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| My gluten-free crustless quiche |
Cooking doesn't interest me like writing—though eating good food admittedly does—so if there is a hack or a shortcut to be had in the cooking world, I've probably found it. I've been making a quiche nearly every week since lockdown began. It lasts several days making a quick breakfast, lunch, or even dinner with a side salad.
This is a crustless gluten-free quiche recipe I've had for years. Long ago I had a handwritten recipe for it from someone somewhere, but it's been lost for ages . For some time I've been winging it using only my memory. You can put whatever you like inside for fillings. For this recipe I'm making Quiche Lorraine using Gruyere Cheese, bacon, chives (freeze dried), and a pinch of nutmeg.
The amount of eggs you'll need depends on the size of your pie pan (does it have higher sides making it deeper?) and the size of your eggs (small, large, extra large). Guesstimate lower so you don't overfill your pie pan. You don't want it to cook over.
My Quiche Recipe
Ingredients
8/9 large eggs
1 Cup 4% Cottage Cheese
2 Tbsp. melted butter
Preferred Fillings & Spices
~8 oz of other cheese (grated)
Five slices cooked chopped bacon
Nutmeg
Chives (I use freeze dried)
Spray pie pan with cooking oil.
Preheat oven to 350° F
Mix the first three ingredients in a blender.
Eggs. Cottage Cheese. Melted butter.
Blend on liquefy.
After you've blended the eggs, cottage cheese, and melted butter in the blender, gently and briefly blend in your spices. For Quiche Lorraine I add three heaping tablespoons of freeze-dried chives and just a pinch of nutmeg. Nutmeg can be a wonderful secret ingredient or a hideous what were you thinking one. Less is more with nutmeg.
Pour just enough of the mixture from the blender to cover the bottom of your sprayed pie pan. Add your cooked, chopped bacon.
Add shredded cheese.
Sometimes I'm a cheese snob and grate my own. Sometimes not. For Quiche Lorraine I use Gruyere or Swiss.
Slowly add the rest of your egg mixture over your fillings. You want to cover all of the cheese rather than leave it on top. This prevents extreme browning. Since you're not using a crust you have to use caution to prevent over-browning.
(I used 8 eggs here.)
Check your quiche several times during cooking. Normally I set a ten minute timer, a twenty minute timer, and a thirty minute timer. Cooking it at 350° F, if it's browning in ten minutes reduce temperature to 325° for the duration (though you might have to add another ten minutes if you do lower the temperature). It does tend to poof up a bit like a souffle while cooking. It'll flatten during cooling. Using the same oven at the same temperature I've had to alter the timing/temperature, go figure. It tends to overcook rather than undercook and sets up nicely.
If anyone finds out I'm making this I usually wind up making two, one to share even in the time of a pandemic.
It's yum. I promise.
