Egg White Quiche with Vegetables – Healthy Crustless Quiche Recipe

If you are looking for a tasty breakfast recipe that is full of flavor but low in calories, this egg white quiche is a winner. 

The crustless quiche is colorful, hearty and brimming over with taste. It’s a great healthy twist on the traditional breakfast option.

I’m a quiche lady.  I love the combination of eggs and fresh veggies cooked in a pastry crust – especially when I have grown those vegetables myself! 

However, cooking a quiche the normal way means that there are lots of calories, cholesterol and fat which I don’t want.

Instead of using whole eggs, like a regular quiche, this delicious crustless quiche omits the yolks and uses only egg whites. It is packed with vegetables to give you a breakfast option that is lower in calories and much more healthy.

Best of all, since it has no crust, it makes the recipe gluten free, as well!

Starting the day with a healthy breakfast sets you up for all sorts of positive effects, including weight control and better mental performance throughout the day. 

For another healthy breakfast idea, try this spinach frittata with mushrooms and leeks. It’s also amazing! (and dairy free, low carb and Whole30 compliant!)

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Is losing some weight a New Year's resolution? Try this crustless egg white quiche. This low calorie recipe is tasty, full of texture and color! Get the recipe on The Gardening Cook. 🥚🧀🌿 Share on X

This egg white quiche is very easy to make.

You only need to take one look at the vegetables going into this healthy crustless quiche recipe, to see it is not only a feast for your eyes, but your stomach too.

Baby spinach, roasted red peppers and colorful gourmet cherry tomatoes add both texture and color.

Roasting the peppers gives them a sweet flavor.

Start by roasting some red peppers. To roast them in the oven, bake them for 30 minutes at 350 º F.  (You can do this the night before if you wish.)

Roasting the red peppers brings out their natural sweetness and adds a lovely flavor as well as a vibrant color to the quiche. See my tutorial for other ways to roast red peppers here.

Next, cook the onion and garlic in a pan that has been sprayed with Pam until the onion is tender. I let the onions caramelize a little to give them some color.

Add the garlic after the onions are softened, but be sure not to cook them too long or the garlic will burn.

While the onions are cooking, steam the spinach in the microwave and squeeze out the moisture so the quiche will not be watery.

Beat together the egg whites, milk and cheese, then stir in the cooked onion and garlic.

I chose Gruyere cheese because it is full of flavor and adds a great taste to this spinach and egg white quiche.

Now it’s time to add some fresh herbs. Almost every recipe that I make has fresh herbs in it. Herbs are super easy to grow and add so much flavor.

Today, I chose rosemary, oregano and thyme.

Layer the spinach and cherry tomatoes in a prepared quiche pan. Take care to arrange the layers to make the most of the color. Carefully pour the egg white mixture over the layers.

“I put the majority of the tomatoes and spinach on the bottom layer. Then I added the eggs and topped them with a few more pieces of spinach, some tomatoes and the red peppers.

I love the way the yellow tomatoes adds some “yolk color” even though the quiche is made only from egg whites!  This tasty quiche recipe gets cooked for 50-55 minutes.

When is the egg white quiche recipe done?

A knife inserted in the center will come out clean when it has cooked long enough. Let the quiche sit for about 15 minute before you try to cut it.

Cooking Tip: The smaller the diameter of your quiche pan, the taller your finished quiche will be.

Tasting this crustless egg white quiche.

This delicious breakfast quiche has a light texture but so much flavor from the Gruyere cheese and vegetables. It has a hearty taste and is creamy and delicious.  

The quiche sets well and looks beautiful on a plate.  I love the taste of this recipe so much that I make it often. It makes a wonderful breakfast idea but is also really nice for lunch too!

Variations on the healthy quiche recipe

Feel free to play around with the vegetables and choice of herbs. Some ideas for changing the ingredients in this low calorie quiche:

• You can use squash to give you a different color of vegetables.
• Mushrooms would work well to give an earthiness to the quiche.
• Zucchini or summer squash adds more green color and lots of nutrients.
• Switch out the herbs and use sage and chives for a more oniony taste.
• If you want a bit more protein add in some cooked bacon or lean sliced ham.

Whatever vegetable or herb you happen to have on hand in your crisper drawer right now will probably work just fine.

Eggs vs egg whites – making a quiche more healthy.

A traditional quiche made with whole eggs can be very calorie heavy. Most of the calories in a quiche come from the eggs, and most of the calories in eggs come from the egg yolk.

Using lots of egg whites, in place of whole eggs, gives you the volume you are looking for, and a tasty egg flavor, but with far less calories, cholesterol and fat.

Fresh vegetables make this healthy quiche delicious, nutritious and full of color. What a great way to start your day!

How many egg whites are equivalent to one egg?

