Greek Crustless Zucchini Quiche Recipe (Sfougato)
Sfougato is a great dish to try for breakfast, brunch, or a light lunch! This crustless zucchini quiche recipe is low carb, loaded with veggies and protein to fill you up, and bursts with Greek flavor from the fresh herbs and feta cheese. Meal prep this on Sunday for easy breakfasts throughout the week!
This post was originally published on February 28th, 2020.
The weather has been particularly cold this week (we even had snow, oh my!) and I have been daydreaming about our road trip to Crete last June, exploring all of the beautiful (stunning!) beaches. I’ll be going to Lesvos island in a few months as my Greek is from there and he goes every summer to relax on the beaches. I just can’t wait! Half excited for the beaches and half excited for the food. Lesvos is closer to Turkey than mainland Greece (as in right next to Turkey) so has a lot of Turkish influence in everything – the cuisine, culture, and dialect/accent.
🥒 What is a Crustless Zucchini Quiche (sfougato)?
Sfougato is a traditional dish from Mitilini (Μυτιλήνη) – a town on Lesvos. It’s an absolutely delicious zucchini quiche with no pie crust. The foundation for this crustless zucchini quiche is always eggs, zucchini, and feta cheese (of course!), with mint, parsley and dill, and other fresh herbs. Unlike traditional zucchini quiche recipes, there is no heavy cream here making it a great lighter option.
Often wheat flour or breadcrumbs are used on the bottom of the skillet to stop the crustless zucchini quiche from sticking, but I find it works just as well without. Variations of this vegetarian Greek quiche include adding ground meat or other veggies. Check out my recipe notes and tips section for ideas!
🗝️ Key Ingredients & Substitutions
The full list and amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
Extra virgin olive oil: A must for Greek cuisine, this is used for sautéeing the vegetables in this crustless zucchini quiche recipe. Another healthy oil like avocado oil or cooking spray would be fine but you’d miss out on the flavor.
Eggs: This is a crustless quiche recipe so eggs are one of the main ingredients.
Zucchini: Shredded zucchini is a must for this zucchini quiche. It’s the perfect way to use up your summer zucchini produce! Sliced zucchini doesn’t work as well, so definitely use the large holes on your grater for this dish. Yellow squash is a good substitute if needed.
Feta cheese: Although I seed this ingredient as a must, you can skip it if needed to make it dairy-free. You can also use dairy-free feta cheese (violife has a great option).
Fresh herbs: Fresh mint, fresh dill, fresh parsley, and green onions really pack in so much flavor. It tastes amazing! Use fresh herbs, not dried herbs for this crustless zucchini quiche recipe.
Onion: I added red onion, however, yellow, white, or brown would be great too. I prefer red onion as it’s sweeter and adds a little pop of color to the crustless quiche.
Seasoning: Add sea or kosher salt and ground black pepper to season this crustless zucchini quiche. Salt is also used for sweating the zucchini which means removing as much liquid as possible before cooking it.
Tomato: The tomato is sliced and placed on top. Roma tomatoes or buffalo tomatoes are great for this. Diced cherry tomatoes would work too.
Fresh oregano: This is an optional garnish. It tastes delicious!
🥣 How to make this Greek Crustless Zucchini Quiche (no crust)
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.
2. Grate zucchini and place it in a sieve or strainer over your sink.
3. Salt the grated zucchini liberally to encourage moisture to be released, and leave it over the sink for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, gently push the zucchini down into the strainer to get rid of any excess moisture.
4. Heat oil in a cast iron skillet with oil on the stove over medium heat. You can also do this part in a regular pan and transfer it to a baking dish or pie dish later.
5. Add diced onion and grated zucchini and sauté.
6. In a large or medium bowl, add eggs, herbs, green onion, salt and pepper. Mix well.
7. Add feta to the egg mixture and mix.
8. Pour the egg mixture over the sautéed vegetables and mix together. At this point, you can move the quiche mixture into a baking dish or quiche dish lined with parchment paper if desired or keep it in the cast iron pan.
9. Slice the tomato and place it on top of the crustless zucchini quiche.
10. Cook zucchini tomato quiche in the oven for 40-50 minutes, until cooked. The edges and top will start to turn golden brown.
11. Garnish the crustless quiche zucchini recipe with oregano if desired and serve!
🫙 Storage Instructions
Store any leftover crustless quiche in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Reheat it in the microwave or in the oven until piping hot, or eat it cold.
Can you freeze zucchini quiche? Yes! Split the crustless quiche into individual slices. Wrap each slice of crustless zucchini quiche in plastic wrap and freeze it for up to 3 months. Thaw completely before reheating or consuming.
🪄 Recipe Notes & Tips
Add meat: You could try adding 500g of ground beef, turkey, chicken, chopped ham, smoked salmon, or homemade sausage when sautéing the onion and zucchini.
More veggies? Yes, please! Spinach would be a great option to make this a zucchini spinach quiche. Lettuce is sometimes used (not iceberg but butter lettuce), kalamata olives, bell peppers, or grated carrots would also work well.
