Ahh fall, the crunchy leaves under our feet, the beautiful colors, pumpkin spice…

Sorry to interrupt your daydream but…

I love making quiche as a make ahead meal, it is a great option for a busy night when there is not time to cook.  It’s also a great grab and go breakfast!

For the crust of this quiche I used butternut squash, but you can use any sturdy vegetable.  Think sweet potato, any winter squash, even regular potatoes or beets.

To get started slice the bulb shaped end off butternut squash.  Peel both parts of the squash, and remove seeds.  Slice the long part of the squash into thin rounds, the bottom half into thin slices.  Toss them with salt, pepper and a touch of oil and lay them in the bottom of a pie pan or skillet being sure to overlap them to form the crust.  If there are holes don’t worry, the eggs we add later will help it stay together.

Roast the crust in the oven until squash softens and begins to brown.  Set aside.

For the filling, remove the casings and brown your chicken sausage in a bit of oil.  Alternately you can use cut up breakfast sausage, or fully cooked chicken sausage, just brown it in a pan to get some extra flavor.

While your meat is browning throw in the other vegetables, garlic, thyme, salt and pepper.

Once the sausage is browned and onions, peppers and kale are softened remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

Crack the eggs into a bowl, season with salt and pepper.  Now add the milk and beat the eggs for a minute or so.  Stir in cheese if you are using it (a tablespoon or two of nutritional yeast would be a great sub for the cheese if you can’t have it) then add in the sausage mixture.  Pour the whole works into your squash crust and bake until eggs are set, about 20-25 minutes.

My kids even enjoy these quiche so I usually don’t mess around with a single batch, instead I double the recipe and use a casserole pan.  Just be sure to adjust baking time accordingly (5 minutes more is the most I have added).  Please forgive my pictures it seems my quiche always gets hit before I can snap a proper shot.

You can make this ahead and serve at room temperature, straight out of the oven or refrigerator, or reheated.  It’s a great grab and go breakfast or a nice make ahead dinner.

Enjoy!