Recipe: Bacon asparagus mushroom quiche with keto-friendly crust

Welcome to my first attempt at recipe development and sharing! I have been wanting to add this section to my blog for awhile now and decided that there’s no better time to do so than when people are looking for easy delicious recipes while they are “social distancing” at home.

As you would know if you read my “About” page, I’m a scientist. This means that everyday at work I read, write, and follow protocols to run experiments. People have told me how scientists should be good at cooking since it’s like running experiments and recipes are pretty much protocols. That may be true, however, what is not as well known is how many times an experiment can fail before it works. I don’t want to spend my day troubleshooting experiments over and over just to come home and do the same in the kitchen. For cooking, I usually end up following a recipe and eyeballing many of the ingredients (don’t worry I would never do this at work) and deciding on the amount based on the taste (I would DEFINITELY never do this at work). This also means that I don’t always capture the amounts of ingredients that I end up using.

Thanks to COVID-19 and how bad it’s getting in the US, I am currently working from home, which means I haven’t had to run an experiment in over a week now. My brain and hands are ready for some SOP (standard operating procedure) development!

So why is the first recipe on my blog for a French dish even though my Instagram followers thought I should share my Korean recipes? (Main reason for it not being Korean is because I ran out of kimchi to make kimchi stew, but that’s besides the point) My whole life, I’ve been a Francophile. I remember reading this children’s encyclopedia book about France when I was 6 and falling in love with the culture (especially the part about how they have 7 course meals). Fast forward to high school, I got to make and taste my first French dish. My French teacher (we all called her “Madame”) gave us a recipe for asparagus quiche and told us to try it out at home. I made it that night and was officially hooked on French cuisine.

The best thing about quiche is that it’s easy (no fancy techniques needed), versatile (add whatever vegetables you have at home and serve it with soup, bread, salad, or any other sides), and delicious (what’s not to like about eggs, cream, and cheese?). It’s also perfect quarantine food, since empty egg shelf at the grocery store means that everyone must have dozens of eggs stocked up at home! Also, this recipe is low-carb, keto-friendly, and gluten free! Come try it and let me know how I did at my first recipe development and provide some feedback!

Bacon Asparagus Mushroom Quiche with Keto Crust

Never Too Full | 3/24/2020

• prep time: 20 minutes
  
  
• cook time: 45 minutes
  
  
• total time: 1 hour and 5 minutes
  

  Servings: 10

  
  

  Ingredients:
  
  6 tablespoons butter (4 tbsp for crust, 2 tbsp for cooking)
  
  1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated (I used Kirkland parmigiano reggiano)
  
  1 cup ground almonds or almond flour
  
  1 cup bacon (I used half of the package of Trader Joe's Bits and Ends)
  
  1 shallot, diced finely
  
  1/2 medium-sized onion, diced finely
  
  1.5 cup baby bella mushrooms, cut into 1/4 inch slices
  
  1 tbsp of olive oil or vegetable oil
  
  1/2 bunch of asparagus (~12 spears), cut into one inch pieces
  
  5 large eggs
  
  1.5 cup Half & Half
  
  1/4 tsp nutmeg
  
  1/4 tsp salt (I used truffle salt, but you can use any salt you'd like)
  
  1/2 cup (or more) of cheddar, gruyere, or combination of the two

  
  

Instructions:

For the crust:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F
   
   
2. Mix ground almonds (or almond flour) with grated parmesan cheese
   
   
3. Add 4 tablespoons of melted butter and a tablespoon of water to the mix
   
   
4. Knead the dough few times to incorporate the ingredients
   
   
5. Shape into the bottom and sides of a 9 inch pie pan
   
   
6. Bake for 10-12 minutes and take out of the oven and set aside until the construction steps
   

For the filling:
(prep while crust is baking; Use the same pan for all the steps, unless its burnt)

1. Cook bacon in a saucepan (Dutch oven is perfect for this) on medium heat until cooked
   
   
2. Remove bacon from heat and cut into small pieces
   
   
3. In the leftover bacon fat, cook the onions and shallots and until caramelized
   
   
4. Set onions and shallots to the side
   
   
5. Add 2 tablespoons of butter to your saucepan
   
   
6. Add mushrooms and cook on medium heat for 3-5 mins until cooked
   
   
7. Add mushrooms to the onion/shallot mix
   
   
8. Add a tablespoon of olive oil and cook the asparagus on medium heat for until asparagus is softer and slightly charred and set aside
   
   
9. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, Half & Half, nutmeg, and salt to mix and then add the cheese
   
   

Construction/bake:

1. Set the oven to 375F
   
   
2. Add cooked bacon, asparagus, mushroom to the crust
   
   
3. Pour the egg mixture onto the pie crust containing the vegetables
   
   
4. Bake for 35 to 45 mins until you see spots of golden brown on top of the quiche
   
   

Nutrition:

Serving: 10

Calories: 338

Fat: 28 g per serving

Protein: 17 g per serving

Total carbohydrates: 6.4 g per serving

(2.7g dietary fiber, 0g added sugar)