Keto Low Carb Prosciutto, Cheese & Zucchini Quiche. 2.75g carbs per wedge.
So easy. Totally scrummy. Simply perfect. Ideal for a lunch box, a picnic, as a snack, or as party food. Quiche is so versatile isn’t it? It’s just like a cake. But a savoury one. In actual fact, I was going to put ‘savoury cake’ in the post title, because I got the inspiration for it from an Italian recipe that categorised it as a ‘torta salata’. The English literal translation is ‘salted cake’. Italian recipe books and apps are chock full of torte salate ideas. Italians are mad for them. And I certainly can see why. They are basically an all-in-one-food with all the macronutrients one needs.
Thinking about it, I don’t know why savoury cakes aren’t popular anywhere else. Or are they? Can you find savoury cakes in your part of the world? Do they have a specific name? How do you bake them? Which one is your favourite? Answers in the comments, pleeeeaaase… I am really keen to know 😀
Anyway. Back to the recipe. Ketohusband felt I shouldn’t call it ‘savoury cake’ in case it put people off (….what?!?!….why?!?!….). So I decided on the quiche nomenclature because of the resemblance to a quiche in texture and flavour. Perhaps not quite as eggy. Which is totally fine by me. 
An Easy-Peasy Recipe.
I chose keto-friendly elements for this Keto Low Carb Prosciutto, Cheese & Zucchini Quiche. Zucchini (courgettes to us Brits) are always a safe bet for low carbing and they taste delicious in absolutely everything – you can’t really go wrong with them.
Prosciutto is Italian ham and it comes in two main varieties: cooked (cotto) and raw (crudo), such as Parma, S. Daniele, etc. Both raw and cooked prosciuttos are made from the hind thigh of a pig that has been drained, cleaned and cured for a long time in specific atmospheric conditions. I chose prosciutto cotto for this recipe, but you can swap for Parma or S. Daniele ham if you prefer (if you do, make sure to reduce the salt quoted in the recipe).
The cheese you decide upon is entirely your choice, as long as it’s zero carbs and melts easily.
As this recipe uses lupin flour, I have to tell you that lupins carry a warning: if you’re allergic to peanuts you may also be allergic to lupins and possibly the flour as well, so it is best avoided. There hasn’t been clear causation established, just association. None the less, better be safe than sorry.
You need to pre-cook the zucchini. But that’s a 5 minute walk in the park. Once the zucchini are cooked and cooled, and you’ve chopped prosciutto and cheese, you can start shoving everything into one bowl. Yep. One bowl. My favourite kind of recipe.
Pour into a spring-form baking tin. Bake. Cool. Refrigerate. Eat. Oh my… Keto Low Carb Prosciutto, Cheese & Zucchini Quiche, where have you been all my low carb life?
Enjoy!
- Yield: 8
- Serving: 1
- Calories: 358
- Fat: 31g
- Net Carbs: 2.75g
- Protein: 14.5g
- 3 large eggs
- 300g zucchini
- 80g prosciutto cotto (roughly chopped)
- 150g matured Emmental/Cheddar cheese (cubed)
- 100g ricotta
- 200g double (heavy) cream
- 70g tallow (U.S. option HERE) or you can use lard or butter
- 60g lupin flour (for U.S. option, click HERE) (for world-wide delivery option, click HERE - use code QUEENKETO5 for discount at checkout)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp turmeric powder
- 1 garlic clove (minced)
- a generous pinch of organic broth granules
- ¼ tsp grated nutmeg
- ½ tsp fine Himalayan pink salt (U.S. option HERE)
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
- top and tail zucchini, then cut them across the length and again across each half length and again across each quarter length; you should now have 8 length sections approximately 2cm wide; slice thinly so as to obtain 0.5cm slivers (these are rough measures and won't be uniform).
- heat up 10g of tallow, add zucchini, garlic clove, ¼ tsp salt, a sprinkle of pepper, turmeric and broth granules; sautée until soft - about 5-10 mins depending on size of zucchini slivers.
- pre-heat oven to 170C fan (190C static).
- make the batter by whisking ricotta, whole eggs, cream and melted (cold) tallow; add ¼ tsp salt, a good sprinkle of pepper, lupin flour, nutmeg and sifted baking powder; (optional) at this point you can add chopped chillies or other spices according to your taste.
- fold prosciutto and cheese into the batter, then the cooked zucchini.
- pour into a buttered springform baking tin or silicone mould and level with the back of a spoon.
- bake for 30 mins or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out dry.
- allow to cool then refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
- remove from tin/silicone mould, cut into 8 wedges and serve.
You can portion and freeze individual segments.
Metric kitchen scales are an inexpensive yet invaluable gadget to enable accurate measurement of ingredients. Store them upright in a cupboard or over your worktop and they'll only take up a tiny bit of space. Click HERE for the ones I use (UK Link). For U.S. option click HERE.
This is SUCH a great recipe! I made this over the weekend and had it for lunch at work yesterday, marvellous! I used cubed cheddar as I like strong flavoured cheeses and it was perfect. I will definitely be making this one again, thank you so much for another fantastic recipe.
You’re so welcome, Anu. Thanks for the feedback.
Thank you so much for this recipe! It was simple to make and turned out beautifully. The lupin flour did give it a different “less eggy” texture but I really liked it. It is so flavorful and rich it’s great for squashing my workday sugar cravings. Thank you!
Hi Megan! Glad you like it. Thank you very much for your lovely comment.