Crustless asparagus-Gruyere quiche

 

I was in the market for a gluten-free asparagus quiche recipe for a gathering. I opted to avoid recipes that required pastry, since I'm only just now dipping a toe into gluten-free baking and that smacks of something that might involve some trial and error to get optimal results. I'm perfectly willing to make my guests guinea pigs, but I'd like them to feel like well-fed guinea pigs, so I pick my battles.

This still delivers all the cheesy custardy goodness of a quiche, and it comes together quickly enough that you could pull it off on a weeknight or for a weekend brunch. 

Crustless quiche with asparagus

Adapted from the Bojon Gourmet website. The original also includes options for other gluten free flour options, so if you don't have that combo on hand, they're not the only choice that would work in this recipe.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon butter, divided, plus a little softened butter to grease the pan
1 bunch asparagus, 12 to 16 ounces, tough ends snapped off and discarded
¼ cup cassava flour
3 tablespoons arrowroot starch
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
Generous pinch of black pepper
6 eggs
1 cup whole milk
¼ cup heavy cream
2 to 3 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
4 to 5 ounces grated Gruyere, divided

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 10-inch quiche pan or 9-inch deep dish pie plate.

Cut tips off asparagus; set aside. Cut rest of the stalks into ½ thick pieces on a diagonal. Heat ½ tablespoon butter in a large skillet. Add asparagus stalk pieces and a generous pinch of salt and cook until asparagus is bright green and tender crisp. Remove from pan to cool.

Add remaining ½ tablespoon butter to the pan and cook the asparagus tips for a minute or so. Remove from heat.

In a large bowl, combine cassava flour, arrowroot starch, salt and pepper. Add two eggs and whisk until smooth. Add remaining eggs two at a time, whisking mixture well in between. Whisk in milk, cream and chives.

Place asparagus stalks in base of prepared dish. Top with most of the cheese. Pour flour-cream mixture over the top. Array asparagus tips on top and top with remaining cheese. Bake for 40 minutes or until golden and puffed. Remove from oven and let sit for a few minutes before slicing. It will settle a bit, but it stays warm for quite some time if you tent it loosely with foil, so it's something you can get completely out of the way before guests arrive so you're not answering the door as the buzzer goes off.

Rating: With that much Gruyere and creamy dairy, it's really hard to go wrong, and this didn't. It's got that classic quiche flavor and custard texture.

Do I miss the crust? Well, if it's a really good one, like my favorite Julia Child leek quiche, then perhaps a bit. but so many quiche crusts I've been served turn out either mushy or dried out, so it's not always a plus. I'll have to revisit a couple of my favorite recipes to compare; it's been awhile since quiche was my go-to so I need to refresh my memory. 

I do know that not having a crust makes it super fast to make, which definitely cannot be said of the Julia Child recipe. I remember a number of angst-filled moments the first time I attempted that for company. It turned out to be heavenly, but again, that pastry came with a learning curve.

My only nit: The recipe is actually fairly attractive in the pan, but you'd be doing your guests a disservice by making them be the ones to extricate a piece, especially that first one. You really want to get the serving spatula well under the base.

Variation: Zucchini-red pepper quiche with feta

 I wanted to see how well this approach would stand up to substitutions, so I tried this variation. Make as above, only instead of the chopped asparagus stems, I substituted 2 medium zucchini/summer squash, sliced in half lengthwise and then cut into ¼-inch pieces. I used 4 ounces of feta in place of the Gruyere, 1 roasted red pepper cut into narrow slices in place of the asparagus spears (no need to heat them) and 2 tablespoons fresh oregano for the chives.

Rating: The soft cheese didn't result in quite the same quiche texture while it was warm that the Gruyere provided, so I was a bit disappointed. I suspect hard cheeses work better in this recipe in that regard. But the leftovers, served cold, were quite nice, since cold quiche always has a more custardy consistency, so it wasn't a detraction there. The flavors had intensified, and the oregano and feta really came through. I seriously could see making this ahead and just eating the entire thing cold for office lunches or a picnic. 

Zucchini pasta with feta, zucchini pasta with brie, zucchini-ricotta-sun-dried tomato pasta

 

If you've found yourself winding to the end of harvest season with zucchini piling up, here are a few more ways to use that blank canvas that is zucchini.

