Sausage Spinach Quiche

Sausage Spinach Quiche is a delicious addition to your next breakfast, brunch or lunch menu! It's also a quick and easy side dish to bring to your Easter or Mother's Day gathering. This quiche recipe only calls for 6 main ingredients, making prep time minimal and cleanup a breeze.

Quiche has always been a staple side dish at all of my family brunch gatherings. My mom's quiche is one of the best, which set my standards high for any quiche recipe that I make.

Two of the reason's I love making quiche is because of it's versatility and simplicity. Quiche can have an almost unlimited combination of ingredients, but you never want to have TOO many ingredients in any single quiche recipe.

Whenever you're making quiche you need your eggs, pie crust and cheese. After those three main ingredients, you need to pick 1-3 flavor enhancing additions. I chose to enhance the flavor of this recipe with breakfast sausage and fresh spinach.

This spinach sausage quiche would fit right in at your next brunch, alongside my Classic Chicken Salad, Asparagus and Goat Cheese Salad and my Feta and White Bean Salad.

For more side dish ideas, check out my post on What to Serve with Quiche.

Jump to:

• What is a quiche?
• Ingredients
• Equipment needed
• Step-by-step instructions
• Substitutions
• Variations
• Storage
• Expert tips
• 📖 Recipe

What is a quiche?

Quiche is a baked, savory egg dish with a pie crust. It's essentially an egg pie! Quiche is cooked slowly in the oven in a pie plate, over a longer amount of time. A frittata is similar to a quiche, except a frittata does not have a crust and usually starts off on the stovetop and is then transferred to the oven in the same skillet it started off in, on the stove.

Ingredients

Below is a list of ingredients needed for this sausage spinach quiche recipe! Scroll down to see ingredient substitutions and variations.

• Pie crust - I always like to take time-saving shortcuts with my recipes, which is why I use premade pie crust for my sausage spinach quiche. You can use any premade crust that you enjoy. Pillsbury is one of the most widely available brands. You can also use frozen pie crust. I would NOT use a graham cracker pie crust though. That is far too sweet for a savory egg dish. You will need a 9" pie crust, which is the standard pie crust size. A deep dish pie crust would work as well.
• Eggs - Use large eggs for this recipe. They can be either white or brown.
• Spinach - You do not need to use cooked spinach for quiche. Fresh spinach is best. Spinach cooks down quickly so the 45 minutes to an hour the quiche spends in the oven is plenty of time to soften and reduce the spinach.
• Cheese - Cheddar cheese is the most common option for quiche and what is needed for this quiche recipe.
• Cooked sausage - You will need cooked crumbly sausage. Chicken, turkey or pork sausage will all work. You can squeeze the sausage out of casein filled links if needed. Cook the sausage before you get started on any other recipe steps. Take note of whether you are choosing a sweet, mild or spicy sausage. If you choose a pork based sausage, you will have extra fat added to the recipe, compared to a chicken or turkey sausage.
• Half & half - Use full-fat half & half for this quiche. See the substitutions list below for half & half subs.
• Salt & pepper

*See recipe card for specific quantities.

Equipment needed

• 9" pie plate
• Oven
• Measuring cups & spoons
• Small mixing bowl
• Rimmed baking sheet (optional)

Step-by-step instructions

Step 1: Whisk together the eggs, half and half, salt and pepper in a small mixing bowl.

Step 2: Layer the spinach, cooked breakfast sausage and shredded cheddar cheese in your pie crust. You can use a refrigerated pie crust, frozen pie crust or your own homemade pie crust. I tested this recipe with both uncooked and par-baked pie crust. I did not find any difference at all in the texture and "crispiness" of the pie crust, so I prefer not to bother with par-baking since it adds extra prep time to the recipe. You can learn more about par-baking pie crust here.

Step 3: Pour the egg mixture over top of the spinach, sausage and cheese.

Step 4: If your egg mixture is overflowing you can place your pie plate onto a rimmed baking sheet. Place the quiche in the oven and bake at 350°F for 45 - 60 minutes. You will know when your quiche is done by gently pressing on the middle. The middle should be firm and not soft and spongy feeling. You can also insert a very thin knife or toothpick into the center of the quiche. If it comes out clean, then it is done.

Hint: When you first pull your quiche out of the oven, it will most likely be puffed up in the center. As it cools, it will settle down into a flat layer.

Substitutions

• Gluten free - Quiche is easily adapted to be gluten free. Simply swap out the gluten based crust for a gluten free crust. My favorite gluten free pie crust is the Wholly Wholesome Gluten Free 9" Pie Shell.
• Vegetarian - The obvious way to make this recipe vegetarian is to leave out the sausage. You could replace the sausage with a vegan sausage like Impossible Sausage Made From Plants.
• Cheese - If you need to substitute out the cheddar cheese, I would use a shredded gruyere or gouda cheese.
• Half & Half - Half & half is equal parts heavy whipping cream and milk. Any recipe that calls for half and half can be make with half heavy whipping cream and half whole milk.

Variations

If you want to play around with a quiche recipe, then you can use my recipe as a base. Use my same quantity of eggs, half and half, salt and pepper and my cooking time. You can get creative with your add-ins though! Swap out my 1 cup of meat, 1 cup of veggies and 1 cup of cheese for any of these additions below.

• Meat - Instead of crumbly breakfast sausage, try bacon, ham or turkey bacon.
• Veggies - Instead of spinach, try peppers, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet potato, mushrooms or tomatoes.
• Cheese - Instead of cheddar cheese, try goat, feta, mozzarella or parmesan cheese.

Storage

Quiche stores incredibly well in the refrigerator. If is one of those magical side dishes that is delicious served warm or cold. This make it the perfect make-ahead recipe too.

Let quiche cool to room temperature and then wrap it tightly in plastic wrap. Store in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. If you are serving it at a party, I would only make it up to 24 hours in advance, and then store leftovers for 3 days after that.

Reheat individual slices of quiche in the microwave for one minute at a time, until desired warmth is achieved.

Expert tips

• Cook quiche until it is firm in the center.
• If your crust starts to brown too early and you are worried about it burning, cover the edges of the crust with a pie shield or tin foil.
• Place your quiche on a rimmed baking sheet to avoid spilling the liquid ingredients onto the bottom of your stove.
• Experiment with fresh herbs to enhance the flavor of your quiche even more! Try fresh parsley, dill, chives and green onion.
• Let it cool before slicing. Allowing the quiche to cool down closer to room temperature will firm up the ingredients and ensure that the quiche doesn't fall apart as you are cutting into it.

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📖 Recipe