One of the most common questions that I get from readers is “how many egg whites equals 1 egg”? The short answer is to use two egg whites for each egg for a traditional serving. This makes an easy swap in terms of volume.

However, If your recipe asks for cups of egg whites, you’ll likely find that 8 egg whites are equal to 12 egg yolks, since they are both 1 cup. This depends on the size of eggs you use, though.

Measuring the whites gives the exact range, but I just find it easier to swap them 2 for 1.

Replacing whole eggs with egg whites will give you less color, since pretty most of the egg color comes from the yolk. This is why I used lots of colorful vegetables in this recipe.

For the health conscious cook, one egg yolk contains close to 200 mg of cholesterol and is loaded with fat, so it makes sense to do the switch from egg yolks to egg whites.

What to do with the left over yolks

This recipe is expensive if you don’t do something with the yolks that are left over. Here are a few ideas for using them:

• Use egg yolks to make vanilla custard
• Add them to a pasta Alfredo recipe to make it extra rich
• Mix them into a smoothie for extra protein
• Make some eggnog for the Easter holiday.
• Use them to make a hollandaise sauce.
• Moisturize your hair. Yes, it works! Eggs are rich in fat and protein and act as a natural moisturizer.

More Quiche Ideas

If you are as fond of quiche as i am, here are more quiche recipes to try:

• Spinach Gouda and Onion Quiche – For the hearty eaters in your family.
• Crustless Chicken Quiche – Another no crust quiche with chicken added for extra protein.
• Basic Cheese Quiche – A full fat version of the popular breakfast dish.
• Crustless Quiche Lorraine – A slimmed down version of Julia Child’s famous recipe.

Calories in this crustless egg white quiche.

This delicious egg white spinach quiche has 101 calories in each serving. (I plan to have 2!).  Heck, the whole quiche contains roughly only 800 calories.

Compare that to a normal quiche with about 250 calories a slice and you can see why this dish is such a popular one on my blog.

This high protein recipe is low in carbs, sugar and cholesterol. It’s the perfect breakfast for anyone watching their weight who still wants a lot of flavor in the meal.

Saving time in the morning on the crustless quiche recipe.

This recipe can take quite a while to prepare, since it involves roasting the peppers and allowing the quiche to cook and set.

To save time, you can be prepare the quiche the day before, or roast the peppers the night before, and cook the quiche the next morning.

You can also char the peppers over a gas grill, or a gas stove to save time. Bottled roasted red peppers are available from most stores and can be used instead of fresh. However, the flavor is not as delicious as those that are freshly roasted.

Have you tried cooking with egg whites instead of whole eggs? What do you think of the end results?

Admin note: This recipe first appeared on the blog in April of 2013. I have updated the post to include a step by step tutorial, added new photos, nutritional information for the recipe and a video for you to enjoy.

Pin this healthy quiche recipe for later.

Would you like a reminder of this crustless egg white quiche? Just pin this image to one of your healthy cooking boards on Pinterest so that you can easily find it later.

Yield: 8

Crustless Egg White Quiche with Vegetables

Print

This egg white quiche recipe is low in fat and cholesterol but loaded with flavor and color. It is gluten free, low carb and tastes amazing.

Prep Time 45 minutes

Cook Time 55 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 40 minutes

Ingredients

• 10 egg whites from large eggs (reserve yolks for baking later)
• ½ cup 2% milk
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup diced onion
• 2 tablespoons fresh herbs (I chose rosemary, thyme and oregano)
• Sea salt and cracked black pepper, to taste
• 1 cup shredded Gruyere cheese (about 4 oz.)
• 5 oz fresh organic baby spinach, steamed ( - be sure to squeeze out excess moisture so the quiche will not be watery)
• 1 cup colorful cherry tomatoes, halved (I used a gourmet blend with orange, yellow, red and brown cherry tomatoes.)
• 4 large pieces roasted red peppers, sliced into strips (- bottled is fine or you can roast your own in the oven first.)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Spray an 8 inch quiche pan with Pam.
2. Roast the red peppers for about 30 minutes. (They can also be charred on a gas stove or grill to save time.)
3. Cook the onion and garlic in a pan sprayed with Pam for a few minutes until tender.
4. Beat together the egg whites, milk and Gruyere cheese. Add the onion and garlic and fresh herbs. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Layer the spinach, peppers and tomatoes in a sprayed deep dish glass pie plate or quiche pan, arranging top layer attractively. Carefully pour egg mixture over layers.
6. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes until a knife inserted in center comes out clean. Let sit 15 minutes before cutting.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

8

Serving Size:

1 slice
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 101.6Total Fat: 5gSaturated Fat: 2.8gUnsaturated Fat: 1.7gCholesterol: 16.1mgSodium: 284.1mgCarbohydrates: 4.6gFiber: 1.2gSugar: 2.6gProtein: 10.1g

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