Play with your herbs! The herbs in this dish are responsible for the flavor, but Greece has so many options. For other flavor combinations, I would mix and match between 1-3 of:
- Dill
- Parsley
- Mint
- Rosemary
- Oregano
- Basil
- Thyme
- Fresh chives
Need this to be paleo or whole30? Skip the cheese and add more veggies or meat!
Other cheeses to try: Feta is perfect for this recipe, however, I have made it with shredded mozzarella and shredded cheddar cheese before and also sprinkled it with parmesan cheese. Monterey Jack would be a great option too. They all work really well in this crustless zucchini quiche recipe.
💦 What makes zucchini quiche watery?
A runny quiche happens when you don’t squeeze as much moisture as possible out of the grated zucchini. Zucchini contains so much liquid and can make crustless zucchini quiche quite soupy.
To remove the excess liquid, salt the grated zucchini liberally in a strainer over the sing. Mix it to ensure it is coated evenly in salt, and allow the strainer to sit over the sink for 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes, gently push the zucchini down into the strainer to release any more excess moisture.
🤔 Is zucchini quiche healthy?
Absolutely! This healthy quiche is loaded with fresh herbs, zucchini, onion, eggs, feta, and tomato. There is no crust and no heavy cream making this brunch cuisine a great, lighter option. It’s perfect year-round but I especially love these fresh flavors in the spring and summer months when zucchini is in season.
🍽️ What to serve with crustless quiche
- Pickled Beet Salad
- Breakfast Sausage (and how to cook breakfast sausage 4 ways)
- Air Fryer Sausage Links
- Oven Baked Sausages
- Air Fryer Turkey Bacon
- Bacon Roses
- Apple Oats Smoothie
- Chia Pudding
- Flaxseed Pudding
- Paleo Bruschetta
😋 More healthy recipes to try
- Paleo Greek Stuffed Tomatoes (Gemista)
- Chinese Zucchini Recipe
- Avgolemono Sauce
- Greek Stuffed Cabbage (Lahanodolmades)
- Greek Frappe Coffee Recipe
Have you made this recipe? I’d love to know <3 Tag me (@makehealthyrecipes) on Facebook and Instagram, Pin it on Pinterest, and please leave a star rating review below! Don’t forget to subscribe to the email list (top right of this page) for sparkly new recipes in your inbox.
📖 Recipe
Sfougato – Greek Crustless Zucchini Quiche Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 5 large eggs
- 4 medium zucchini
- 150 g 5.5oz feta cheese (dairy-free if needed)
- 6 g 3 tbsp fresh mint, chopped (see note 1)
- 6 g 3 tbsp fresh dill, chopped (see note 1)
- 3 g 1.5 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped (see note 1)
- 4 green onions chopped (see note 1)
- 1 red onion diced
- 1 tsp salt + 1-2 tsp for sweating the zucchini
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 1 tomato sliced (optional)
- fresh oregano (optional garnish)
- grated parmesan cheese optional garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F.
- Grate zucchini and place it in a sieve or strainer over your sink.
- Salt zucchini liberally to encourage moisture to be released (sweat), leave over sink for 10 minutes, and squeeze lightly before use.
- Heat a cast iron skillet with oil on the stove over medium heat. You can also do this part in a regular pan and transfer it to a baking or pie dish later.
- Add diced onion and zucchini and sauté briefly.
- In a medium or large bowl, add eggs, herbs, green onions, salt and pepper. Mix well.
- Add feta to the egg mixture and mix.
- Pour egg mixture over the sautéed vegetables and mix together. At this point, you can move the egg and cheese mixture into a pie pan, tart pan, or quiche dish lined with parchment paper if desired or keep it in the cast iron pan.
- Slice the tomato and place it on top of the crustless zucchini quiche.
- Cook zucchini quiche in the oven for 40-50 minutes, until it's no longer runny in the middle and golden brown on the edges.
- Garnish the crustless zucchini quiche recipe with oregano and a little parmesan cheese if desired.
Notes
- Herbs: Use any combination of up to 3 of the following: mint, dill, parsley, oregano, rosemary, thyme, chives.
- Add meat: You could try adding 500g of ground beef, turkey, chicken, chopped ham, smoked salmon, or homemade sausage when sautéing the onion and zucchini.
- More veggies? Yes, please! Spinach would be a great option to make this a zucchini and spinach quiche. Lettuce is sometimes used (not iceberg but butter or romaine lettuce), kalamata olives, bell peppers, or grated carrots would also work well.
- Other cheeses to try: Feta is perfect for this recipe, however, I have made it with shredded mozzarella and shredded cheddar cheese before and also sprinkled it with parmesan cheese. Monterey Jack would be a great option too. They all work really well in this crustless zucchini quiche recipe.
- Need this to be paleo or whole30? Skip the cheese and add more veggies or meat!
Storage instructions
- Store any leftover crustless quiche in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
- Reheat it in the microwave or in the oven until piping hot, or eat it cold.
- Can you freeze zucchini quiche? Yes! Split the crustless quiche into individual slices. Wrap each slice of crustless zucchini quiche in plastic wrap and freeze it for up to 3 months. Thaw completely before reheating or consuming.