Wagon wheels with zucchini and brie

From “Super Tuscan” by Gabriele Corcos and Debi Mazar. The recipe called for wagon wheels (which I have not seen in stores for years) or another round pasta.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 ½ pounds zucchini, sliced into 1/8-inch rounds
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
12 ounces Brie, cut into 1inch cubes, rind trimmed
1 pound pasta (the recipe called for wagon wheels or a tube-shaped pasta like penne
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
Grated Parmesan for serving

Method
Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Add zucchini in as flat a layer as possible. Top with red onions. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until zucchini is beginning to brown, about 20 minutes or so. Remove from heat. Top with Brie chunks, cover and let sit while pasta cooks to al dente. Drain, reserving cooking liquid, and toss with zucchini mixture. Add reserved cooking liquid as needed for sauce consistency. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with grated Parmesan.

Rating: Nice enough, but fairly subtle flavor. 

 

 Zucchini dill pasta

Adapted from “Al Fresco: Inspired Ideas for Outdoor Living,” by Julie Pointer Adams. A lot of the food in this book doesn't necessarily scream outdoors or picnic in the stereotypical sense; just recipes that are photographed in idyllic settings that you could at least transport to a table in your back yard. Just make sure that back yard is in So Cal or Tuscany for the photo backdrop.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more to taste
½ medium yellow onion, diced
Red pepper flakes
4 garlic cloves, chopped
5 medium zucchini, coarsely grated
12-ounce package fettucine
½ cup white wine
Zest and juice of 2 lemons, divided
A handful of chopped fresh dill, plus more for garnish
Small handful lemon balm, chopped
½ cup crumbled feta
2 tablespoons chopped pistachios

Method
Bring water to a boil for pasta.

While water is heating up, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat in a large deep pot. Add onions and cook until translucent. Add a pinch of salt and of red pepper flakes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant. Add zucchini and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated.

Add pasta to pot and cook until al dente. Drain, reserving some pasta cooking liquid.

Add wine to zucchini and cook over medium high heat until it mostly cooks off. Add lemon zest and juice of 1 lemon. Add herbs, pasta and cooking liquid as needed for desired sauce consistency. Season with salt and pepper. Serve garnished with more dill, feta, a drizzle of olive oil, pistachios and the remaining lemon juice.

Rating: Between the first two recipes, I liked this one a bit more, probably because it seemed creamier, and had the bright flavor of dill and tang of feta. Certainly a workable combination. I confess we ate it indoors because it was raining.

 

Pasta with roasted zucchini, ricotta and sun-dried tomatoes

Having tried two variations of zucchini pasta with cheese, I pondered what a version with ricotta would be like.

Ingredients
1 pound short pasta, cooked to al dente and drained, some cooking liquid reserved
3 medium zucchini, ends trimmed, sliced into ¼-inch rounds
2 tablespoons oil from oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, divided
Lemon pepper seasoning, salt
3 garlic cloves, minced
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 lemon
½ pound ricotta
½ cup chopped oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes

Method
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment. Place zucchini rounds in a single layer in the pan. Brush with 1 tablespoon of the oil. Sprinkle liberally with lemon pepper seasoning and a bit of salt. Bake for 20 minutes until tender and starting to pick up color. Remove from oven and set aside.

In a large deep pot, heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil. Add garlic, red pepper flakes and lemon zest and cook over medium heat until garlic is just fragrant. Add lemon juice and ricotta and heat through. Add zucchini, pasta, sun-dried tomatoes and enough pasta cooking liquid to make desired sauce consistency. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Rating: Not a bad first take on a recipe. I liked the ricotta a lot, and thought the roasted zucchini brought a bit more to the party than the previous recipes. Sun-dried tomatoes up the flavor. If I try it again, I'll try adding all the oil to the garlic pan and using some of that to brush the zucchini, or maybe grilling it for extra flavor.

Mushroom asparagus pasta with ricotta

 

Pappardelle with asparagus and mushrooms
Adapted from “Super Tuscan” by Gabriele Corcos and Debi Mazar. Note: The original recipe called for fresh nipitella, which isn’t something I run across here, or subbing in fresh mint, which I avoid like the plague. Since lemon balm is a recurring volunteer on my patio, it seemed a logical substitute, with a touch of tarragon for tang.

Ingredients
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 large garlic clove, crushed
10 ounces mushrooms, sliced (cremini worked well)
1½ pounds thin asparagus, woody ends snapped off
2 teaspoons lemon balm, chopped
1 teaspoon tarragon leaves, chopped
1 pound pappardelle or fettucine, cooked just to al dente, reserving some pasta water
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup fresh ricotta
Optional additions to ricotta topping: 1 clove minced garlic, zest of 1 lemon and 2 teaspoons chopped lemon balm or tarragon

Method
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Toss asparagus with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Roast for 10 minutes, turning once, until just crisp tender. Remove from oven and chop into 1 to 2-inch lengths.

