Feed Me! Crab Quiche

 

Photo mine

My partner has some recent dietary changes that call for a reduction in carbohydrates. This is challenging for several reasons. First, carbs are cheap. It's much easier to build a meal around rice or pasta or potatoes and stay within a budget. Second, his ideal plate would be half protein with two thirds of the remaining half being carbs and then grudgingly a vegetable that he might finish.

The upside of this is that I'm going to be able to add more veg to his diet with zucchini or butternut noodles or riced cauliflower. But the biggest downside is that it removes so many of my comfort zone dishes from consideration.

So I was thinking "what haven't I cooked for a while that doesn't have much in the way of carbs?" And I remembered this Crab Quiche that I adapted from All Recipes. I didn't change it much because the bones are solid on this one. My biggest change (and one I highly recommend) is to switch from fake crab to real. The cost of a can of jumbo lump crab is about the same and it's so much better. I also tend to use sambal oelek rather than Tabasco sauce because I always have sambal in my fridge.

I don't use the frozen crust that the original calls for. If you make your own pie crust you will probably get better results. I make a perfect pie crust dough and then I'm terrible at rolling. This is a quick dinner and I don't have time to fix my inept rolling so I use refrigerated crust and it comes out just fine.

I have not attempted this but one of the comments on All Recipes suggests adding 1/4 cup of Bisquick mix and omitting the crust for a crustless quiche. I bet it works but I can't vouch for it.

I made this for dinner but it would be good for any meal you choose.

Photo mine

Ingredients:

1 single pie crust
4 eggs
1 cup heavy cream
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
sambal oelek or hot sauce to taste (I used 1/2 tsp. of sambal but would have been happy with more)
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 (6 ounce) can of jumbo lump crab, rinsed in cold water
1 green onion, chopped

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Bake the pie crust (preferably in a deep dish pan) for about 10 minutes, until just starting to brown. Remove from the oven, and allow to cool, about 30 minutes.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, cream, salt, pepper, and hot sauce. Stir in shredded cheese, onion and imitation crab. Pour into the pie shell.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, then turn off the oven, but leave the door closed. Leave quiche in the oven for an additional 20 to 30 minutes until firm. This will give it a smoother texture. I cannot stress enough that this last step is important. If you take the quiche out of the oven at the end of cooking it will collapse. If you leave it sit it will remain light and fluffy and will be at serving temperature when you are done.

Photo mine

Food discussion welcome!