Crab and Smoked Salmon Crustless Quiche

You won't miss the crust in this delicious Crab and Smoked Salmon Crustless Quiche"

The making of Crab and Smoked Salmon Crustless Quiche

This recipe for Crab and Smoked Salmon Crustless Quiche is perfect for a Sunday Brunch, or lunch, or even an everyday dinner. The combination of fresh lump meat crab, flaked along with smoked salmon, mild cheese, and the eggy creamy custard speckled with green onion and red bell pepper, well, it's almost like eating a crab cake...but not.

When buying crab meat

When looking for crab meat, fresh is always best. If using canned crab, be sure to look for a good quality one in the refrigerated section of your store or fish market. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not buy one of those cans that they sell next to the tuna fish on the grocery store shelf. THAT crab has no texture, it has no flavor, it is useless. It does not belong in your food or your mouth. Well, perhaps unless you are making a crab salad for a sandwich, in which case, go ahead and mix that mayo in and spread it on. It might be good enough for that.

Onto the Salmon

The smoked salmon needs to be "hot" smoked and preferably wild-caught. Do not use what is commonly called "lox" or cold-cured salmon. This is great on bagels with cream cheese, but not perfect for this dish. You really want to have a slightly oily flaky salmon in  Crab and Smoked Salmon Crustless Quiche.

Crustless, not gutless

Wanting to watch the calories in the dish, I omitted the crust. I find that I don't miss it all that much. If you want to have a crust, go ahead. Blind bake it first, then add the fillings and proceed. If you crust it, you will add another 120 calories and about 8 grams of fat, and it will go from being gluten-free to being not gluten-free but these are decisions for you to make for yourself.

Cheesy cheeses - Whatever just keep the ratio to eggs and milk

Without the crust, but with cheese. Yes. Nice oozy gooey rich flavorful cheese. Actually, I used some fairly mild, highly meltable cheeses, Havarti, fontina, and gouda. As always, you can change the cheese to whatever you like, just keep the ratio the same, 8 ounces (by weight) cheese, 6 large eggs, to 1 cup cream, or in my case, half and half. And because my mind was thinking "Crab Cakes" when I came up with this recipe, I added sautéed onion and red pepper, along with fresh green onion, dill weed, tarragon, and Old Bay Seasoning, classic crab cake fare.

I made these quiches in smaller casserole dishes, so my cooking time was cut to only 30 minutes. If you use a larger pie dish, then probably be closer to 45-50 minutes to cook through. This quiche freezes beautifully so after we ate our fill, I cut the remaining quiche into serving portions, wrapped them in plastic wrap, and put them into the freezer for a grab-and-go lunch option. Let the quiche thaw in the refrigerator and come lunchtime, just zap it for a minute in the microwave and add a green salad. Easy peasy!

Enjoy this with one of these easy salads for a full meal

CARAMELIZED KUMQUAT AND ARUGULA SALAD

BABY GREENS SALAD WITH LIGHT BALSAMIC VINAIGRETTE

TOMATO-CUCUMBER-BLUEBERRY SALAD

Want more Quiche Ideas?

CRUSTLESS ONION, LEEK AND BLUE CHEESE QUICHE

CRAB, SHRIMP AND ARTICHOKE HEART QUICHE

LindySez: As we were enjoying this with Sunday Brunch, we also enjoyed it with some Sparkling wine, this time an actual and real Champagne, Phillippe Fourier 100% Pinot Noir Rose that my hubby snagged for a song from Wines Til Sold Out. A fantastic off-dry sparkler that went perfectly with the dish. I mean really, rose and smoked salmon? How can you go wrong?