Ham Spinach Gruyere Gluten-Free Quiche
This Gluten Free Quiche showcases sweet onion, fresh spinach, succulent ham, and a rich and creamy egg custard filling oozing with gruyere goodness, baked to perfection in a store-bought pie crust. It’s perfect for gluten-free holiday entertaining, of course, but it’s also an excellent protein-packed meal for breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dinner all year long! Makes two 9” quiches.
With turkey day behind us, next up are the festive feasts centered around juicy holiday ham -which means holiday ham leftovers! We love repurposing the leftovers in mini frittatas, omelets, and my Southern Ham Vegetable Soup.
However, there’s nothing better than throwing this quick gluten-free ham and gruyere quiche together. It’s guaranteed to please even the pickiest palates! I added onion and spinach to the filling, and it was a smash hit, but you certainly aren’t limited to our favorite quiche fillings.
Use this easy quiche recipe as your canvas and customize the filling with other types of meat, veggies, and cheese. Most important is using a delicious gluten-free pie crust. For instance, Wholly Wholesome pie shells are so good you’d never know they’re gluten-free!
This post will also brief you on how to skip the crust and make a crustless keto quiche. That said, be sure to check out my Crustless Spinach Quiche and Loaded Crustless Quiche while you’re here -but first, chop up that leftover holiday ham for this gluten-free quiche. You won’t regret it!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Ready-made gluten-free pie crust makes assembly a cinch. This quiche is practically fail-proof.
- Quiche is a fantastic make-ahead meal to store in the fridge or freezer for Easter and Christmas brunch.
- You can also make and bake it ahead to enjoy all week.
- It’s healthy! Quiche is rich in protein and a great way to get kids to love their vegetables!
- The filling possibilities are endless!
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Olive oil and butter – To coat the skillet and sauté the fillings. Cooking the veggies in olive oil and butter adds great flavor.
- Onion – Use sweet onion, if you have it, but yellow onion or white onion works too.
- Baby spinach leaves – Be sure the spinach is completely dry before adding it to the skillet. Scroll to the FAQs below for frozen spinach tips.
- Gluten-free pie shells – Thawed (if purchased frozen) and unbaked. Wholly Wholesome offers an excellent gluten-free pie shell made with brown rice flour (this is the one I use). If gluten isn’t a concern, use your favorite whole-wheat pie crust. Keep reading to learn how to make it crustless.
- Ham – If you do not have leftover holiday ham, use 1-2 ham steaks (depending on size) or bagged diced ham.
- Gruyere cheese – If possible, shredded gruyere cheese directly from the block, as it’s much creamier than bagged shredded cheese.
- Eggs – This wouldn’t be quiche without eggs as the base of the pie. Let the eggs settle to room temperature before starting for the best results.
- Whole milk – Milk adds moisture and smooths out the egg base. As a result, this quiche has a gorgeous golden surface and a satiny, fluffy middle.
- Spices and seasonings – Paprika adds a smoky element, and a pinch of cayenne warms things up. Of course, you will also need salt and pepper (to taste).
How To Make Gluten Free Quiche
Step 1: Sauté vegetable fillings. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Meanwhile, heat a large skillet with olive oil and butter over medium heat. Once the butter is melted, add chopped onion and cook until the onions begin to soften (3-5 minutes). Add the spinach and stir until wilted.
Step 2: Divide fillings between pie crusts. Divide the onion-spinach mixture evenly between the two pie shells. Top with chopped ham and shredded cheese.
Step 3: Add egg base. Whisk egg, milk, and seasonings together in a large bowl until well blended, then pour the mixture over the cheese and fillings, dividing it evenly between the two crusts.
Step 4: Bake, cool, and serve. Transfer to the oven and bake until the centers are set (40-50 minutes). Let cool, then slice and serve with fresh fruit. Enjoy!
Recipe Tips
- Blind bake the pie crust – To ensure the crust is flaky and golden, consider par-baking. You should also do this if the crusts you’re using need more time to bake than the quiche filling. To partially blind bake crust for quiche, bake until the bottoms begin to brown before adding the fillings and egg base. Make sure to cover the edges if you do this step so they don’t burn with the added baking time.
- Take your time whisking the eggs – To achieve an extra custardy quiche, beat the eggs for 2-3 minutes before whisking in the milk and seasonings. Then, continue whisking for another 2-3 minutes.
- Checking for doneness –Make a 1″ cut from the center towards the edges to check for doneness. If the knife comes out with any egg crumbs attached, bake for a few additional minutes.
- Let the quiche cool – If you have time to cool it completely to room temperature, it will taste much better. Then, after slicing, you can reheat individual slices (or serve them at room temperature).
Variations
I encourage you to get creative and make gluten-free quiches with other vegetables, meats, and cheeses. Just be sure to remove as much moisture from these ingredients by cooking them before using them in quiche.
- Vegetables – Artichoke, asparagus, bell peppers, carrots, broccoli, new potatoes, sweet potato, zucchini, or any other vegetables you need to use.
- Meat – Substitute leftover ham with cooked chicken (shredded or diced), breakfast sausage, bacon, or pancetta.
