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.
This 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 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:
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Whisk together the eggs, cream or milk, salt and pepper;
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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!);
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Pour in all the egg mixture;
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Scatter with remaining ham, cheese and onions;
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Bake 30 – 35 minutes until golden and puffed;
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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 version 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. Grease with butter or spray a 22.5cm / 9" pie dish (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 Nagi, if you added a bit of baking powder to the recipe do you think it would prevent the sagging or change the flavour at all?
Can this be cooked in air fryer? Any suggestions welcome.
Hello Leigh, Will you please elaborate on your 2022 posting? If the quiche recipe calls for 2 cups of cream, how much milk and how much mayonnaise would you use as a substitution? I found a recommendation to use 3 parts milk and 1 part melted butter as a substitute. It turned out OK but was a bit greasy. I’m interested in any suggestions as one of my family members cannot tolerate cream.
In case anyone would like to know, I had to make a ‘special dietary needs’ quiche lorraine so I decided to try out Leigh’s idea of replacing the cream with a whole milk and mayonnaise mixture. Of course, I used Nagi’s wonderful quiche lorraine recipe (my favourite) but replaced the cream with a mixture of 300 ml whole milk and 3 TB mayonnaise. I also used larger eggs (67-68 g each). I nervously waited to see if the custard would set, and it did and it was deliciously indistinguishable from a heavy cream custard.
I made a lucky guess that 3 TBS of mayonnaise would do the trick but, in case anyone decides to try this, I don’t think it would hurt to add an extra TBS if you’re nervious about it. Hope it works as well for you as it did for me.
Forgot to say that I used full fat mayonnaise (my go-to is Helman’s Real Mayonnaise),
Can we use a glass pie dish Nagi?
If yes, does it increase the cooking time?
Can i replace ham with leaks?
This recipe is now a staple in our house – making it again tonight for dinner tomorrow. Great recipe thanks
I made this & the kids & hubby fought over the last slice!! 🤣 Will def be making this on the regular,
I make this all the time for my roommates and myself! Usually, I tend to use some seasoned salt instead of salt and pepper, and I’ve become a pescatarian since I’ve started making this, so I just use peas instead of ham now, but the rest of the recipe I follow as written, and it hasn’t failed me even once. All my roommates like it, and it’s also easy to scale up so we have enough for leftovers for breakfast the next day, since it reheats nicely! No complaints here.
Hi Nagi, would I be able to use creme fraiche instead of cream and would it be same quantity.
P.S Loving your book as much as I do the website ☺
As intended this is a quick cake to make, with a very good flavour and texture.
That note of you about not cheating and getting greedy with the ham? Hilarious!
I did that once with your delicious Quiche Lorraine and felt very stupid afterwards. Of course you know best!
Made this using some plant-based cream (supermarket freebie) as it was all I had, smoked cheddar, ham and green onions, YUM! It’s delicious!
Sauteed 6 pieces of diced bacon and also sauteed 6 sliced mushrooms. Shredded sharp white cheddar cheese. This Quiche was absolutely delicious Will make many times Give your recipe a 10
Eggcellent! So easy and tasty.
Would this recipe be ok using a Glass dish? Thanks
I’d like to know this as well Nagi.
Hi, could I use just egg yolks?? Leftover from another recipe and I don’t know what else to use them for!
Never mind, made cookies instead! Haha 😆
Delicious thank you for the recipe
Could this filling be baked in your hash brown crust? Has anyone tried it?
I didn’t know this existed, but if it works for quiche Lorraine then I can’t see why it wouldn’t for this. Thx for the tip-off. I’ll try it soon.
I’ve made a lot of quiche’s in the past but this one is AMAZING!
Trying to add a picture of this fluffy egg cheesy quiche. We used Canadian bacon and it was superb.
Does this recipe freeze? My son loves quiche Lorraine, but isn’t keen on the pastry. I try to batch cook for lunchbox foods