Crustless quiche is everything you know and love about classic quiches – minus the carbs! While you can put almost anything in it, this ultra easy ham and cheese crustless quiche takes less than 5 minutes to get in the oven, and smells just like Quiche Lorraine.
Keeps perfectly for days, serve it as is, stuff into soft rolls or wraps, crispy burrito style!
Crustless Quiche
If you were to drop round on any given day, there’d likely be some version of crustless quiche in my fridge. This, along with Baked Frittata, are two of my most used fridge clean out recipes because they’re both terrific quick dump-and-bake recipes.
It does take 30 minutes or so to bake. But with pre chopped ham and a bag of shredded cheese, it takes less than 5 minutes to get into the oven – and it smells like a Quiche Lorraine when it’s baking!
Add to that the shelf life – it keeps perfectly for up to 5 days in the fridge. Serve it sliced like a quiche OR stuffed into soft rolls, or rolled up into flatbreads or tortillas then pan fried until crispy, burrito style. (Yes, I realise that defeats the “low carb” pitch for this recipe!😂)
What goes in Ham & Cheese Crustless Quiche
Here’s what you need for this quick ham and cheese quiche: eggs, cream OR milk, ham, cheese and green onions.
Cream vs Milk
Cream gives it a more luscious, custardy texture like everybody’s favourite Quiche Lorraine. Milk gives it a frittata texture – still quite custardy as long as you don’t overcook it, but it doesn’t have the same luxurious mouthfeel you can only get from cream!
If using milk, we need to reduce the amount of liquid used because eggs can’t hold as much milk as it can cream.
Use your adds ins of choice!
This recipe is more of a formula than actual recipe. Essentially, whisk together 5 eggs and 1 cup of cream OR 1/2 cup of milk, salt and pepper.
Then pour that into a greased pie tin with ~ 2 cups of whatever add-ins you want (I’ve used ham, cheese and green onions) and bake for 30 minutes until puffed and golden.
I do recommend that part of those 2 cups of add-ins includes cheese!
How to make Crustless Quiche
Here’s how I make Crustless Quiche:
Whisk together the eggs, cream or milk, salt and pepper;
Put most of the ham, cheese and green onions into a greased pie tin – we hold some back for topping so you get some bits on the surface which looks nice (love the golden cheese crust and browned bits of ham!);
Pour in all the egg mixture;
Scatter with remaining ham, cheese and onions;
Bake 30 – 35 minutes until golden and puffed;
Rest 5 minutes then slice!
Note: there is major deflation. So don’t get too excited when you see how puffy it is straight out of the oven. See?
But don’t worry. Deflation in height doesn’t result in deflation of tastiness! 😂
How I serve Crustless Quiche
Being the low-carb, easier sister of Quiche Lorraine, it would be a wonderful brunch option with a side salad – choose from this ever increasing collection of Vegetable Sides! For a very simple salad, toss any leafy greens or fresh raw vegetables with my Everyday Salad Dressing, and for a show off option, try this Leafy Apple Salad with Candied Walnuts or this Strawberry Spinach Salad (it is Fabulous with a capital “F”!).
But, as depicted and mentioned above, my favourite way is to make sandwiches and burritos out of crustless quiche. Or just piled on toast. It’s fabulously delicious, cheesy, salty and filling too. Big bonus that it keeps for 5 days and freezes fabulously! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Crustless Quiche – Ham and Cheese
Ingredients
- 5 large eggs (~50 – 55g / 2oz each)
- 1 cup cream , heavy/thickened (halve if subbing milk, Note 1)
- 1/4 tsp salt (Note 2)
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 100g/ 3.5 oz ham , diced
- 1 cup shredded cheese (anything that melts except mozzarella, Note 3)
- 1 green onion , sliced
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F (160°C fan-forced). Grease a 22.5cm / 9" pie dish with butter or spray lightly with oil. (Note 4)
- Whisk eggs, cream, salt and pepper.
- Scatter most of the ham, cheese and green onion in the pie pan.
- Pour in egg mixture. Top with remaining ham, cheese and green onion.
- Bake 35 minutes until golden on top and centre barely wiggles. Don't overcook, it will lose custardy-ness.
- Remove from oven, rest 5 minutes and watch it deflate!
- Cut then serve with a simple side salad, or stuff into soft rolls, or wrap into burritos (then pan fry to crisp!)
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
More quiche and frittata type things
(With and without the carbs!)
Life of Dozer
Walk time. He isn’t subtle, is he??
And when he gave up waiting….
Hi! I was wondering how I’d bake this in a 8inch/20cm cake tin? Alternatively I was thinking of using my 20cm square pan, but I can’t seem to get the slider to land on 7 eggs, I either get 6.67 or 7.5 eggs?
