Kudzu Mushroom Quiche

First of all, you need kudzu from a clean source. Yes, that ubiquitous plant that takes over barns and road signs throughout the southeast. It was brought here from Japan to combat erosion and stabilize hillsides during highway construction. The problem is, is has no natural enemies here. The is a bug in Japan that eats the stuff. They tried importing the bug, but it soon got out of hand since, like the kudzu, it had no natural enemies here. They killed that experiment.

Kudzu's edible but you need a patch that's not next to a highway because of pollutants. Unfortunately, the stuff has spread all over the place and can be found in places far from highways. You want the new growth, which are the lighter, thinner leaves. Cut a bunch, as they will cook down.

Wash them, then cut out the stems and any thick spines running down the middle. Thinner veins are fine. With new growth, this isn't generally a problem. It's more important if your leaves are somewhat dark.

Boil for about 20 minutes. I usually salt the water a little.

Drain. Squeeze out excess water. Chop. You want to end up with about the amount you'd use for a spinach quiche, about a half box of frozen spinach, if that helps.

Finely chop some onion (a quarter of an onion, maybe less) and slice about four mushrooms. Sauté the onion with thyme, oregano and basil in ascending order. Add the mushrooms and sprinkle with salt. Sauté until slightly cooked but still firm.

Spread onion-mushroom mixture in the pie shell that you already made or bought. This is for a 9" pie. Next, distribute the kudzu on top of that. Top with quiche filling and bake for 45 minutes at 375˚.

Quiche filling

4 eggs

3 T flour

1/4 t salt

1 1/2 cups milk

1 1/2 cups grated cheese (I prefer swiss but I used cheddar in the picture. It's what I had)

Mix beginning with the eggs, the flour and salt next, then the milk and the cheese last. Pour over the vegetables. Redistribute the cheese if it all ends up in one place.

Enjoy.