Jambalaya Quiche Recipe

I was wanting something "different" for dinner last night, and happened to stop by the Zatarain's section of the gocery store to see what they have.  I was wanting something like a casserole or crockpot-type recipe, heavy on the protein.  The one downside of Zat's stuff for us is that it mostly has rice or pasta (rotini) in it, which of course is a carb and gas no no.  

  This time, though, I spied a recipe at the bottom of the backside of the box of Jambalaya mix, which, except for the rice, sounded downright good and relatively DS friendly, esp seeing how it contains 8 eggs, 2 cups of cheese, a cup of heavy whipping cream, more cheese, ham, etc.    At least you can say the protein is definitely THERE ..      The dish is called Jambalaya Quiche, and here is the recipe from the box:

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 Ingredients:

• 1 (12 ounce) package Zatarain’s Jambalaya Mix
• 1 pound ham cut in 1/2 inch cubes
• 8 eggs
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 cups grated Colby & Monterey Jack cheese
• 4 teaspoons green onions chopped
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese (fresh; not that green can stuff!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare jambalaya mix according to package directions using the ham.  In a separate bowl, beat eggs and whipping cream while adding butter, cheese and green onions.  Blend egg mixture with cooked jambalaya.  Pour mixture into a 9×13 baking dish.  Spread parmesan cheese on top.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.  Allow to cool for 15 minutes before serving.

Serves up to 12.

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  I made it and it came out pretty dang good, like a very dense quiche.     I was surprised that the rice did not seem to cause me much bloat/bas issues.   It was perfect to make with my new electric skilled, which has the pan that detaches from the heater so that it can be put in an oven for baking use too.   I make the Jambalaya mix with the ham as directed in the recipe, let it cool for a few hours in the skillet, and then whipped up the quiche part in a blender, poured it on top of the Jambalaya and mixed it through with a spatula, then popped the skillet into the oven for the baking.  

   The next time I make the dish I think I will double up on the ham part, and use real ham like from a leftover 3-5 lber, rather than just cut up one of those "ham steaks".   The ham steaks have a large amount of water injected into them, hence the cut-up pieces really shrink down when cooked in the recipe.   I would like to use less rice, but with Zat's the rice is packaged with the seasonings/spices, so you can't readily separate out the two, unlike with HH.    Another possibility to get rid of a lot of the carbs would be to use the rotini pasta version of Zat's Jambalaya mix, which makes it easier to pick out and htrow out the pasta, or possibly substitute some Dreamfield's rotini pasta in for it.       Anybody got any other thoughts on this?    

That sounds really yummy.  Let's see...if you wanted to cut out the carbs, you would have to cut out the Zatarains completely.  You may also have to cut down on the liquid...like maybe 1/2 cup of cream instead of a full cup.

When I make Jambalaya, here's what I do:
Sautee diced bell pepper, onion, garlic and celery in a small bit of EVOO.  Once the onions are translucent, I add my kielbassa.  You could probably sub this for the ham (I like it better than ham anyway.)  Just be sure to dice it up pretty well.  Then I add cajun seasoning and a bit of powdered cayenne pepper for heat.  At this point, I add my rice, tomato sauce and liquid but we're trying to eliminate the carbs so we won't do this.

Now you can just add the above to your egg mixture.  I would probably use a full dozen eggs and maybe 1/2 cup of cream since you don't have the rice to fill up the pan and suck up the liquid.  You'll probably want to add some more cajun seasoning to your egg mixture and, since you already have your onions, etc you can probably omit the green onions if you like.

Does this help?

I've substituted Dreamfields a couple of times. If you add the rice/seasonings to liquid, and stir for a while, you can pour off the seasoned liquid to use in your food, and discard the rice. It's a little more work, but gives you a whole lot less carbs.

Paul, I'm so glad to see you working on lower carb versions of foods. This recipe sounds delish. I'll be trying it over the weekend. Thanks.

Joyce

Paul....this sounds really good!  I havent had Jambalaya in years and I am gonna make this this weekend!  So glad that you found something quick and easy and DS friendly!