Sausage Zwiebelkuchen (GF, LC)

Author Notes

I was inventing this on the fly, late one afternoon. I wanted to twist up the pepper, onions, and sausage combination in a new way. First, I was going to whip up some cauliflower hash browns and use them as a crust. But when I made the mixture, I included cheese and by the looks of it, I decided to just line the bottom of a large pan and pre-bake it for toppings. I had decided on the combination of bulk sausage and links. And I wanted to make a vegetable layer and a cheese layer (in some order, but I only decided at the last minute which way to go with that). When I mixed the ricotta, cheeses and eggs, I was well on the way to a quiche custard, so I first layered the pepper and onions onto the crust, then poured the cheese mixture, then distributed the meat.

I was deciding what to name this thing while I was eating it, and I found out that the Germans make something called a Zwiebelkuchen (onion cake), and that kuchen is the etymological origin of the work quiche. The Zwiebelkuchen is either made either flat or deep-dish, starting with a pastry crust that contains caraway seeds – proof positive that I did not know of these Zwiebelkuchen, because adding caraway seeds to the crust is a simply awesome idea. A ton of caramelized onions are added to the crust, which is then covered by an egg and sour cream mixture and topped with a meat.

I made a cauliflower crust based on some cauliflower hash brown recipes. I used pepper and onions for the vegetable layer and a ricotta/cheese/egg mixture for the custard. Then I topped it all with a mixture of the bulk sausage and sausage slices, with a sprinkle of cheese at the end.

A 2.5 x 3.5 inch slice, 1/16 of the 9x13 pan, clocks in at only 350 calories with 10g total carbs (4g of which are sugars that mostly come from the onions). —Brian Coppola