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If you love quiche, but don’t love the extra effort of making a pie crust, this veggie crustless quiche is for you. It’s made with spaghetti squash, onion, and kale, but you’d never guess how many veggies are actually inside because it tastes so good.
I start with Instant Pot spaghetti squash most often, but you can also cook spaghetti squash in the oven. And if you want more crustless recipes, try my crustless pumpkin pie next.
Why You’ll Love this Crustless Quiche
- It tastes unbelievably good. My top priority, especially with so many veggies hidden inside. The key to the flavor is using a good cheese (like Gruyere) and plenty of salt to balance out the sweetness from the onion and squash.
- It’s heavy on the veggies. There are 2 cups of spaghetti squash inside, but since it’s yellow just like the eggs, it’s not visually noticeable.
- It’s low effort. Assuming you cooked spaghetti squash ahead of time (I always cook that part the night before), this takes about 15 minutes of prep before it’s ready to bake.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Eggs. I only use 4 large eggs in this entire quiche because there are so many veggies inside. I think you could add an extra one if you really want to, but I hope you’ll try this as-written first!
- Spaghetti Squash. If you’ve ever been to Andres in Kansas City, their quiche is actually the best I’ve ever had. Theirs has “strands” of cheese inside, and adding spaghetti squash gives this quiche a similar texture with a lot less cheese. You do need to cook this in advance, and you’ll only need about half of the squash for this recipe. Save the other half for a batch of Spaghetti Squash Soup!
- Onion. Adds subtle sweetness and depth of flavor. Feel free to use red onion, shallot, or green onion if you prefer.
- Kale. When spaghetti squash is in season, so is kale. And when you chop it small, it cooks down into tiny pieces and is almost unnoticeable. But, you’re getting bonus nutrients and a pop of green, which looks pretty! (Spinach would be fine here, too.)
- Cheese. I originally tested this recipe with sharp cheddar, which is great, but I love it even more with Gruyere. If you would rather use cottage cheese for extra protein, check out my crustless quiche with cottage cheese.
Want to use a whole spaghetti squash? Try my Spaghetti Squash Breakfast Casserole, which bakes in a larger 9×13-inch casserole dish. It has “Quiche Lorraine” flavor, but can be customized with other veggies.
How to Cook Veggie Crustless Quiche (Step by Step)
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF and lightly grease a 9-inch pie plate. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add a drizzle of olive oil. Cook a chopped yellow onion until it’s translucent, about 8 minutes.
- Add 1 cup of chopped kale to the skillet and cook until it wilts, about 5 more minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and let it cool briefly.
- While you wait for the veggies to finish, crack 4 large eggs into a large mixing bowl. Season with 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper.
- Add 2 cups of cooked and cooled spaghetti squash to the bowl, along with 1/2 cup of shredded Gruyere cheese. Stir well, so the spaghetti squash is evenly distributed throughout the eggs.
- Add the slightly cooled onion and kale to the bowl and stir to combine.
- Transfer the mixture to the pan and spread it out evenly with a spatula. Then sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup of shredded Gruyere over the top.
- Bake at 350ºF for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the center looks firm and the edges are golden brown.
- Let the quiche cool for at least 15 minutes, then it’s ready to slice and serve warm.
Veggie Crustless Quiche FAQs
Generally, yes. Most vegetables won’t become tender from 35-40 minutes in the oven when submerged in an egg mixture. (I tested this with my broccoli crustless quiche, too.)
The main difference is in the cooking method. With a frittata, the eggs start cooking on the stove and finish in the oven (usually in the same pan), while a quiche is fully baked in the oven.
Yes, but the ratios may need to change if you don’t use spaghetti squash. I recommend try my vegetarian breakfast casserole for an egg dish with black beans and spinach. Or try my cottage cheese breakfast casserole for a version with seasoned ground turkey and extra fiber inside.
More Veggie Recipes
If you try this veggie crustless quiche recipe, please leave a comment and ⭐ star rating below to let me know how you like it. Thanks for visiting!
Veggie Crustless Quiche (Shockingly Good!)
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 yellow onion , chopped
- 1 cup kale , chopped and stems removed
- 4 large eggs , beaten
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 cups cooked spaghetti squash (about 1/2 of a 3.5 lb squash)
- 3 ounces Gruyere cheese , shredded
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF and grease a 9-inch pie plate with cooking spray.
- Add a drizzle of olive oil to a skillet over medium-high heat and sauté the onion until tender, about 8 minutes. Add in the chopped kale, and sauté until bright green and tender, about 3 to 5 more minutes.
- Crack the eggs into a large mixing bowl and season with the salt and black pepper. Whisk well with a fork, then stir in the spaghetti squash and half of the shredded cheese. (My squash is usually cold from the fridge because I bake it ahead of time; if yours is freshly baked let it cool first.)
- Transfer the cooked onion and kale to the bowl. Stir well then pour the mixture into the greased pie dish. Top with the remaining shredded cheese, then bake at 350ºF until the top is golden, about 35 to 40 minutes. (The center will rise with baking, but will later deflate when you remove it from the oven.)
- Allow to cool for 15 minutes and serve warm. Leftovers can be stored in a tightly sealed container in the fridge for up to one week.
Notes
Nutrition
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This quiche is delicious!!!
Where do you find raw cheddar? Does anyone know if you can find it in Canada?
Would nutritional yeast work in place of cheese?
This sounds wonderful! I have all the ingredients on hand and will be perfect for my Whole30 (sans cheese). Thanks for all your easy and healthy recipes!
Just made this without cheese, subbed spinach and added some cooked bacon and it was delish! This will be perfect for a large gathering!
Thank you, Megan! This is fantastic! Quiche is one of my mother’s favorite foods, but she can’t have any mammal’s milk based products. I know of so many different whole food dairy-free cheese substitutes, but I wondered which one you feel is the best compliment for this recipe’s flavor & consistency? Jess, it sounds like whatever you used to tackle the dairy-free challenge for this worked beautifully! Did you just eliminate the goat cheese altogether, or did you use a replacement of some kind? Thank you so much Megan and Jess for any thoughts!
I was wondering if no cheese would work- thanks for sharing! We can’t do cheese at our house.
I just omitted the cheese all together–it turned out fantastic!
If you need another dairy-free frittata option, check out my Lox frittata:
http://crunchyhotmama.com/2014/11/06/one-pan-meal-lox-frittata-dairy-free/
I made this late last night and enjoyed some for breakfast this morning. It was really good! I did use spinach instead of kale because that is what I had on hand. Thanks for all the great receipes!
This looks great!
Looks fab – I wish it were easier to get hold of spaghetti squashes in UK but I think this would work great with butternut too – I am all about crustless thing – especially crust less cheese cake!
I can’t wait to try it AND the pumpkin pie. Thanks Megan!
I’d really like to make this, but I have to ask, can you taste the squash? I’ve made several recipes from your site previously and the family loved them- I didn’t tell them what was in any of the recipes… I can only make it if you can’t tell the squash is there!
I can’t tell at all and the flavor is amazing
Awesome! Thank you, fellow Kelly!
I’m just marveling at the fact you made a quiche out of spaghetti squash. I’ll admit, I love a good homemade crust out of Crisco nonetheless! But when you stop and actually analyze what Crisco is…….nothing good comes to mind. I mean, really, what is it?? So crustless anything is awesome these days. I didn’t grow up in a home that made crustless pumpkin pies, now, only in my mid 30’s have I come to appreciate how satisfying a crustless pumpkin pie can be. I made one for my birthday and did not feel cheated at all. And now, I’m just as eager to try your crustless quiche.