Spring Greens Quiche

January 2024. I'm thirty-six. The new year arrived with a foot of snow, which doesn't happen every year here and when it does it changes the quality of everything—the silence, the light, the scale of the land. I walked out to the food forest trees in the snow to check on them and they were fine, dormant and covered, waiting. The creek had a shelf of ice along the edges but ran clear in the middle. The land knows how to handle winter. It's been doing it longer than any of us.

The pipeline company offered me a supervisory position in January—not a promotion exactly, more of a lateral shift that would take me off the line and into more coordination and training work. I thought about it for a week. The money was marginally better. The schedule was more predictable. The work itself would be less physical and more administrative.

I said no. I wasn't ready to be off the line. The physical work still feeds something in me that the management side wouldn't. Maybe in a few years. Not now.

What I said yes to: Art asked if I'd consider teaching a one-day traditional foods workshop through the Cherokee Nation cultural programming. He'd gotten a grant that included a community education component and wanted to offer something hands-on and authentic. I said yes immediately, before he finished explaining the details. He said he thought I would. He said he'd been waiting for me to be ready to say yes.

The workshop is scheduled for March. Twenty participants, a full day at the community center kitchen. Bean bread, fry bread, kanuchi, wild onion preparation, summer berry processing. Everything I know in one day. That's not enough days, but it's a start.

Planning the March workshop has had me thinking constantly about the relationship between wild greens and the turning of seasons — the same wild onions I’ll be demonstrating are already pushing up under the snow right now, just waiting. This spring greens quiche isn’t a traditional Cherokee dish, but it’s become part of how I practice the discipline of cooking with whatever the land is offering: you work with what’s seasonal, you keep it honest, and you let the ingredients carry the weight. It’s the same philosophy I want to bring into that community center kitchen in March, and making it now feels like a quiet rehearsal for the real thing.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 45 min | Total Time: 1 hr 5 min | Servings: 8

Ingredients

1 9-inch pie crust, unbaked (store-bought or homemade)
1 tablespoon olive oil or butter
1 small yellow onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups mixed spring greens (such as spinach, arugula, wild onion tops, or watercress), roughly chopped
4 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup shredded Gruyère or Swiss cheese
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

Instructions

Preheat oven. Heat your oven to 375°F. Fit the pie crust into a 9-inch pie plate, crimp the edges, and set aside.
Blind bake the crust. Line the crust with parchment paper and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake for 10 minutes, then remove the weights and bake another 5 minutes until the bottom is just set. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly.
Sauté the aromatics. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for 6–8 minutes until softened and lightly golden. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more.
Wilt the greens. Add the chopped spring greens to the skillet and stir for 1–2 minutes until just wilted. Remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes, then press out any excess moisture with a clean towel.
Make the custard. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, and heavy cream until smooth. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
Assemble the quiche. Spread the greens and onion mixture evenly across the bottom of the prebaked crust. Sprinkle the cheese over the top, then pour the egg custard over everything.
Bake. Bake at 375°F for 35–40 minutes, until the custard is just set in the center with a slight wobble. A knife inserted near the center should come out clean.
Rest and serve. Let the quiche rest for at least 10 minutes before slicing. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Nutrition (per serving)

Spring Greens Quiche — What I’ll Be Teaching Come March