Smoked salmon and Gruyère held together by a delicate egg custard nestled in a flaky pie crust makes for a deeply satisfying meal, whether it’s brunch or a light dinner. The smoked salmon lends a deep flavor that’s reminiscent of Quiché Lorraine, so if you’re skipping the bacon these days but missing the taste, try this. It also works well as a crust-less quiche. When there’s no time to make a pie crust, butter the pie plate and skip the crust- the filling is the best part anyway.
I usually buy a pound of smoked salmon, use what I need for this recipe, and save the rest for snacking and Smoked Salmon Hash later in the week. One of the benefits of living in Alaska is easy access to fresh salmon, halibut, rock fish and other seafood, not to mention, moose and caribou. The checkout lane at the grocery store is stocked with cookbooks on new ways to cook fish and game. After all, if you don’t fish or hunt, someone you know does and after a while you feel like you’ll scream if you can’t find a way to make it interesting. So needless to say, we eat a lot of salmon and seafood at my house.
Don’t worry about the cream and cheese if you’re lactose intolerant, as the recipe has less than 2 grams of lactose per serving. Gruyère is a low-lactose cheese, which according to “Food Intolerance Management Plan”, by Sue Shepherd, has almost no lactose. Most people with lactose intolerance can handle about 4 grams of lactose per serving of food without experiencing problems (page 29). Cream has 1 gram of lactose per tablespoon. Since there’s 1 1/2 tablespoons of cream per serving in this quiche (based on 5 servings), that’s 1.6 grams of lactose per serving. As always, only eat what your body can tolerate, and only you know what that is.
Smoked Salmon Quiche
Serves 5 – 6, adapted from “The Silver Spoon”
1 (9″) gluten-free pie crust
1 cup (112 grams or 4 ounces) chopped smoked salmon
1 1/4 cups (129 grams or 4 1/2 ounces) Gruyère or other Swiss cheese, grated
4 eggs
1 cup heavy cream
Dash of pepper
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Fill the pie crust with pie beads or weights. Bake for 15 minutes and remove the beads.
Spread the salmon over the bottom of the pie crust, followed by the cheese. Beat the eggs and cream together and lightly season with pepper. Pour the cream mixture over the salmon and bake for 45 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.
Lucky you to have such access to beautiful seafood and wild game. I have made a similar recipe and it was wonderful. Thanks.
It truly is a blessing- Alaska is one of the best places in the world to live.
Looks wonderful! We used to live in Anchorage and were just talking about how much we miss gutting fish in the front yard and having tons of it in the freezer.
That’s so Alaskan! It’s not summer if someone on the block isn’t cleaning a cooler full of fish. What took you to Alaska in the first place?
I am a Naturopathic doctor and did my residency in Anchorage; I met my husband up there while he was working for BP.. What an adventure!
The best sort of adventure!
I love salmon, and the quiche looks delicious. I’ll have to try it soon.
It’s very popular at my house- in fact, I made two yesterday so that I could send one with my oldest when she went back to school. Hope you enjoy yours as much as we did ours.
This looks so good .. and it’s like I can feel the smell from the quiche .. coming warm out of the oven – have made so many of those in my day as a chef … but I can’t eat them – like salmon hash – often do that …
Sometimes I think the smell of things, or even remembering the smell, is more evocative than the taste. The smell is all about anticipation and remembrance.
I love the smell .. of new baked quiches … it’s the pastry – but you are so right .. the look of the food and the smell is so important. We eat with eye first. Your quiche look so moist – excellent photo.
Thanks!
This really sounds like a winner! Thanks for sharing the idea and recipe.
You’re welcome!
Hey! thanks for liking my breakfast drink recipes, I followed you because I have relatives who eat gluten-free and the recipes here look so delicious. If i hadn’t just eaten salmon today I would make this quiche because it looks GREAT, so tasty. Thanks for these, I can see a few of them already that are going to come in really handy hehe
I’m so glad you found helpful recipes- it’s definitely easier to cook something that everyone in the family can eat. Loved your breakfast drink recipes, by the way. Yum.
I am an absolute sucker for smoked salmon! A little chive ads the somethin’ somethin’ to it too. Thank you for the recipe.
I’m the same way about smoked salmon and chives- nothing beats them.