A savory, sweet, satisfying and healthy breakfast or brunch recipe that will impress even the pickiest eaters! This Spinach Bacon Quiche with Caramelized Onions has an easy, healthy, and delicious crust made of thinly sliced and roasted butternut squash. It’s Paleo, gluten free, dairy free, and full of flavor and nutrition.
I have brownies in the oven right now so I’m just going to write this at the top of the post here so I don’t forget and burn them. Okay good, writing things down always helps – especially when multitasking.
I’ve been doing a ton of multitasking lately, but, really, what’s new? It HAS gotten worse since getting my laptop a few weeks ago, since I can now attempt to type up posts while doing just about anything and everything else you could imagine. The interesting part that I’m sure some of you can relate to, is that I don’t actually get more done or get things done more efficiently. It’s the opposite. I seem to spend more time trying to do the same things that once took me far less time.
I get it, it’s because when I’m multitasking I’m actually adding things on that I wouldn’t be doing if I just stuck to one thing at a time. I never learn. It’s hard to find the discipline to stick to one thing and believe I will accomplish more that way. Quality over quantity? These are hard concepts in the world we live in now, when we have 10 tabs open on 3 different devices at all times. I wonder if our brains will adapt eventually. I think we will – it already seems like Drew (he’s almost 5) handles this sort of thing better than I do. Or maybe that’s just me getting/being old 🙂
Anyway, multitasking isn’t necessarily always a bad thing, and without it my blog literally would not exist, so, there’s that. Besides, what else are you supposed to do when you have brownies, a cake, or a quiche in the oven? Clean up the kitchen? That’s not my brand of multitasking – as you guys might know I like to save all my cleaning for one terribly unpleasant 3 day stretch every six months and then complain about it for another 3 days afterwards. As I peak over my shoulder right now I’m starting to question my priorities, however. Some things, like brownies, do require at least a little cleaning up after.
But why are we talking brownies again? Oh right, oven. Good thing I caught that! As for today’s recipe (can’t you feel my scattered-ness?) it’s another one of my too-easy-to-be-true veggies crusts, that require no pureeing or mashing, but rather just slicing and roasting. This time it’s butternut squash, and it is totally worth mentioning that both Adam and Diana – who are not butternut squash fans – L-O-V-E-D this. Could be the bacon. And the caramelized onions. Who turns that down? And for the green-lovers in all of us there’s plenty of spinach. It’s delicious! Try it out!
Spinach Bacon Quiche with Caramelized Onions & Butternut Crust {Paleo}
Spinach Bacon Quiche with Caramelized Onions & Butternut Crust {Paleo}
Ingredients
- 1 whole butternut squash long part cut off, peeled, and sliced into thin rounds, about 1/4 inch thick.
- Coconut oil or ghee to coat the squash
- Sprinkle of fine grain sea salt for roasting squash
- 1/2 large onion or 1 small onion sliced thinly and evenly
- 2 tbsp coconut oil or ghee for caramelizing onions plus sea salt to season
- 6 slices of nitrate free bacon sugar free for Whole30 fried until crisp, drained, and crumbled or broken into pieces
- 2 large handfuls fresh baby spinach roughly chopped
- 6 eggs
- 3 tbsp full fat canned coconut milk
- Pinch of sea salt
- Pinch black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 425 degrees and coat the bottom of a 9 inch pie dish with coconut oil.
- Coat each butternut squash round with a thin layer of coconut oil or ghee and arrange on the bottom of the dish, overlapping a bit (they'll shrink when roasted) Cut 4 rounds in half and arrange around the perimeter of the dish to form a crust. Sprinkle with a bit of sea salt.
- Put baking dish in the preheated oven and roast for about 30 minutes, until lightly browned and soft (check halfway through to prevent burning)
- While the crust is in the oven, caramelized the onions: melt the 2 tbsp of coconut oil or ghee in a medium skillet over low heat, add the onions, and toss to coat. Add a sprinkling of sea salt as well.
- Continue to cook and stir over low - med/low heat for about 20-30 minutes, until golden brown and very soft. Keep the heat low enough to prevent the onions from burning.
- In a large bowl, whisk the eggs with the coconut milk salt, and pepper until smooth. Add the spinach to the caramelized onions and stir to combine, remove from heat.
- Once the crust is done, lower the oven heat to 400 and sprinkle the onion/spinach mixture over the butternut squash, then the crumbled bacon. Give the eggs and coconut milk a good whisk again, and pour over everything (it will "leak" through the crust, which is fine)
- Bake for 15-20 minutes in the 400 degree oven or until the eggs are just set and the edges begin to turn golden - don't let the quiche turn brown.
- Remove from oven and let cool for at least 10 minutes before slicing and serving. Sore leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Enjoy!
Any multitasking horror stories?
Share your multitasking guilty pleasure!
What’s your favorite kind of quiche?
