I’ve nearly stopped buying bacon altogether instead favoring bacon ends and pieces. It’s rare that I eat bacon for the sake of eating bacon (like with eggs or pancakes). I’m usually buying it for a recipe with bacon as the star of the show or even a side act. Bacon ends and pieces are significantly cheaper than slices of bacon (like half price!) and the stuff that I buy at my local Von’s is almost always made mostly of normal sized pieces of bacon. They might be cut in half or have a bit more fat on them but neither bothers me.
I was looking for a quiche-like recipe that used bacon and I wanted the Quiche crust to be grain-free. I found an awesome looking Bacon Tart recipe at Redbook Magazine. That was my inspiration for the below recipe.
jalapeno crust ingredients.
- 1 ¼ c. blanched almond flour
- ½ tsp. sea salt
- 1 large egg
- ¼ c. all-vegetable shortening, coconut oil or grass-fed butter
- 1 large jalapeno or Serrano pepper, diced small
jalapeno crust directions.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- In a food processor, pulse together the almond flour and salt. Pulse in the egg and shortening, then pulse in the shallots until the dough forms a ball. Press the dough evenly into the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch metal tart pan with a removable bottom or a pie pan.
- Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the crust is golden. Remove from the oven and let cool completely before filling.
filling ingredients.
- 1 lb organic bacon
- 6 oz canned crab meat (or freshly cooked if you have it!)
- 8 scallions, white and green parts, thinly sliced (about 1 cup)
- 8 large eggs (organic, cage-free, etc.)
- ½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tsp. sea salt
- 1 pre-baked jalapeno crust (recipe below)
filling directions.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- In a large skillet, cook the bacon over medium-high heat until lightly browned, 4 to 6 minutes. Remove the bacon from the skillet and, when cool enough to handle, dice or tear apart. Pile into the prepared pie crust. Top with crab meat.
- Pour off and discard the fat from the skillet. Return the minced bacon to the skillet, add the scallions, and sauté for 3 minutes.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, pepper, and salt. Stir in the scallions, then pour the mixture into the prepared crust on top of the bacon and crab.
- Bake the tart for 35 to 45 minutes, until browned around the edges and cooked through. Let cool for 20 minutes, then serve.
I was a bit wary of how this dish was going to turn out because of the crust. I used coconut oil and it didn’t seem to brown in the oven when I was doing the pre-baking. At the end, the crust stuck a bit to the sides of the pie pan, but other than that I thought the crust didn’t turn off half bad for not having any real flour in it.
The original crust called for minced shallot. I sometimes have minced shallot on hand but today I did not. I did have a Serrano pepper that was beginning to shrivel. So I decided to use that instead. The pepper gave the crust and the dish a nice kick.
I got seven slices from this pie but I think you could get 6 or 8 depending on how big you slice them, how little or how much you want to eat. After the fact, I decided I should have diced up some avocado to eat on top of the slice of pie, which is what I will do when I eat my leftovers this week.
Recipe rating:
Food Snob 