Categories
French Healthy Eating Recipes Vegetarian

Crustless Spinach and Ricotta Quiche

 

Crusts are all well and good; in fact, I’ve counted them among my many inanimate friends for a number of years. However, they also contain copious amount of butter and flour. Indeed, though pastry is mighty delicious, I have noticed that a number of quiche-eaters neglect to munch most of the crust with which they have been supplied. As such, this is a recipe for those of you who want to avoid the added fat, carbs and cost afforded by pastry. Of course, this idea is transferrable to most quiche recipes, but it had to be introduced somewhere. In any case, please give the idea a go since it makes for a delicious and, more importantly, light lunch or dinner.

Spinach and ricotta is a classic combination that, in this case, provides those partaking in the eating with a meal that is at once healthy, creamy and delicious. Indeed, the rather subtle taste of the cheese backs the stronger flavour of the spinach extremely well and in a rather surreptitious manner. At first glance one’s taste buds will struggle to pinpoint the exact background taste, but it soon becomes apparent that there is something preventing the spinach from becoming a little overwhelming.

Leftovers: We had a little of the quiche left the next day, so I placed it between two slices of granary bread and has myself a good ol’ fashioned sandwich. Though it pains me to admit it, it was rather nice with a little sweet chilli sauce.

Crustless Spinach and Ricotta Quiche

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 300g fresh spinach

• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed

• A little olive oil

• 100ml double cream

• 250g ricotta cheese

• 2 eggs, beaten

• Salt and pepper

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200C. Fry the garlic in oil in a large saucepan. Add the spinach and cook until wilted. Beat the eggs, cream and cheese together in a mixing bowl until combined. Add the wilted spinach and season.

2. Transfer the spinach and cheese mixture to a buttered quiche dish and bake in the oven until just set. This should take around 20-25 minutes. Once cooked leave to cool for 2 minutes before very carefully slicing.

Cost: The cost of this quiche will be a little smaller than usual since this recipe does not call for a crust. Indeed, despite the use of a whole tub of ricotta cheese the price of the entire tart should be around £3.30 – which isn’t bad considering its ability to satisfy four.

91 replies on “Crustless Spinach and Ricotta Quiche”

This looks great, and you’re so right about the crust! Time after time I’ll made a quiche with a nice flaky crust (full of butter of course) and when I clear their plates the crust is all that’s left. Luckily, I don’t think it’s a reflection of my cooking… sometimes the extra fat and carbs are just a little too much.

It is kind of like a frittata, or you might even call it a naked quiche 🙂

How do you make a mashed potato crust? Did you have to cook it separately first? Please post your method.

Dreamy! I tried a tofu quiche last night. Not impressive and clearly not the same as eggs 🙁 A few other vegans have recommended chickpea quiches, so that’s next on the list. Probably another epic failure waiting to happen. I need to give up on some of the analogues. I’ve been making crust-less quiches for years to reduce fat, but I have to admit a prefer them with crust. The sandwich with sweet chili sauce seems nice as well, there aren’t many things that it doesn’t taste good on, which is painful for me to admit as well 🙂

I hear Richa at hobby and more makes a good one, need to dig through her archives and find it then “Somerize” it.

Thanks. If it doesn’t appear sometime soon on my blog, you’ll know I had another kitchen disaster, then I’ll wait patiently for the frugal one which is guaranteed to be a success. 😉

Hardly!

I think I was a better cook before I had little ones and a huge dog running about. I burn things now more often than I care to admit because I’m trying to multi-task and stop disasters occurring in every corner of my house. Ah, well. At least it’s never a dull moment!

Is it simply that frittatas are fried and quiches tend to be baked? I think the definition of a frittata has been bastardised over the years so it’s very vague to begin with now!

I like everything about this quiche Nick…except the crust that it’s missing. I’m sorry, I’d probably be the one at the table saying, “Excuse me, if you’re not going to be eating that last bite of crust, would you mind terribly if…..?” (I know, rude, eh? I could use some good British manners!) I like your filling very much though and may have to pour it in a nice buttery crust one day! (when I’m feeling particularly skinny. or maybe sooner, on second thought.) 🙂

I want to make this. This is a dinner right up my ally. But here’s my questions to you Nick – what do you recommend I substitute out for your double cream? I just can’t bring myself to add double cream to my dinner. Evaporated milk? I’d hate to then have liquid in the bottom…thoughts?

Lovely to look at and equally as good to eat. I am sharing it on the blog. The eggs are so fresh!!! Though I love a good crust you don’t really miss it when the filling is satisfying. Thanks!

This sounds delicious. I’m staring at a big bunch of Kale on the kitchen counter. Do you think it would work in place of the spinach? I think you’re right about the frittata definition–it’s simply an Italian omelet where the ingredients are mixed into the egg mixture. They aren’t very creamy or cheesy–just eggy.

Gees, how did I miss this?? I love quiche, and you can’t go wrong with spinach and ricotta. Looks great. So simple, too.

Hey, there Frugalfeeding. Love the presentation on this crustless quiche. I made a similar quiche/casserole and posted about it, but I used swiss cheese. Gonna mix it up next time and toss in some ricotta. Thanks for the inspiration!

That quiche looks amazing! Haven’t made one in years – crazy as I do quite enjoy, with or without crust! Love how you set out your photo – I don’t often photography food, but I find your layout compelling with the use of depth of field, focusing on the serving in the forefront. Well done.

This sounds great! I love crust, but often don’t have time to make one or have used up my extra frozen ones, and I just can’t bring myself to use a pre-made one, so this would be a great alternative. Question, I assume the answer is yes, but with the weather so hot right now (in Minnesota), it is not a good time for homegrown spinach, but I’ve got plenty of chard and kale. Either of those work just fine?

I make crustless quiches all the time! Mine tend to be on the refrigerator quiche side of things…(which similar to refrigerator soup and refrigerator salad, use up the little bits of things left in the refrigerator. It always turns out varied and delicious but makes it hard when people ask for the recipe). I don’t particularly enjoy making homemade piecrusts, and storebought is terrible, and since I don’t really like crust that much anyway….using a crust seems like an exercise in futility. Crustless is the way to go.

Thanks for stopping by and liking my recent post, I am glad I found your blog this way. I love the variety of your recipes, all looks so delicious. Eating healthy but on an affordable basis is what I try to follow! being a student, and in my case living in the expensive city of Los Angeles now for an internship, sometimes does not leave a huge amount of money to spend on groceries. I’ll be following 🙂

If you like my recipes, photos or food please leave a comment here...