Crustless Three-Cheese Tomato-Basil Quiche

Crustless Three-Cheese Tomato-Basil Quiche is the perfect dish to make whenever you can find fresh Roma tomatoes and basil! This special dish would be a treat for a meatless meal and it’s also low-carb, gluten-free, and South Beach Diet friendly! Use the Diet-Type Index to find more recipes like this one.

Click here to PIN Crustless Three Cheese Tomato Basil Quiche!

Crustless Three-Cheese Tomato-Basil Quiche was inspired by a recipe I saw in a cookbook that I randomly picked up one day. It probably won’t surprise you to hear that at my house I have a collection of cookbooks that take up an entire wall in my office. I have so many cookbooks that I can go for a years without looking at some of them, and then one day a book will catch my eye. Recently I picked up a quirky book called Nutbread and Nostalgia, published in 1979 by the Junior League of South Bend, Indiana. My blogging friend Lydia will have to confirm it, but I think maybe she’s the one who sent me this book a while back when she was purging her own cookbook collection.

And this very, very old book is where I got the idea of using fresh tomatoes and basil in a quiche. Of course the recipe in the book wasn’t crustless, and I really changed just about everything in the inspiring recipe except the starring ingredients. It took me several tries to come up with a keeper version, and along the way I added cottage cheese for extra protein and switched the tomatoes for less wet Roma tomatoes.

But making this Crustless Three-Cheese Tomato-Basil Quiche several times to get it right really wasn’t much of a hardship, because I gobbled up even the ones that didn’t set up well enough, and by the time I had the  recipe I’m sharing in this post, I was wondering why it took me so long to think of making this type of crustless quiche.

And right now I have an abundance of tomatoes and fresh basil at my house, and personally I think this is a perfect summer dish to spotlight the combination of tomatoes and basil, so I’m featuring it again to remind people to make it while the tomatoes and basil are still around. I’d cook it in a toaster oven if you don’t want to use the oven.  But make it soon while you can still get that perfect summer combination of tomatoes and fresh basil! And this will keep in the fridge for a few days and reheats well, so make it for Weekend Food Prep if you’re someone who likes to do that!

Cut two large or 3 small Roma tomatoes in half lengthwise and scoop out seeds, then chop the tomatoes and slice the green onion. Beat the eggs with half and half (or milk), Italian Herb Blend, Spike Seasoning, and a little salt and pepper. Then gently mix in the cottage cheese, Swiss cheese, Parmesan cheese, tomatoes, and green onion.

Pour the mixture into a 9-10″ pie dish that you’ve sprayed with non-stick spray and bake at 350F/180C for 30 minutes. While it bakes, thinly slice 2 or 3 more Roma tomatoes and let them drain on paper towels, and thinly slice some fresh basil. When the 30 minutes is up, remove the quiche from the oven and top with the tomato slices and basil, and bake 30 minutes more, or slightly longer if the center doesn’t seem done.

This part is completely optional, but you can put the finished quiche under the broiler for a couple of minutes if you want to get the top a little more browned. If you do this, be sure to watch it carefully so the basil doesn’t burn!

Let the quiche sit for a few minutes before you cut it.

Make it a Meal:

I’d eat this any time of day and it would taste great with Cauliflower Rice with Basil, Parmesan, and Pine Nuts for a low-carb summer dinner.

More Meatless Dishes with Eggs:

Asparagus and Tomato Frittata with Havarti and Dill ~ Kalyn’s Kitchen
Kale, Red Pepper, and Goat Cheese Frittata ~ Aggie’s Kitchen
Fifteen-Minute Salsa Verde Eggs ~ Kalyn’s Kitchen
Zucchini, Goat Cheese, and Basil Frittata ~ The Perfect Pantry
Low-Carb Green Chile and Cheese Egg Muffins ~ Kalyn’s Kitchen

Weekend Food Prep:

This recipe has been added to a new category called Weekend Food Prep  to help you find recipes you can prep or cook on the weekend and eat during the week!

Print Recipe

Crustless Three-Cheese Tomato-Basil Quiche

Yield: 6 servings

Total Time: 1 hour and 30 minutes

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 60 minutes

Fresh Roma tomatoes and basil taste great in this Crustless Three-Cheese Tomato-Basil Quiche.

Ingredients:

• 4 large or 6 small Roma tomatoes, or any variety of paste tomato will work (Use less tomatoes for even lower carbs if you prefer.)
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced green onion
• 6 large eggs, beaten
• 1/4 tsp. Italian Herb Blend
• 1/2 tsp. Spike Seasoning (optional but recommended)
• 1/2 cup half-and-half or milk
• salt and fresh-ground black pepper to taste
• 1 cup cottage cheese
• 2 cups shredded Swiss cheese
• 1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced basil (see notes)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven (or toaster oven) to 350F/180C.
2. Spray a 9-10″ glass or crockery pie dish with non-stick spray.
3. Cut 2 large or 3 small Roma tomatoes in half lengthwise, and scrape out the seeds.
4. Dry the inside of the tomatoes with a paper towel and then chop them.
5. Thinly slice enough green onion to make 1/2 cup.
6. Beat the eggs with the half-and-half, Italian Herb Blend, Spike Seasoning, salt and pepper in a large bowl (or extra-large glass measuring cup like I used) until whites and yolks of the egg are well-combined.
7. Then gently mix in the cottage cheese, Swiss cheese, Parmesan cheese, chopped tomatoes, and green onion.
8. Pour the mixture into the pie dish and bake 30 minutes.
9. While the quiche is doing the initial baking, thinly slice 2 large or 3 small Roma tomatoes, and drain them on paper towels. (If the tomatoes seem extra wet, put between two layers of paper towel and gently press to absorb some of the liquid.)
10. Slice the fresh basil.
11. After 30 minutes, remove the quiche from the oven and arrange the sliced tomatoes and basil over the top.
12. Bake 30 minutes longer, or slightly more if the center doesn’t seem set enough.
13. Optional: When the quiche is done, you can remove it from the oven, heat the broiler, and broil the top of the finished quiche for a minute or two so it’s lightly browned. If you do this step, WATCH IT VERY CAREFULLY so the basil doesn’t burn!
14. Let the finished quiche sit for a few minutes to get firm before you cut it. (The top will sink down some, so expect that!)
15. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Notes:

I used my Herb Scissors to cut the basil. This recipe inspired by a Tomato Quiche I spotted in Nutbread and Nostalgia which is definitely one of my very oldest cookbooks.

All images and text ©Kalyn Denny for Kalyn's Kitchen.

Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
This Crustless Three-Cheese Tomato-Basil Quiche is a great low-carb dish, suitable for most low-carb eating plans. If you’re making this for the South Beach Diet, they would recommend low-fat dairy products, but other low-carb plans might prefer full-fat dairy, so everyone make your own choice on that. Tomatoes do have some carbs, so for Keto or extremely low-carb I would use less tomatoes.

Find More Recipes Like This One:
Use the Recipes by Diet Type photo index pages to find more recipes suitable for a specific eating plan. You might also like to Follow Kalyn’s Kitchen on Pinterest to see all the good recipes I’m sharing there.

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