Crustless Quiche is one of my favorite easy dinner dishes to make. Quiche doesn’t sound like it would be a quick-fix dish at any time, but this quiche doesn’t use a traditional pastry crust, which really cuts down on the prep time. Instead, the quiche filling includes some all purpose flour and baking powder, in addition to eggs, milk and other standard quiche ingredients. In the oven, the filling separates into a very thin crust layer and a tender egg/custard layer. The crust provides just enough stability to make the quiche easy to slice and give the dish some texture, but it doesn’t add any of the extra fat or calories that the traditional pastry crust has.
From start to finish, it takes very little time to throw this recipe together and, like most quiches, you can use just about any kind of vegetables or cheese that you like. It’s very easy to make these vegetarian, but I used a combination of sausage and mushrooms in this quiche. The sausage, mushrooms and any other vegetables need to be cooked beforehand on the stove, since the oven cooking time is relatively short.
I used Chicken Chipotle sausage (I get them at Trader Joe’s) in my batch, but you can use any type of sausage that you like. Since the chipotle adds a lot of spice – and I tend to like spicy sausages in general – I kept the additional peppery spices to a minimum in the recipe. If your sausages are mild, add in some more pepper, or even some red pepper flakes to jazz things up a bit.
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Many times, the flaky and buttery crust is the best part of a quiche, supporting the filling and adding a wonderful contrasting texture to the dish. But crusts can be a bit time consuming and more than a bit fattening. I like this crustless quiche as a quick and relatively low fat dinner. It takes about 15 minutes to assemble and get into the oven – and I will never be one to complain about food that is tasty, healthy and fast.
Although I’m calling this a crustless quiche because it doesn’t have a pastry crust, it does have a crust of sorts. The flour mixed in to the egg mixture separates during baking and forms a very thin crust along the bottom and sides of the pan. It’s not the same as a “real” crust, but it does help keep the quiche slices together neatly and adds a bit of substance to what would otherwise be just some baked eggs. If you’ve had a clafoutis, which is a relatively hardy baked custard dish, or even a Dutch Baby pancake, you’ll probably notice some similarities in consistency.
You can use just about any base you want for this dish, which means you’ll get a lot of variety with just one basic recipe. I almost always have onions and fresh spinach on hand, as it’s a popular combination in my kitchen. Some diced up sausage, ham or leftover, shredded chicken would work well in here, too. I like the feta cheese on top for extra saltiness and flavor, but again, you can opt for a different type of cheese if you prefer (parmesan and cheddar are nice) – or even skip it entirely if you want to go cheeseless. Regardless, it’s always satisfying to make and eat.
This can be a simple dinner or an easy breakfast dish, but it can also be served as an appetizer or first course by slicing it thinnly for several guests.
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