This keto lobster quiche is set with eggs, cream, lobster, and Gruyere, baked with no crust at all, at about 3 grams of net carb a slice. The crust is the only carb-heavy part of a quiche, so leaving it out is what makes a rich lobster custard fit a Low Carb plate.
I made this crustless lobster quiche at the Master Chef audition in Los Angeles, where the tasting judges loved my Low Carb dish. I built it off my crustless quiche recipe, but swapped in lobster for the ham and Gruyere for the cheddar jack, then served it with a lemon vinaigrette over spinach.
A quiche is custard, and the crust is optional
A French quiche is custard at heart, eggs and cream baked until just set, and the pastry shell is only there to hold a slice. The migaine, that egg-and-cream filling, is the actual dish. Take the crust away and the custard still bakes into the same silky, savory thing, it just sits in a buttered pie pan instead. That is the whole low carb move, and it drops a quiche from the 20-plus grams of carb a crust adds down to about 3. Lobster and Gruyere are a classic French pairing, sweet shellfish against a nutty alpine cheese, so this is less a substitute and more the filling left to stand on its own.
The custard ratio that sets a 9-inch clean
The reason a crustless quiche does not slump or weep comes down to the ratio. Six eggs to one cup of heavy cream gives you enough egg to firm up around all that lobster and cheese, and 375F is hot enough to set the center before the edges overcook. A custard with too much cream and too few eggs stays loose no matter how long it bakes. I have found that a knife slid into the middle tells you everything. If it comes out clean, the egg is cooked through and the slice will hold its shape. Crustless also skips the classic quiche failure entirely, the soggy underbaked bottom where custard met crust, so there is no blind-baking and nothing to tent with foil.
The one thing left to manage is water from the lobster. Cooked lobster carries moisture, and if it goes in wet it can leave a runny patch in the custard. A couple of fixes keep it set:
- Pat the lobster dry before it goes in the pan, the same way you would drain spinach or mushrooms for any quiche.
- Do not overfill a 9-inch pan, since a deep custard takes longer to reach the center and tempts you to pull it early.
The lemon vinaigrette earns its place
An all-dairy custard with lobster and two cups of Gruyere is rich, and a squeeze of acid is what keeps a slice from feeling heavy. The lemon and Dijon vinaigrette does for this quiche what drawn butter and a lemon wedge do for whole lobster, it cuts straight through. Dress a handful of spinach in it and set the slice on top, warm or cold, and a single rich slice becomes a real plate. Make the vinaigrette a day ahead if you can, since the flavors settle and the Dijon holds the emulsion together. A quiche this happy cold is one of my favorite low carb breakfast ideas for a slow weekend brunch, and it travels well to a table full of people.
Lobster keeps it special, but the egg-and-cream base is forgiving, so feel free to change it up. Cooked crab or chopped shrimp slot right in, and the Gruyere stays. For a plainer everyday version, my three cheese crustless quiche with Canadian bacon is the base this one grew from, and there are more Low Carb lunch recipes built on the same eggs-and-cream idea.
Sources:
USDA FoodData Central, nutrient reference for lobster, eggs, heavy cream, and Gruyere cheese
Sugarfreechic test kitchen, crustless lobster quiche notes
