This low carb breakfast casserole is a single-serve crustless quiche you bake in a ramekin, egg and sausage and cheese set together at about 3 grams of net carbs. It is the breakfast I make ahead for grab-and-go mornings, and below are the fillings that work and the trick to keeping it from going watery.
This morning lets keep it simple with this Breakfast Casserole. These are little individual quiches that can be filled with any of your favorite Low Carb morning breakfast favorites. Today I decided to use precooked turkey breakfast sausage, egg, and cheese. Simply fill a small ramequin with your diced ingredients, cover with eggs, and bake. This is a great meal to make in advance and save to have on hand for a breakfast meal that is easy to grab while heading out the door.
A crustless quiche, basically
Strip a French quiche down to its custard and you have this casserole. The crust is where a quiche loads up on flour and carbs, so dropping it leaves the part that matters, eggs and cream baked soft around savory fillings. That is the whole low-carb trick, and it is why a single ramekin lands around 3 grams of net carbs while a slice of real quiche runs five times that. The eggs and cheese carry the protein, so it holds you until lunch.
Fillings that work
The recipe is really a template. I used precooked turkey sausage, cheese, and chives, but cooked bacon, diced ham, sauteed mushrooms, or a handful of spinach all belong here. One rule keeps it from getting soggy: anything watery, like spinach or mushrooms, needs a quick saute or a squeeze first, since the water they shed is what waterlogs the eggs. Keep the add-ins low-carb and the carb count barely moves. For a bigger spread, my italian breakfast casserole scales the same idea to a full pan, and a tray of crispy baked bacon rounds out the plate.
Make it ahead, and skip the watery bake
This bakes in about ten minutes and reheats beautifully, so I make a few at once for the week. The one thing that goes wrong is a watery casserole, and it comes down to two things: wet fillings that were not drained, and pulling it from the oven too soon. Bake until a toothpick slid into the center comes out clean, and drain anything juicy before it goes in. It is one of the make-ahead picks in my low carb breakfast guide, right next to the egg cups and frittatas.
Sources
USDA FoodData Central, nutrient references for eggs, heavy cream, cheese, and turkey sausage.
Sugarfreechic test kitchen, low-carb breakfast notes.