While asparagus is roasting and pasta is cooking, heat remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large deep skillet. Add garlic and cook until just fragrant. Add mushrooms and cook until beginning to brown.

Add cooked chopped asparagus to the pan along with lemon balm and herbs. Season with sea salt and freshly grated pepper. When pasta is cooked and drained, add to pot along with Parmesan and as much cooking liquid as needed for sauce consistency.

Serve with a generous dollop of ricotta, mixing in garlic, lemon zest and herbs if desired.

Rating: Perfectly serviceable as first attempted, but when we had second helpings I swapped in a dollop of Green Goddess ricotta dip we had on hand, which really upped the game.If I make this one again, I'm definitely going to add herbs and garlic to the ricotta for that additional flavor burst.

Red lentil pumpkin chili

 

I'm told there's a Super Bowl coming up soon. While I could only name one of the teams* playing in it if pressed to answer the question on the spot, the food portion of the event is something I fully comprehend. Chili is a Super Bowl party staple for many people; this one is an option if you're looking for a meatless variety for some of your guests.I made it because it uses pumpkin and there are still several lurking in the basement to cook through. Go Team Pumpkin!

* The only reason I could name one of the teams is because their local newspaper came up with Birdle, an Eagles-related twist on Wordle. I can attest that you can successfully complete it with no actual football knowledge so it's one more potential bad habit to add to my Wordle/Quordle/Worldle daily addiction, but at least it's presumably temporary.

Red lentil pumpkin chili with zucchini
From “Purely Pumpkin” by Allison Day, a compendium of recipes using pumpkin, broken down by course type. I'm going to have to do a deeper dive into this one to make inroads in the pumpkin supply.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 or 2 small zucchini, cut into ½-inch pieces
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon smoked paprika or chili powder
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
½ teaspoon oregano
1 (28-ounce) can crushed or diced tomatoes
1½ cups pumpkin puree (about a small pumpkin's worth)
1½ cups water
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
2 cups cooked black beans, drained
1 cup uncooked red lentils
1 teaspoon salt

Method
Heat olive oil in a large deep pot. Add onion, zucchini, garlic, cumin, paprika, red pepper flakes and oregano. Cook until vegetables are soft and just starting to brown. Stir in tomatoes, pumpkin, water, vinegar, black means, lentils and salt. Cover and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes until lentils are tender. Adjust seasoning as needed.

Rating: A fine enough vegetarian chili option. It has the basic flavor profile; the red lentils give it some meatiness and the pumpkin puree gives it that thickness. If you've got the ingredients on hand, it's not a bad option for a family dinner. It reheated nicely, although it's not one of those recipes that necessarily gets better when made in advance.But this recipe for fully loaded vegetable chili is a more deeply flavorful vegetarian chili, one that makes you not miss the meat, so I'd definitely give that one the edge if company is coming.

Slow cooker vegetable lentil soup

 

Slow-cooker lentil soup with crispy tortillas
From “It’s All About Dinner: Easy, Everyday Family-Friendly Meals” by Nicky Corbishley, as published in the Star Tribune Sunday Supper column

Ingredients
1 onion, peeled and diced
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
3 carrots, peeled and chopped into small pieces
2 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped into small pieces
½ cup red lentils
3 cups stock
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
2 cups of baby spinach leaves (packed)
¾ cup grated Cheddar
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ teaspoon garlic salt
½ teaspoon dried parsley or cilantro
1 large tortilla

Method
In a large crock pot, combine onion, bell pepper, carrots, potatoes, lentils, stock, salt and pepper. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours or on high for 4 hours. Stir in spinach and cheddar shortly before serving to wilt spinach and melt cheese.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine olive oil, garlic salt and herbs. Brush over tortilla. Cut into long thin strips and place on baking sheet. Bake for 5 to 7 minutes until crisp. Let cool. Serve soup topped with tortilla crisps, if desired.

Rating: My first thought was “actually not bad.” That might not seem like high praise, but my expectations had kind of sunk while it cooked because there wasn’t really any spice or herbage going on outside of the homemade broth, and unlike some slow-cooking soups that drive you crazy with hunger because of the aroma all day, this one didn’t seem to smell like much of anything. But it was indeed a reasonably tasty soup that was nice to have at the end of a long day, and fairly fast to mix up. The lentils more or less dissolve into creamy texture so the main thing you notice is the potatoes.