This crustless quiche is divine, Nagi! Whenever I buy quiche off a good bakery, I leave the crust anyway as it is non-flavourful carbs. I used 3 cheeses, Mersey Vale Crumbly cheddar, Gruyere, and Grana Padano and also a little red onion to go with the spring onion. Used Dollop cream and ended up with a delightful, fluffy, rich texture. Thank you!
Very tasty but similar to others, it was a little bit too salty for our tastes but would make again without the salt. I made it with grated lactose free cheese and used frozen sliced green onions (I can never use a whole bunch in one go and they freeze well if sliced up and stored in an airtight container for a couple of months).
I followed the instructions and got exactly the right amount. I feel like it was a bit salty. I probably wouldn’t even add salt next time
Wow! What an easy recipe! Didn’t have as much cream in the fridge as I thought, so I added a dash of full cream milk and it worked fine. I added fresh chopped habanero chilli from our tree, corn kernels and asparagus on top, as well as the ham, cheese and green onion. Looks and smells amazing! Just took it out of the oven. Can’t wait to try it! Yum!
This wasn’t good, it was absolutely dee-licious! Subbed 1 small onion fried with 3 strips of streaky bacon instead of ham and green onion. Didn’t have thick /heavy cream, used 3/4 cup of whipping cream instead. Served with spinach, roast pumpkin and feta salad. Very very tasty and ridiculously easy. Thanks for another winner NagiQ
Made with 0 milks (7 egg) and regular white onion; plus I added mushrooms. Used Swiss and 8×8 square pan. Delicious lunch and breakfast tomorrow!
Thank you Nagi. This is a great on its own or to mix up with other ingredients. I also topped it up with mushrooms, spinach, plus garlic powder & cajun spice powder to the eggs & milk. Basically you could sub whatever your favourite ingredients are. 2nd time making this. Love quiche! 😋
This is a Great recipe—so quick, so easy, and so’ what’s in the fridge’. It’s 30 degrees this afternoon in December, South Africa—who the heck wants to be in the kitchen? The shops are insane with holidaymakers. And to be honest, possibly one too many braai’s (barbecues).
I used bacon, ran out of white cheddar, and used a bit of Dutch Maasdam. It should taste delish. It’s in the oven now. Feeling chuffed with myself, off to pour a G&T 🙂
This is incredibly tasty and so easy. I make it with a salad for an easy weeknight dinner. I don’t change a thing – its delish!
Perfect! Delicious & customisable. I also added some panfried mushrooms & it still worked. My pie dish is glass & 24cm so next time round I’ll use an extra egg + 1/3 cup extra cream because even though it worked the thickness was slightly lacking.
Made this for brunch today as I had some cream and eggs to use up.. It was delicious but a bit on the salty side for me (I don’t use much salt so I’m probably a bit salt sensitive) so I’d leave the added salt out next time. An easy quick meal. Thanks Nagi!
As a newly diagnosed diabetic I am so happy to find a recipe of yours that I can still make!
It’s a steep learning curve…
Would be grateful if you could, where possible, include subs to reduce carbs in your future recipes. I love cooking, I have both your books, and I’m happy to experiment. I just feel I have been robbed of one of the biggest joys in my life :/
I too have type 2 diabetes and have had it for about 15 years. I still eat carbs and enjoy them when I do and my HbA1C is and has always been in the low 5s. I know not everyone is as lucky as me. You might like Kalyn’s Kitchen site. She makes low carb/keto recipes.
I have eleven minutes on the oven timer until this beauty comes out, but I am already scanning the comments to see the many varieties people have been experimenting with. This time, I have made it as written. Looking forward to eating it very soon and sharing my own adaptations.
Thank you Nagi x
Have made this many times and my husband loves it. It’s become a staple in our house, if there’s any leftover I take for lunch. Very yummy 😋 💕
I made this and put in some leftover potato I needed to use. (I used 1/2 cup of milk instead of cream as directed.)
Husband was quiet while eating which isn’t always a good thing. After he finished he turned to me and said “Please make this again!” I was thinking the same thing. So delicious, thank you!
So yummy! Easily one of the best quiches I’ve ever tasted. I was so pleasantly surprised by this simple yet delicious recipe. Thank you very much, Nagi! You and Dozer are wonderful for sharing this and all of your recipes. I truly appreciate all of them!!! They are always yummy and surprise with me how much flavor they each carry. Delicious!! :)Thank you, and BIG HUGS we love you!!!
This is a very good recipe! Thank you! It was so creamy and custardy inside…mmmmm. My bf said it was delicious. I served it wth a tossed salad and some crunchy sourdough toast with butter. We enjoyed it a lot and will eat the leftovers tonight!
Good recipe great for cleaning out refrigerator can put different veggies and cooked meat and cheeses
I adjusted the bar at the top of the recipe to get the proportions for 3 servings. What size tin would you suggest