This post is a lesson into why you shouldn’t let vendors at farmer’s markets sell you two large bunches of beets.

The fateful day was last Sunday and the victim was me. I biked to the market innocently enough, looking to buy just enough of the root vegetable to make a nice, tiny borscht dinner for myself. Since I had forgotten to buy my beets when I was at the market earlier, I went back just when it was closing down. This meant that all the vendors wanted to do was load off their vegetables on last minute buyers like me.

As though armed with psychic powers, the vendor struck me at my weakest point.

“Would you like a deal?” he asked.

There it was. I was sold. I didn’t even know what the bargain was yet and I was already pandering off my money to him. As a student and a sucker for deals, I had no choice but to accept. At least he wasn’t pawning off his entire stock on me, right? Anyways, I ended up with two huge…lets call them bouquets of beets. About 12 of them in total. I think it was a good deal – $7 for two bunches versus the regular $10? Perhaps I was ripped off. I guess my magenta-hued self will never know.

Though beets are an inherently healthy vegetable, these beets put my safety at risk. Both of my bikes happen to only have one brake, and that remaining brake is compressed by the hand that is normally assigned to carry cheesecake, cupcakes, toilet paper and now beets. I had very little stopping power going down Sunnyside towards my house, and was extremely grateful for the lack of Sunday morning traffic. Damn you beets. Damn you to hell.

In other news, this quiche was awesome. I’ve always liked quiche, ever since I was a vegetable-hating child (approximately up until the age 0f 19). My mom used to make a simple ham and cheese version for my family, and so I consider every quiche made after that point to be adaptation of her recipe. Thank you, mom.

There were several delicious ingredients contained within this meal, including the beets, red onion and leek. I can’t mention leeks without recalling the time when I was, oh, 12-or-so, and helped out for the morning at my uncle’s leek farm in Ireland alongside my cousins. We were packaging the leeks and emerged from that darkened warehouse with our eyes watering towards the sea. Since then, leeks have always made me cry.

Finally, a special thanks goes out to my lovely roommate, Freya, for letting me use some of her aunt’s gifted-upon-us goat cheese. Seriously, you have no idea how much goat cheese we have in this house. I mean, I think this should be the standard amount of cheese for any household, but I guess it is a bit ridiculous. Three medium-sized tupperware containers. Is this what heaven looks like?

PS: I’m sorry, I cheated again and used pre-made pie crust. I know, I know. Don’t give me that look. I just had no time, okay? Here, have a food pun.

Recipe: Beet and goat cheese quiche
Adapted from Former Chef and my mom
– 1, 9-inch frozen pie shell
– 1 tsp olive oil
– 1/2 leek, finely chopped
– 1/2 red onion, finely chopped
– 1/2 tsp dried rosemary
– 2 large or 3 small beets, roasted and thinly sliced
– 6 eggs
– 1/2 cup whipping cream
– 1/2 cup goat cheese, crumbled
– 1 tbsp chopped fresh dill

The first step is to roast the beets.

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Wrap the fresh, cleaned beets in a foil package tightly and roast in the oven for about an hour. The beets are done when they can be easily pierced with a fork. Do not cut the beets first or all the juice will run out when they cook. When done, and cool enough to handle, the beet skin should easily slip off (editor’s note: De-skinning beets is the most fun you will ever have). Cut beets into thin slices.

In the last 20 minutes of the beet roasting time, you should be cutting your leek and red onion. In a non-stick skillet, heat the oil over medium-high and fry the leek, red onion and rosemary until the leeks are soft and the onion is start to get translucent. Remove from heat and let sit.

When the leek and onion is done, sprinkle it evenly into the bottom of the pie pan. Arrange the sliced beets on top.

In a bowl, whisk together the eggs and whipping cream.

Carefully pour egg mixture into the pie pan. Crumble the goat cheese over the top of the quiche.

Bake in the oven at 375° for about 25 minutes or until eggs have set. In the last minute of cooking, sprinkle the chopped dill over top of the quiche.

Makes 6 servings. (quiche freezes well!)