Now, about that garnish treatment. Some people believe that all soups deserve a good garnish. My opinion is that a good soup does not require one, and in this case the called-for garnish was not only uncalled for, it was actively not what was called for if one wanted to garnish this particular soup. The tortilla texture seemed like piling starch on starch, so I would suggest a sprinkling of more cheese or a thin chiffonade of spinach leaves if you are one of those people who require lily gilding. (I'll note that the photo that appeared in the paper showed it clearly had been garnished with some grated Parmesan as well.)

That said, the remaining tortilla crisps worked fine as a topping on a chop salad, so they have their uses.

Whether this soup qualifies as kid friendly would depend entirely on your kid. I suspect as a kid I would have looked at it pretty skeptically, but perhaps children are more adventurous these days. The recipe says it serves 3 to 4. If you’re serving much of anything with it like a salad and some bread, 4 is realistic. It reheats fine.

Caramelized onion, cherry tomato and goat cheese tart; cherry tomato and tapenade tart with mascarpone

 This is a good way to use up some of the bowls of tiny tomatoes in late summer. Or early fall. Like when you bring in the last blast ahead of frost. And then it snows (????!) before the Ides of October.

Caramelized onion, tomato and goat cheese tart
Adapted from “The Savory Baker by America’s Test Kitchen as published in the Star Tribune Sunday Supper. It included a somewhat unusual method for caramelizing onions. Since I was making this to take to a gathering with friends, I decided this wasn’t the time to fool around and find out, so I opted for the lengthy but reliable method. Two hours later, really wishing I’d planned far enough ahead that I could have done the crockpot method. (Evangelizing on this method again.) Note that onions cook way, way down, so for a half cup of onions you’re probably going to want to start with 1½ pounds or more.  You can always freeze the extras. Or do what I did, and try the recipe again with the other half of the puff pastry box.

Ingredients
½ cup caramelized onions
1 sheet puff pastry, thawed
6 ounces cherry tomatoes, halved
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves plus sprigs for garnish
½ cup (2 ounces) goat cheese, crumbled

Method
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. On a very lightly floured board, roll out puff pastry to a 10-inch square. Brush outer ½ inch of pastry with water and then fold toward center, pressing to seal.

Spread caramelized onions over the area within the pastry border. Top with halved tomatoes. Sprinkle with thyme leaves. Tuck crumbled goat cheese in between the tomatoes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake until puffed and golden, about 24 minutes.

The recipe called for slicing it into four pieces to serve 4. I sliced it into 9 since I was counting it as an appetizer. You’d probably want to make two of these if you wanted to serve this as a main course to 4 people.

Rating: Best served warm, which we did the second time we made it. Fine enough at room temperature if you’re offering as a buffet appetizer, but really good when consumed immediately out of the oven. Truly hard to go wrong with this combo pack, and it looks pretty, too, especially with multiple colors of tomatoes. If you have lemon thyme, that’s a really nice addition. I'll definitely give this a spot in the summer recipe rotation. 

This batch got a little over brown; the recipe below reflects dialed-back suggested baking times.

We also tried this recipe with more of the little tomato excess. Actually, it's not really truly possible to have an excess of tomatoes in my opinion.It's not like zucchini.Or kale.

Tomato and tapenade tarts
From “The Cook’s Encyclopedia of Four Ingredient Cooking” by Joanna Farrow

Ingredients
1 sheet puff pastry, thawed
4 tablespoons olive tapenade, divided
1 ½ pounds cherry tomatoes, halved unless very small
½ cup mascarpone cheese

Method
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

Roll out pastry and cut into 4 squares, or in 6-inch circles using a plate as a guide if you want to be fancy. Transfer to baking sheet. Score ½ inch from the edge with a sharp knife to make a rim.

Spread ½ tablespoon tapenade on each tart, making sure to keep it off the edges. Top with tomatoes, keeping them within the rim. Sprinkle with sea salt. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until puffed and golden. Remove from oven. Dot with remaining tapenade and put a dollop of mascarpone in the middle of each tart. Season with pepper and bake another 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Rating: It wasn't bad, but I really thought I'd like it a lot more than I actually did. We used purchased tapenade, and it's possible it didn't bring as much to the party as some do. It's a pretty fast fix, so I won't rule out making it again when I have my own tapenade made fresh. And when there are tomatoes back on the vines again. It's little green tomato time on the counters again. Oh, fall.