Low-carb butternut squash quiche with a Greek twist
Low-carb butternut recipe season is here! Every autumn you will find a new version of something old or a combination of two different traditional recipes made with alternative flour and without sugar. Let’s be honest, who needs sugar with butternut squash? After so many years on Keto, occasional trips to the carnivore universe, the squash tastes too sweet. This is why I love making savoury recipes with it. When you combine its natural sweetness with salt something magical happens.
Low-Carb recipes for the maintenance phase
Now, before you judge our low-carb butternut squash quiche and the infamous 10g of carbs per slice, let us remind you of something. You don’t have to obsessively count carbs all your life! If you heal your metabolism with KMD, a Mediterranean low-carb could be the easiest, tastiest and most enjoyable diet/lifestyle. And this quiche falls into that category in every aspect of it! Just look at the ingredients! Smells like childhood, feels like the warmest hug and looks too good not to try making it! And don’t be afraid, the recipe is much simpler than you think! Don’t worry if the crust is not perfect, you will actually love the texture much more than you would with a classical crust. Wheat flour crusts end up suffocating while Keto doughs always lean on the fatty side. 😉
Why tallow in the crust?
You can use the same amount of butter or olive oil in the crust, not a problem at all! However, when I started working on the Low-carb butternut squash quiche version, I remembered all my pastry recipes with tallow. There’s something magical about tallow in baked goods! It always gives some creamy texture. I even use it for cookies and they are melting in the mouth. Give it a go, you will see that baked goods with good old tallow always bring so much pleasure.
Just how low-carb-friendly butternut squash is?
Well, 500g of butternut squash will give 50g of carbs. So naturally, you will not eat the whole quiche alone and will cut 12 slices. If you are that worried, you can always use pumpkin, spaghetti squash or zucchini. With pumpkin, you will end up with 40g per 500g, spaghetti squash will have 34g and zucchini 16g. When you divide this by 12 you are more than sure that your quiche is a low-carb creation! To be honest sometimes is less of a problem if you eat naturally occurring carbs than constantly using sweeteners and additives. After all, a quiche of this sort will not be on the menu every day. So whatever you decide to use, our low-carb butternut squash quiche can serve as an inspiring recipe! Let’s bake it!
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minutesIngredients (crust)
2 tbsp 2 tbsp lamb or beef tallow
50 g 7 1/7 tbsp coconut flour
1 tbsp 1 tbsp psyllium powder
70 g 2 1/2 oz finely ground blanched hazelnut
1 tsp 1 tsp sea salt
200 g 7 oz Skyr or Greek yoghurt
1 tsp 1 tsp dried rosemary
- FILLING
100 g 3 1/2 oz unsalted butter
500 g 1 lb cubed butternut squash
6 large 6 large eggs
150 g 5 2/7 oz feta cheese
50 g 1 3/4 oz semi-hard goat cheese
1 tbsp 1 tbsp onion powder
1 tsp 1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp 2 tsp red sweet paprika powder
1 tbsp 1 tbsp whole pink peppercorn
Directions
- Use softened tallow at room temperature. Mix it with Greek yoghurt, sea salt and rosemary till you get a nice and smooth emulsion. Start adding coconut flour and mix with your hands. Add psyllium powder and finely ground hazelnuts. You can use almond flour, but we prefer hazelnuts or macadamia.
- The dough should be thick enough to create a ball. Wrap the dough with plastic foil and leave it to rest at room temperature for 20 minutes.
- In a deep frying pan or a wok, melt the butter and add peeled and cubed butternut squash. Cook over medium temperature and constantly stir. Add just a pinch of sea salt, garlic and onion powder. Cover with a lid and let the squash release its water. Then uncover, stir again and cook for at least 20 minutes to get nice and caramelised squash cubes. Add red paprika powder and set it aside to cool down a bit
- Place 6 eggs, feta cheese and cooked squash in a blender. Blend until you get a smooth mixture.
- Preheat the oven to 150ºC. Use a ceramic tart or pie pan, approximately 25cm in diameter and 4cm deep. Grease it with some butter or tallow. Place your dough on a cutting board. Using a sharp knife, cut slices 2 cm thick. Now place these slices in the pie pan and press them with your finger to connect. Work the crust shape so that it’s taller than your pan edges. Prick the base all over with a fork. Prebake for 15 minutes.
- Pour the filling mixture into the crust. Decorate with goat cheese (or any hard cheese of your choice) and red peppercorn. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.
- Allow the quiche to cool halfway before cutting. You can serve it warm or cold.
Equipment
Cutting board and sharp knife- Self-standing mixer
- Blender
Notes
- You can use pumpkin, spaghetti squash or zucchini to reduce the carb count!
- Instead of Skyr, you can use any Greek yoghurt but if you choose goat or sheep yoghurt you will end up with far fewer carbs than in cow’s milk yoghurt.
- You can experiment with low-carb-friendly flours. For example, an ideal combination would be sesame flour combined with coconut flour. If you decide to use ground nuts, then make sure you use a blanched version as we did with the hazelnuts. For example, you can use macadamia nuts.
- If you are very strict with the carb count, perhaps you can skip the crust and just bake a crustless quiche. The filling is the tastiest part of this recipe!
