I like to pick up new and unusual ingredients whenever I come across them. I live in Wisconsin and, despite Milwaukee being a major hub, the diversity of food is somewhat lacking compared to other places that I'm used to living. So, it's always a fun when I come across produce that I don't necessarily see every day! And today plantains caught my eye. It often happens that, since this is a spur of the moment find, I have no idea what I'm going to make. I was debating something like fried plantains. Although I feel like turning every new ingredient into a French fry isn't the most innovative of things to do (albeit delicious!). So, this time I thought that I'd try my hand at Plantain Quiche.
I figured that, since plantains are often fried, placing them at the base of the quiche would almost caramelize them while the rest of the quiche cooked on top. I tend to do this a lot with potatoes and sweet potatoes because I'm not particularly fond of making crust for quiche. It's not that it's not in my repertoire. It's just so incredibly time consuming to make dough by hand and I'd rather just toss everything into a cast iron pan with a bunch of eggs and call it a day! Although you can certainly fry your plantains ahead of time and either make or buy a pre-made pie crust.
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Variations of Plantain Quiche
I'm kind of a conoscour of quiche. They're one of my favorite dishes to mix and match fun produce with. I tend to make them around holidays when I have all sorts of new and interesting. I like to experiment with different fruits and vegetables, nuts, and cheeses. Sometimes I'll make a cheeseless quiche and use things like wine, Greek yogurt, and ricotta in its stead. Although the sky is the limit! Feel free to make any kind of quiche that your heart desires.
Quiche w/ Plantain, Bell Pepper, Onion, & Summer Squash
This Plantain Crustless Quiche consists of red bell pepper, yellow summer squash, red onion, eggs, and Greek yogurt. I topped it all off with homemade Avocado Dip and Thai Dragon Enchilada Sauce. The quiche is perfectly fine on its own! Although I tend to like to add on anything and everything that I have on hand. So, feel free to mix and match in your own produce and seasoning. Quiche is one of those fun recipes where you can really just toss anything into it and it'll still be delicious!
For the hot sauce on this, I used Enchilada Sauce w/ Thai Dragon Peppers. These recipes take less than an hour and require an air fryer and a large pot on the stove. You can easily substitute your own salsa or hot sauce of choice. But I am quite fond of making it from scratch!
I also topped this with Potluck Avocado Dip w/ Thai Dragon Peppers. This is entirely optional. You can easily substitute sour cream or omit it entirely for a more vegan recipe. Although this avocado dip is my new favorite thing and I highly recommend giving it a try. It's kind of a mix between hummus and guacamole. And is absolutely delicious!
Quiche
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Lightly grease a cast iron skillet or baking dish.
Whisk eggs, greek yogurt, salt, and pepper together.
Mix in bell pepper, squash, and onion.
Arrange 3/4 of the plantain slices evenly across the bottom of the skillet.This will create a kind of "crust" to the quiche, so cover as much of the skillet as possible. Although it is still a crustless quiche, so don't worry about there being some gaps.
Pour the egg and produce mixture into the skillet
Arrange the rest of the plantain on top of the egg mixture.There should be enough chunks of produce set the plantain on top and make it look like it's floating in the quiche. If your plantains do sink, you can cook the quiche until it sets enough for them to stay in place and then let it cook the rest of the way.
Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until just set and lightly brown. You want the egg to still juggle slightly, but not be liquid.
Serve immediately or chilled. Quiche is a great recipe to make ahead of time because it keeps well and is just as good cold. If you do reheat it, though, I would recommend heating in the oven. Oftentimes egg dishes don't microwave well as this tends to overcook them.
Tips, Tricks, & Notes
I only ended up needing one plantain for this. You could easily use 2 and fill the entire top of the quiche. This is what I'd originally planned on doing. Although it would have probably only taken 1 ½ plantains and I didn't know what else I was going to do with the extra half. You could mix it into the eggs and Greek yogurt with the rest of the produce. Although you would have to kind of measure out how much of the plantain that you'd need ahead of time because there's no going back after you arrange them on top! They're also very good fried if you want to cook some up while you wait for the quiche to bake. Although I didn't have quite that much energy to muster!
I also have an entire article on The Fundamentals of Crustless Quiche with more tips and tricks on whether or not you want a crust, whether or not you need dairy or cheese, the type of pan to use, and a recommendation of toppings.
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