- Cheese – Instead of (or in addition to!) gruyere cheese, try other rich, silky cheeses like cheddar, monterey jack, swiss, mozzarella, goat cheese, and feta.
Storing & Freezing
Storing: Let the quiche cool to room temperature, wrap leftovers in plastic and keep refrigerated for 3-4 days.
Freezing: Wrap the whole quiche or individual slices tightly in plastic wrap and keep frozen for 2-4 months. Let thaw overnight in the fridge before reheating.
Recipe FAQs
You can use defrosted, frozen spinach, but it must be dry. To defrost the spinach, set it in the fridge overnight or in a bowl under running water. Once thawed, drain the spinach thoroughly and squeeze out as much liquid as possible.
Sure thing! To make a low-carb and keto version sans pie crust, divide the sauteed spinach, onion, and ham between two well-greased 9” pie pans. In a separate bowl, combine eggs, milk, cheese, and seasonings, then pour the mixture over the filling. Bake at 350°F until the middle is set (35-40) minutes. Cool before slicing.
Absolutely. Feel free to make and bake the quiche, let it cool, and keep it in the fridge to be reheated and served the next day. Likewise, you can cook the veggies and mix the egg base the night before. Then, the following day, bring the egg base to room temperature, assemble the quiche in the crust, and bake!
If frozen, thaw the quiche in the fridge, then take it out to reach room temperature. Cover with foil, and reheat at 350°F until the center reaches 165°F (about 15-20 minutes).
Brunch Recipes You’ll Love
- Loaded Potato Breakfast Casserole
- Sausage and Egg Overnight Breakfast Casserole
- Jalapeno Scrambled Eggs with Pan-fried Sweet Potatoes
- Gluten-free Eggs Benedict
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Ham Spinach Gruyere Gluten Free Quiche
Ingredients
- 2 unbaked gluten-free pie shells such as Wholly Wholesome brand
- 8 whole eggs room temp
- 1 1/4 cups whole milk
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 5 oz fresh baby spinach leaves
- 1 sweet onion finely chopped
- 8 oz Gruyere cheese shredded
- 1 lb cooked ham chopped into bite-size pieces
- 1 tsp paprika
- dash cayenne pepper
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Heat a large sauté pan over medium heat, then add olive oil and melt the tablespoon of butter.
- Add chopped onions and cook 3-5 minutes until they begin to soften.
- Add spinach and stir until wilted.
- Pour spinach and onion mixture on top of thawed GF pie crust, distributing evenly between the two pans.
- Top with chopped ham.
- Whisk egg, milk, and seasonings together until well blended.
- Divide the shredded cheese, evenly between the two quiches, then pour the egg mixture on top.
- Bake for 40-50 minutes until center is set.
- Cool 5 minutes before slicing.
- Serve warm with fresh fruit.
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Great quiche! I just love the combo of ham and spinach and cheese!
Thank you Renee! Your ham and mac salad looks amazing, too!!
I would love to have a stash of your quiche in my freezer!! What a delectable combination of flavors. Happy Easter, Amee!
Thank you Liz! I’d love to share if you lived close by! 😉
Quiches are the very best way to use up all kinds of leftovers! Yours look wonderful, Amee!
Thanks so much Stacy! Happy Easter!
Yum! What a great use of Easter leftovers! I can always get behind a quiche like this!
Thanks Nicole! 🙂
Such gooey gluten-free gruyere goodness, Amee! Thanks to you I’ll have to look for the Wholly Wholesome crust =) P.s. Pinning!
That crust is delicious! Thank you! 🙂
I am a sucker for quiche, and this has all of my favorites in it! I’m done for!
Thanks, me too Constance!!
Oh gooood, yay for clean eating and GF options! I really love this, you can’t have enough GF after a big holiday like this one. Great share–and happy Easter!
Ha ha, I agree! Thank you so much Ala! Happy Easter!
What a yummy way to repurpose leftovers! I also love the gluten free crust and plan to try that as well! Quiche is such a lovely dish!
LOVE quiche for using up my leftovers. And, when I’m feeling really unambitious, I just make frittata!
You had me at gruyere! One of my favorite kinds of cheeses, yum!
That’s one beautiful breakfast/brunch item!
What a brilliant dish! Thanks for sharing it with us 🙂
I’ve never put ham in a quiche. I can’t really believe it. But it looks like a wonderful addition!
This is the perfect way to use up that leftover ham!! YUM!!!!
Please can you use metrics. Cups don’t mean anything. They are all different according to where you live, American, Australian, SA, British…etc…At least metrics is international.
Thanks
Thank you for the feedback, Joe. I wish that my recipe plug-in did metric conversions. I look into it. There are metric conversion calculators online that would be helpful.
This Quiche recipe is one of my go to breakfast recipes. It is SO delicious – making it hard to eat only one serving. I usually replace the ham with cubed prosciutto and the sweet onions with shallots. (I’ve even made my own gluten free pie crust once when the grocery store was out of stock.) Really, this recipe is a great foundation for trying all sorts of flavor variations – my kind of recipe. Thank you for this scrumptious addition to my breakfast repertoire!
Thank you, Larena, for taking the time to write up this great review! I’m so glad that you’re enjoying the recipe and I love that you used prosciutto and shallots!! Great subs!