Crustless Ham & Asparagus Quiche (Substituted Spinach and Cauliflower for Asparagus)

First gluten free recipe made today! And it was a delicious success even though I deviated from the recipe quite a bit! :) I chose this recipe because we have about 2 dozen eggs in the fridge that need to be used up, and I had most of the ingredients at home which was helpful because Ellen was napping, so no time to go to the store! Also quiche is a great dish to hide extra vegetables in, which helped me get to my goal of 3 servings of leafy veggies a day! Unfortunately I didn't have any asparagus... one of the main ingredients in this dish! I went through our deep freezer and found some frozen cauliflower and frozen spinach, a little strange, but it turned out awesome.

First I steamed the frozen spinach, it was one that you can steam in the bag, so that was super easy. Then I microwaved the cauliflower until it was tender. I chopped up a red bell pepper and also microwaved it for about a minute. It was crisp, not tender. I mixed up the gluten free flour, milk, and eggs, and then added the cauliflower, pepper, and spinach. The spinach pretty much took over the mixture which worried me a little, but in the end it turned out fine. The quiche was definitely very spinachy, but not in a bad way! :) I also added salt and ground black pepper, and then I poured the mixture into two 9-inch pie plates. I decided to double the recipe to use up the eggs and because I had so much spinach. And now I have one in my freezer for later! :)

Before putting the quiche in the oven, I shredded some cheese on top. The recipe calls for swiss cheese, but Matt hates swiss cheese and I didn't have any. I substituted monterey jack and it was fine. I imagine any cheese on top of quiche would be good! :)

The quiches baked for about 45 minutes, I was almost late to work because I didn't account for needing extra time to bake two of them. The recipe calls for 35 minutes.

We each had two slices of the very spinachy quiche for dinner and it was delicious and healthy!! I will definitely make this recipe again. Maybe next time I'll try to use asparagus. :)



Here is the recipe:
2 cups sliced asparagus
(I substituted about 1 cup cauliflower, 2 cups spinach)
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons rice flour
3 eggs
1 cup chopped ham
2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon or basil (I skipped b/c I didn't have any)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup finely shredded swiss cheese (any cheese is probably good)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine asparagus, bell pepper and 1 tablespoon water in microwavable bowl. Cover with waxed paper, microwave on HIGH 2 minute or until vegetables are crisp-tender. Drain.

2. Whisk milk and rice flour in large bowl. Whisk in eggs until well blended. Stir in vegetables, ham, tarragon, salt and black pepper. Pour into 9-inch pie plate.

3. Bake 35 minutes. Sprinkle cheese over quiche; bake 5 minutes or until center is set and cheese is melted. Let stand 5 minutes before serving. (I put the cheese on by accident before baking at all. To make sure the cheese didn't over-brown, I mixed the cheese in with the quiche mixture before putting in the oven.)


Enjoy! I'm sure you can substitute in whatever veggies you'd like, that's the beauty of quiches! :) I've decided I like this cook book, at least from this first recipe. The ingredients and directions are simple and easy to follow. Most ingredients I had, I didn't absolutely have to go to the grocery store to get anything, which is helpful since the best time to cook is when Ellen is sleeping! I think next I will try sweet potato gnocchi, I have a few sweet potatoes in the fridge that need to be used up. Yum!