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….
Great recipe…. I love and make many of your dishes. Thank you.
can u use non fat cream
Hi! I love all your recipes and can’t wait to make this one. I know it’s not very recent, but I thought I would ask if you’ve found much difference baking this recipe in a ceramic pie dish instead of a tin? Thanks!!
Absolutely amazing! Definitely use the cream.
Very tasty great way to use up left over leg ham from Xmas making again tonight with garden salad
Great idea!
You can leave your quiche in the oven turned off open and it will not sink in the midde
I make this recipe in an 8×8 and change the ingredients like the NOTES say to. I do not change anything else and it always comes out incredible… The most creamy, thick, custard-y egg dish I’ve ever made. Everyone always asks for the recipe and how the texture came out that creamy. This is the best recipe ever!!!!
Totally agree with your review,beautiful custard like texture 🥰
This recipe is incredibly delicious, I find myself making it at least once every two weeks. Thank you!
How would I go about doubling this, for larger groups?
If you look at the top of the the recipe, there is a quantity served. This is a sliding scale. Just slide up to the number of serves you want.
Its the 2nd time I’ve made this now and its a fantastic, quick recipe for a last minute meal. I’ve added other fridge draw contents and left over roasted vegetables and its been a hit both times. Its a bit of regular now for us – empty nesters and tragic lawn bowlers, who are suprisingly and happily, time poor.
Anxiously waiting for the cookbooks
Made this tonight. Quick, easy and delish. We must have very hearty appetites as this fed 4, no way it would serve 6 – 8 imo.
Holy moly good! Took no time to make and I made it in a large muffin tin for freezable breakfasts. I used a 6 muffin tin but only used 5 and the size was perfect (about 15mins, still soft in the middle, maybe 16mins next time).
Hit the spot having craved a quiche all week but being unable to eat a bakery bought crust!
Omg I just made this quiche this morning and me and my fiancé both thought it was AMAZING! Perfect recipe!!! I tried to lighten it up and used half cream, half whole milk. Just like the footnotes said, it was fluffy and perfect. Definitely making this again!
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.
Cream vs. milk? I used 3/4 c. of half and half–worked fine!
Have you ever used condensed milk?
I used 5 duck eggs and a 300gm tub of full fat sour cream as that’s what I had. Delicious. This recipe will become a staple in our household. Thank you.
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?
I use glass pie pans and leave all instructions the same. As with any recipe, you just eyeball it.
Can i replace ham with leaks?
Nagi says in the comments to just add 2 cups of whatever you like. But at least have some cheese. I would fry off the leeks before adding.