How To Make the Absolute Easiest Crustless Quiche

We’ve all had breakfast problems. Maybe not today, but tomorrow. You gotta eat something good in the morning, but who has the time? Or maybe you have the regular mornings figured out, but those brunch mornings — you know, the ones where you need to feed a whole lot of people on a weekend or Christmas morning — those are your problem. And I have one shining, ever-reliable recipe solution for you: the crustless quiche.

It’s the easygoing egg bake answer to practically every breakfast problem I’ve ever seen. I feel positively evangelistic on this one, guys. I’ll even tell you to memorize the recipe because it’s that easy.

A crustless quiche is just simple baked eggs — less rich than a traditional quiche, with a little milk instead of all that cream — and literally anything else you want to throw in. Like so many of our classic heroes, the easy egg bake of a crustless quiche goes by many names: egg bake, egg casserole, oven omelet.

It’s a creamy, satisfying simple egg casserole, sans crust — avoiding what seems to be everyone’s nutritional bugaboo these days: starch and carbs. (Also? Making pie dough for a quiche crust is totally a pain, so everyone wins by skipping it.)

Remember how I said you could memorize it? Here’s the base formula for a quiche: Whisk together 10 eggs and 1 to 2 cups whole milk. (If you want a sturdier, less custardy egg bake that can, for instance, get packed in a lunch box, use 1 cup or 1 1/2 cups milk instead).

The best thing about a crustless quiche is that there are so many opportunities for customizing it:

• I add a pinch of salt and pepper, and rummage around in my cheese drawer and leftover scraps in the fridge.
• A bit of chorizo, my kids’ last cheese stick, those greens in the back of the fridge — I throw it all in and see what alchemy emerges.

The best crustless quiches never quite happen twice, as all those little bits bake up into one cheesy, satisfying breakfast slice. It’s the breakfast version of stone soup; start with eggs and milk and a little love and just keep adding and suddenly you have a feast.

I often make one of these breakfast egg bakes on the weekend during my meal prep (see a full plan for a week of easy meals here) and then we eat off of it all week long for easy breakfasts, and adding salsa, yogurt, or a side of beans to jazz it up for lunches or even a last-minute dinner.

Anyone can do this — add a ton of cheese and some bacon for a full-on Christmas special, or keep it fresh and lean with chopped greens, leftover roasted veggies, and a dash of Parmesan for something more weekday. You can even freeze it for later! Freeze it unbaked, then thaw before that special guest comes over at Christmastime and you look like a hero with a hot baked egg casserole.

You’re just that good. Thank you crustless quiche — it’s a life lesson to learn once, and use forever.

While I’m a huge fan of the impromptu leftover-style crustless quiche, I also know that sometimes you want a little more direction. Here are some of my favorites.

• Denver Omelet: Cook half a diced onion, a green pepper, and a small box of sliced mushrooms in butter until tender. Mix into the egg base with a cup (or two) of diced cooked ham and some shredded cheese.
• Quiche Lorraine: Cook 4 to 8 slices of chopped thick bacon until crisp-tender and drain. Add a pinch of cayenne and nutmeg to the egg mix. Stir in the bacon and 8 ounces of shredded Swiss cheese.
• Sweet Potato Arugula: Stir in a 12-ounce bag of chopped sweet potatoes (no need to thaw), a big handful of Parmesan cheese, and several handfuls of roughly chopped baby arugula.
• Smoky Chicken Spinach: Slice a few links of cooked chicken andouille sausage and stir in a few handfuls of fresh, uncooked spinach. Add an 8-ounce bag of shredded cheese like cheddar or Swiss.