perfectly without the eggs starting to cook in the microwave, so proceed with caution!

To freeze the quiche after it’s fully baked, wrap it or transfer it to a freezer-safe airtight container. You can also slice and freeze it in individual portions.

To reheat frozen (cooked) quiche, place the whole thing or an individual portion in the oven and allow it to sit in the oven while it preheats to 325°F. Then, once oven reaches 325, bake for about 15-20 minutes until thoroughly heated.