Roasted Poblano Colby Jack Crustless Quiche — Revised and Refined

My first low-carb crustless quiche was this Roasted Poblano Colby Jack Crustless Quiche I originally made January 13. After cycling through several other quiches and refining my techniques, I made it again last night with a few key revisions.

It comes out of the pan beautifully and holds up very well on the plate, as if encrusted by something other than the butter I used to coat the pie pan.

The key to a great quiche is the custard — the combination of eggs and milk or cream. I first started by using Julia Child’s “master recipe” from Julia’s Kitchen Wisdom to determine the proportion for the custard: 3 eggs plus enough cream/milk to make 1 1/2 cups. In my case, that worked out to be 3 eggs and 3/4 cup of cream. Over time, I have refined that proportion to be 2 eggs and 1/4 cup of egg beaters with no loss in flavor or texture. I have also increased the heavy cream to 1 cup.

Mark Bittman had a cheese quiche recipe in How to Cook Everything that had 6 eggs and 2 cups of liquid to 2 cups of cheese. I halved that to 1 cup and it still felt like a ton of cheese, which is lovely.

The first time, I roasted the peppers directly on the gas stove, which was fun, but probably less effective than oven roasting. I read about the technique on Serious Eats. This time, I used Mark Bittman’s technique from How to Cook Everything: 30 minutes at 500º turning frequently. Since my experiments with this recipe always include some not so perfect decisions — do not attempt to roast garlic along with the poblanos. They collapsed into little nubs of carbon.

My other big addition is the caramelized onions, which now are a part of every quiche I make. They add a wonderful flavor and sweetness that contrasts well with the mild spiciness of the poblanos. A tinier addition, but one I am very pleased with is 1/4 tsp of ancho chile powder. Ancho chiles are roasted, dried poblanos and the addition of this chile powder added a smoky heat that took it from excellent to sublime.

Optional ingredients can include crumbled turkey or pork chorizo, veggie sausage patties or links, chopped tomatoes, roasted red peppers, or anything your heart desires. Quiche is the easiest dish to make and I always have at least one on hand at all times.

Nutrition Information:  For 8 servings, each slice contains: 156 calories and 3.65 net carbs.  For 6 servings, each slice contains: 208.5 calories and 4.87 net carbs.

Ingredients

• 2 Poblano Peppers
• 1 cup grated Colby Jack cheese
• 3 eggs (I use brown, free range, organic) or any combination of eggs and egg beaters to equal 3 eggs (for my calculations, I used 1 egg and 1/2 cup of egg beaters, since it’s what I had on hand)
• 1 cup heavy cream and/or milk, but milk will increase the carbs significantly
• 1/2 of a medium onion, or approximately 5 oz, diced
• 1 tbs butter, plus enough to butter the pie pan (about .1 – .2 of an ounce or less than 1/2 tsp.)
• Salt and pepper
• Optional, but recommended, 1/4 tsp ancho chile powder or regular chile powder (more or less to according to your preference for spicy foods).

Technique

1. Roast poblanos over gas burner or roast at 500º in oven until skin is blistered.
2. Add to bowl and cover tightly for 10 minutes with plastic wrap.
3. After poblanos cool, peel.
4. Pre-heat oven to 325º.
5. Sauté diced onion in 1 tbs of butter until lightly browned.
6. Chop peeled poblanos into strips 1/4 wide by 2 inches long.
7. Grate 1 cup colby jack cheese.
8. Lightly butter or oil a 9 inch pie pan.
9. Add 1/2 of onion to bottom of pan.
10. Layer 1/2 of pepper over onion.
11. Layer 1/2 of cheese.
12. At this point, you can add 1/2 of egg/cream mixture, but I did not.
13. Repeat onion, pepper, and cheese.
14. Add dash of sea salt and cracked pepper
15. Whisk together 3 eggs, cream, and chile powder in a deep bowl until aerated (I use the whisk attachment on my braun hand-blender on a very low setting for about 60 seconds.)
16. Pour over ingredients.
17. Place in 325º oven.
18. Bake for 30-50 minutes or until puffed and browned.

Serves 6-8. I prefer slicing it into 8 servings.