Saturday, December 13, 2014

Low Carb Crustless Ricotta Quiche Cups


I'm changing the way my recipe photo looks. Trying something different instead of the pink swirl frame. Please let me know what you think of this newer one.
I wanted to make a crabmeat quiche that I've made before, but I couldn't find my printed recipe. So, I searched through my old wooden recipe box and found one for a Shrimp and Broccoli quiche that's made with minimal eggs and ricotta cheese. I remember it as being good and creamy. Since my husband doesn't like shrimp or broccoli, I decided to go with 2 separate bowls and make muffin cups instead of 2 pies.
In his, the ones on the left, I only put Bacon. In mine, the ones on the right, I put Bacon, Mushrooms, and Onions. You could easily use whatever veggies you want. Another meat possibility is Ham.
Total muffins were 16, but if you wanted to just make one quiche in a pie plate, a 10" plate would be required. I'm going to post the recipe for what I made today, and also for the Shrimp and Broccoli version.

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup of a diced and cooked onion (I use a sweet onion)
1 cup of diced and cooked mushrooms
6 to 8 slices of chopped crispy cooked bacon
1 cup of grated Pecorino Romano cheese
3 Jumbo eggs
1 cup of Ricotta cheese, whole milk
1 and 1/2 cups of Heavy Cream
Pinch of coarse black pepper
1/4 teaspoon of salt

DIRECTIONS:
After you have cooked your onion, mushrooms, and bacon, preheat your oven to 375°F. In a large bowl, beat your eggs with an electric hand mixer. Add the grated cheese, Ricotta cheese, and heavy cream and mix well. Add all of your cooked veggies and bacon, and mix with a spoon. I did get 16 muffins out of this, so you'll need two muffin pans. I line the wells with non-stick liners. I found that this works best because the quiche cups are very light and creamy. Otherwise, they might break apart if you decide to grease your muffin pan.
Spoon the mixture into the liners 3/4 of the way full. I would imagine that you could fill them higher. They do puff up, but once they are out of the oven and cooling on a rack, they collapse in the middle.
Place in the oven and time them for 30 to 40 minutes. Mine were done at 35 minutes. When you insert a knife in and it comes out clean, they're done. Remove from oven and place pan on a cooling rack. If not eating right away, refrigerate them after they have cooled down. When ready to eat, just reheat in the microwave at 20 seconds for 2, or 30 seconds for 3. Those are approximate microwave times.

OPTIONAL:
If making in a pie plate, use a 10" one and oven time will be 40 to 50 minutes.

SHRIMP AND BROCCOLI VARIATION:
Eliminate the veggies and bacon. Instead use 1 cup of cleaned, cooked, and chopped Shrimp + 1 cup of blanched broccoli florets + 1 teaspoon of curry powder. The balance of the recipe stays the same.

NOTES:
Total servings - 16 muffin/quiche cups 26.48g net carbs (Veggie Bacon version)
Per serving - 1.65g net carbs
Total servings - 16 muffin/quiche cups 15.9g net carbs (Shrimp and Broccoli version)
Per serving - 1g net carb