Traditional quiche with a flour crust is not low carb. A typical slice from a 9-inch quiche contains around 29 grams of carbohydrates, with the crust alone contributing about 25 of those grams. Remove the crust, though, and quiche becomes one of the more naturally low-carb meals you can make, dropping to roughly 5 to 6 net carbs per serving.
Where the Carbs Actually Come From
The filling of a quiche is inherently low in carbohydrates. Eggs have about 1 gram of carbs per large egg. Cheese adds roughly 1 gram per ounce. Bacon contributes zero. The custard base (eggs plus cream) is where quiche gets its richness, and none of those ingredients are carb-heavy.
The crust is the problem. A standard pie crust made from white flour packs around 25 grams of carbs into a single serving. That’s nearly all the carbohydrates in the dish. For anyone eating under 20 to 50 grams of carbs per day, one slice of traditional quiche could use up most of the daily budget in a single sitting.
Crustless Quiche Is a Different Story
A crustless spinach quiche runs about 6 grams of total carbs per slice, with 1 gram of fiber, putting net carbs at around 5 grams. That fits comfortably into most low-carb and keto eating plans. The texture changes slightly without the crust. You get something closer to a thick frittata, but the flavor profile stays the same.
Making crustless quiche is straightforward. You grease a pie dish, pour the egg and cream mixture directly in with your fillings, and bake. No rolling dough, no blind baking. It’s actually easier than the traditional version.
Your Cream Choice Matters
The liquid you mix with your eggs affects the carb count more than you might expect. Heavy whipping cream has just 0.85 grams of carbs per fluid ounce. Half-and-half comes in at 1.3 grams per ounce. Whole milk, by contrast, contains about 23 grams of carbs in a 16-ounce glass, which works out to roughly 1.5 grams per ounce.
A typical quiche recipe calls for 1 to 1.5 cups of liquid. Swapping whole milk for heavy cream in that amount saves you 3 to 5 grams of carbs across the entire dish. It also makes the custard richer and more velvety. For low-carb purposes, heavy cream is the clear winner.
Best Low-Carb Fillings
Most vegetables you’d naturally put in a quiche are already low in carbs. Good options include:
- Spinach: virtually no carbs and wilts down into the custard nicely
- Mushrooms: about 1 gram of net carbs per half cup
- Broccoli: around 4 grams of net carbs per cup of florets
- Zucchini: roughly 2.5 grams of net carbs per cup
- Asparagus: about 2 grams of net carbs per cup
The fillings to watch out for are potatoes (obviously), caramelized onions in large quantities, and sweet peppers if used generously. A small amount of diced onion or garlic for flavor won’t meaningfully change your carb count, but half a cup of onion adds about 5 grams of net carbs to the whole dish.
For protein, bacon, ham, sausage, and smoked salmon all work without adding carbs. Cheese is essentially free in carb terms. Gruyère, cheddar, goat cheese, and feta are all solid picks.
Commercial Quiche Is Higher in Carbs
Store-bought and restaurant quiche almost always includes a crust and sometimes adds flour to the filling as a thickener. A Starbucks spinach and mushroom quiche, for example, contains about 24 grams of carbs in a 200-gram serving. Frozen quiches from the grocery store tend to fall in a similar range, between 20 and 30 grams per serving.
If you’re eating out and want to keep carbs low, some restaurants will make a crustless version on request, or you can simply eat the filling and leave the crust behind. You’ll lose some of the dish, but you’ll also lose most of the carbohydrates.
Making Quiche Work on a Low-Carb Diet
The simplest approach is to skip the crust entirely. If you want something crust-like, a few popular substitutions exist. A crust made from almond flour and butter typically adds only 2 to 3 grams of net carbs per slice. Coconut flour works similarly. Some recipes press cooked cauliflower into the bottom of the pan as a crust substitute, adding minimal carbs while giving you something to cut through.
A well-made crustless quiche with heavy cream, eggs, cheese, and low-carb vegetables lands between 3 and 7 net carbs per slice depending on your fillings. That makes it one of the easier meals to fit into a low-carb routine, and it reheats well for several days, making it practical for meal prep.