Crustless Quiche (Whole30 Compliant)

 

I love quiche.  Like…LOVE quiche.  I could eat it for every meal of every day.  Well, maybe not EVERY meal, but you get the picture.  That being said, one of my favorite things about quiche is the delicious Gruyere and the crispy-on-the-outside-soft-on-the-inside, oh-so-buttery puff pastry crust.  Yes, pastry.  Don’t even hand me a piece of quiche on a boring pie crust.  Quiche is made with puff pastry.  Period.

 

So now that we’ve determined the only way to make a quiche with a crust is with a puff pastry crust, I’m about to share with you a recipe for a crustless quiche.  No crust and no cheese?  That is a tall order to make it tasty.  Yes, I realize I could make a paleo version of a pie crust.  There are two problems with this:

1.– I don’t like paleo breads or baked goods.  Sorry, they basically taste like flavored cardboard.  If I’m going to have a baked good, I’ll just have the real thing.

2.– If you are taking your normal crappy diet, switching the ingredients to “better” ones, and shoving the crappy food into a paleo mold, you are COMPLETELY missing the ball here.  Yes, it’s okay to have a paleo dessert or pancake or whatever once in awhile…but if you do that too often, you haven’t actually changed anything.  Dallas and Melissa Hartwig refer to it as SEX WITH YOUR PANTS ON (SWYPO).  If you keep having SWYPO, you’ll eventually want to take the pants off.  Once you take the pants off, it’s hard to put them back on.

 

This is a delicious quiche (yes, even without the crust and the cheese) that incorporates a whole boat-load of vegetables in it.  Eggs + lots of veggies = more filling!  The coconut milk gives the illusion of cheese.  It doesn’t taste like cheese or anything, but you get the creamy-ness of the cheese (plus the heavy cream that typically goes into quiche).  Feel free to add whatever veg you want to this!  Change up the spices, toss in some meat…make it your own!  But whatever you do, make it!

Crustless Quiche

Serves 4

1 onion, sliced in thin semi-circles

2 shallots, sliced thin

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 C mushrooms, sliced thick

3 Tbsp fat of your choice (I used a combination of coconut oil and ghee)

2 C shredded squash (I used summer squash, but you could also use zucchini or whatever)

1 C shredded carrots

1 C sliced cherry tomatoes

4 eggs

1 1/2 C full-fat coconut milk

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 tsp dried basil (or 1 Tbsp chopped fresh)

1/4 tsp nutmeg

 

1.–Preheat oven to 350.  Melt 2 Tbsp fat in skillet over medium-low heat.  Add shallot, garlic, and onion; cook until soft and starting to golden (15-ish minutes).  In another skillet (or the same skillet after the onions are finished, melt 1 Tbsp fat over med-high heat.  When the pan is HOT, cook the mushrooms until browned.  Again, the key to mushrooms is hot and fast.  With both the onion mixture and the mushrooms, drain off some of the water when finished cooking.  Put mushrooms and onions in the bottom of a greased pie dish.

2.– In a large bowl, whisk eggs, coconut milk, salt, pepper, basil, and nutmeg until thick and creamy.  Spread shredded vegetables over the onions and mushrooms.  Layer sliced tomatoes on the top of all that vegetable mess.  Slowly pour the egg mixture over the top of the vegetables.  The eggs are thick and don’t seem like they’ll seep down through the vegetables.  Don’t worry, they will.

3.– Put pie dish in a pan large enough to hold it (I used my roasting pan).  Pour very hot water around the pie dish–about halfway up the dish.  Bake 30-35 minutes (or until eggs are set).  Remove from water bath and cool 15 minutes before serving (the removal from the water bath is the hardest part…it took some major potholder yoga).  The cooling process is important–I didn’t wait completely and the quiche was basically falling apart.  Still delicious…just loose LOL!

 

 

As you can see, this is “Toddler-Tested, Toddler-Approved.”

 

*EDIT*  I just realized that I forgot to put the mushrooms in this time–so if you don’t have mushrooms handy, this is still delicious!