I always multitask in the kitchen (especially when I am meal prepping) and many times something ends up overcooked. And sometimes I will read and comment on blogs while I am cooking dinner which may lead me to forget that I am i the middle of cooking dinner:) This quiche definitely looks like something I would make over the weekend to eat on weekday mornings!
I definitely burn things on the stove even just trying to make everyone breakfast! Usually it’s mine that’s burnt, of course!
Too much multitasking makes me feel like I have attention deficit disorder. That’s the problem with today’s world – instant access to everything making us feel like we should do everything at once! It’s even worse for the kids, don’t even get me started! lol
So true, it feels like we need to do everything right now because there’s just no excuse not to! I wasn’t originally wired for this!
That quiche looks amazing! Multitasking is the only way I can hope to get 15 minutes to myself at the end of the day! After work, it means making diner while cleaning the dishes and preparing the lunches for the next day (why not throw a load of laundry in the mix?!) But don’t ask my husband to do more than one thing at a time…impossible 😉 Are women genetically wired this way? 😉
I actually don’t think I was originally wired to multitask the way I do! Being a mom and now blogging has changed all of that though. I agree that men do not seem to feel the need to multitask, I’m guessing they’re just better at setting boundaries.
Make this with egg whites, and there is nothing about it that isn’t magnificent to me.I used to be a champion multitasker–hello, server at a very popular restaurant. But now, my version of multitasking is washing tv while working 😀
That’s a nice kind of multitasking! I should try that during the day, it might actually relax me a little!
My multitasking has gotten out of control now that I’m in school! I’ve been trying to focus my attention on one thing at a time. It’s hard though! You know I love butternut squash! This sounds so good! I made a similar recipe recently with the crust but with different veggies. I was trying to do a spin my butternut squash spinach breakfast bake. But I think they’d go best with the brownies! 😉
Ah yes, your breakfast bake! Butternut squash goes really well with eggs just like sweet potatoes do. And the more I need to do, the harder it is to focus on any one thing. I can’t even remember if it was always this way or if blogging has made it worse.
I currently have 5 tabs open…so yeah, I could do a better job. My “favorite” way to multitask is watching TV if I’m running on the treadmill. Both don’t require much thinking so it’s not a bad habit in my mind 🙂 I I’m not a huge butternut squash fan either, but I like it when it’s mixed into things.
I’ve actually never watched TV while running on the TM but I feel like it might make me dizzy! Not about to get on a TM to test it though 😉 5 tabs isn’t bad in my opinion!
I am the queen of multi-tasking. Heck, have to be with my schedule, LOL! That dish looks amazing! I’ll definitely add it to my list of recipes to try!
That’s how I feel, too – if I didn’t multitask there’s no way I’d be able to function with what the days demand of me!
I am hosting my second annual dinner party for a group of girlfriends this weekend and was planning to make my quinoa crusted smoked salmon quiche, and another – now I know what the crust will be. Butternut squash is genius, and perfect for the Paleo/Whole30 girls 🙂
Definitely a great choice for a paleo crust! I liked this just as much, if not more, than my sweet potato crusted quiche. Can’t go wrong 🙂
I need to bounce back and forth on things. It keeps me engaged! I’m to jumpy to stay on one task! Then..things would never get done!!
That’s how I feel now too, but it really wasn’t always this way! I think the internet has changed everything. Now I feel old!
Your photos are gorgeous! I love the idea of butternut squash crust. I struggle to multitask—it stresses me out. The most I can do is comment on blogs or respond to emails while I eat.
That is enjoyable multitasking for me! It stresses me out too when I try to do too much, then again doing only one thing stresses me out too because I can’t forget about everything else.
I love the butternut squash crust idea! Fabulous!!! Great photos too 🙂
Thanks so much! Can’t go wrong with roasted butternut 🙂
Omg I literally just saw your Sweet Potato Quiche on Pinterest but since I have a whole Butternut Squash I haven’t used then it’ll be this one this week! Can’t wait to try it 🙂
It’s a good one! The butternut crust adds such great flavor 🙂
The recipe looks and sounds very delicious! Good idea to use squash as the crust. I like crustless quiches too, just one step less and still really tasty!
Agree, anything baked with eggs is a win!
I love the pictures on this one (Well Done!) and the use of butternut squash for the crust. Very inventive. I’m a quiche girl too (hooray eggs) and it’s been far too long since I’ve made one. I need to change that.
Thanks! Quiches are awesome. Butternut is awesome too!
This was the first Paleorunningmama recipe I’ve made. I can’t wait to make more! The quiche is amazing.
We ended up having to cheat on this recipe with a gf/df frozen crust when we discovered our butternut squash was bad on the inside! We also subbed out coconut oil/ghee for olive oil and we used 3 handfuls of shredded zucchini instead of spinach. It was delicious! Everyone had seconds. Can’t wait to try it next time with the squash! Thanks so much!