Sweet Potato Crusted Quiche with Smoky Bacon and Spring Greens

Quiche is notoriously served as the “light lunch” option at brunches and lunches – a ladies pick, if you will. But here’s the thing: Quiche is basically an egg, cheese and heavy cream-based pie, with a sporadic hint of something in the vegetable family to make it sound good for you. Not only that, but it’s sitting on top of that all-butter crust. Spoiler alert: Most quiche is not light, and it’s definitely not good for you.

Here, I take on the tasty challenge to bring you a spring-forward quiche that’s light, bright and loaded with flavor, nutrition, and fun.

The Crust
There are plenty of virtues to a sweet-potato-crusted something. Sweet potatoes are gluten-free, grain-free, high in fiber, nutrient dense and lower on the glycemic index than a lot of other starchy carbohydrates (meaning they don’t raise insulin and blood sugars as high). It’s no wonder every diet under the sun is calling for sweet-potato-subs in their meal plans. And while I’m a big fan of sweet potatoes, I wasn’t exactly convinced they were a suitable and satisfying crust substitute.

Most sweet potato “crusts" are just sliced sweet potatoes layering the bottom of a pie plate. While that might taste good, it’s not a crust, in my opinion.

So I wondered? Could I make an actual crust with them? The answer is yes! You can. Here, I start with a sweet potato that gets grated on a box grater, salted and squeezed dry to remove excess moisture. Then it’s mixed with almond meal (grain free and gluten free – but feel free to use flour), seasonings and bound with an egg white to form a dough (of sorts). We don’t want the crust to be too wet – so the more you can wring out of those potatoes the better – the starches in the potato will then work to naturally bind together, eliminating the need for additional butter or fat in the crust. When pressed into a pie plate and par-baked, you get a crispy-crusted-layer of delightfully buttery-sweet potatoes that are ready to be topped and filled! It’s not going to be flaky like your traditional quiche crust, but you’re saving yourself an entire stick and a half of butter. And that’s just the crust.

The Filling
I skip the heavy cream and use Greek yogurt as our creamy stand in. Eggs are healthy in so many ways – don’t skimp on those. Let them be the vessel for a hefty load of greens, caramelized onions and yes, bacon. A little goes a long way, here, as the bacon fat actually works to help you absorb all those fat-soluble vitamins locked up inside the greens. Cave-aged gruyere has a rich, nutty flavor that is the perfect complement to the buttery-sweet potato crust, the smoky bacon and the earthy greens.

Nutritionally speaking, the whole pie is loaded with fiber and protein and contains zero added sugars. There’s no better way to start your day!

Give it a try.

 

Sweet Potato Crusted Quiche with Smoky Bacon and Spring Greens

INGREDIENTS

Serves 6

CRUST

• 2 cups grated sweet potato (about 1 medium)
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ cup almond meal or almond flour
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 large egg white

QUICHE

• 4 pieces bacon
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 3 minced garlic cloves
• 1 bunch of lacinato kale, thinly sliced
• 2 cups packed fresh spinach, coarsely chopped
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
• 6 large eggs
• 2 large egg whites
• ½ cup 2% reduced fat Greek yogurt
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 3 ounces cave-aged Gruyere cheese (about ¾ cup)
• Fresh basil or chives to garnish

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Coat a heavy duty deep-dish 9-inch pie plate with cooking spray or olive oil.

Combine sweet potato and ½ teaspoon salt in a bowl. Let sit 15-20 minutes. Place sweet potato on a few layers of paper towel; roll up and twist tightly to draw out any excess liquid. Wipe out bowl; return sweet potato to bowl. Add almond meal, garlic powder and egg white, stirring to form a ball.

Press sweet potato mixture into prepared pie plate, pressing to cover the bottom and halfway up the sides.

Bake at 425° for 20 minutes.

Reduce oven temperature to 350°.

Cook bacon in a large skillet over medium high heat. Remove bacon from skillet. Add onion to reserved bacon drippings. Cook 8-10 minutes or until very tender. Add garlic. Saute 2-3 minutes.  Add kale and spinach; cook 5 minutes or until greens begin to wilt. Add vinegar and ¼ teaspoon salt to pan.  Remove from heat.

Crumble reserved bacon; add to spinach mixture.

Pour spinach mixture over crust.

In a large bowl, whisk eggs, egg whites, yogurt, ½ teaspoon salt and pepper, until very well combined. Stir in ½ cup cheese.

Pour egg mixture over spinach mixture. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Place pie plate on a rimmed baking sheet and bake on lower rack until filling is set and slightly puffed, about 35-40 minutes. Let cool slightly before serving. Top with fresh herbs and additional pepper.

 

 

Sidney Fry is a two-time James-Beard-Award-winning food and nutrition writer who loves creating simple, healthy recipes and thoughtful, actionable content for the hungry consumer. A healthy living proactivist, Sidney is also a registered dietitian nutritionist, recipe developer and mama of three based in Birmingham, Alabama.