Turmeric, Thyme & Tomato with Red Onion Vegan Quiche

This quiche is the reason I haven’t been dropping off to sleep so easily for the last few nights!

How do I make the base gluten-free?  How will it all hold together without crumbling apart? How can I make the filling of tofu and gram flour not taste bland? What will the key flavours be? How will I keep the tomatoes from loosing their beautiful colour during cooking? How can I make it healthy but without compromising on the taste? And on the questions went! I am so rock and roll you know 😉 Good job it was a Sunday to Wednesday when the majority of my thinking was happening because thinking about vegan quiches on a Saturday night is really not cool – even at my age haha!

SO! Here is the delicious and amazing and fabulous result of all that thinking! Meet – my QUICHE!

In answer to all those questions, my top tips for making this quiche are as follows;

1. Just follow my recipe so you do not have to lose any sleep over it, as I did.

And that’s it! Easy right?!

OK, not quite because you still have to make the quiche but it really is an easy recipe and considering it involves pastry and baking, it’s actually fail-proof because there’s no rolling of pastry, no chilling in the fridge or pastry making blunders to avoid, you simply create the crumb using the base ingredients and use your hands and the back of a spoon to press the base into place until all compact, bake blind (that baking it before you put the filling on top) to set it so that you do not get any soggy bottoms 😉

The ‘pastry’ base is made with all healthy, wholefood ingredients such as buckwheat flour, oats (certified gluten-free if required), ground hazelnuts, coconut oil, gram flour, plus some sesame seeds for extra nuttiness and crunch.

The filling is super high in plant protein from the tofu and gram flour, and is flavoured from wholegrain mustard, nutritional yeast flakes, garlic and a pinch of kala namak salt.  Kala namak salt gives it an authentic ‘eggy’ taste and smell.  If you do not have it, leave it out, don’t go rushing on Amazon to buy a kilo bag because that would last you forever! You only need 1/2 tsp so if you have it, use it and if not, don’t lose any sleep over it (there’s a theme going on here Zzzzz…!)

That’s the base of the vegan quiche.  You could, of course, use this base with a combination of many different veggies, depending on what is in season.  I was lucky to have a whole box of beautiful heirloom tomatoes sent to me so I have been using those in various recipes and meals all week and I will be sad when I run out because they are really beautiful to work with and tastes incredibly delicious!  You can use any type of tomato you have available.

There’s extra flavour added from the fresh thyme and a generous drizzle of balsamic vinegar and a scattering of sesame seeds and ground black pepper.

Begin by making the pastry base.

You will need;

1. buckwheat flour
2. oats
3. hazelnuts
4. sesame seeds
5. coconut oil
6. maple syrup
7. gram flour (chickpea flour)
8. salt
9. water

Process the hazelnuts to a fine crumb texture in a food processor.  You could sub the hazelnuts for almonds or ground almonds.

Then pour the ground hazelnuts into a large bowl and add the buckwheat flour, oats, sesame seeds, gram flour and salt.

Melt the coconut oil gently in a pan and add the maple syrup. Gradually pour the melted oil and syrup over the flour mixture and work quickly with a spoon to mix until you reach a crumb-like texture and no dry flour remains – scrape down the sides of the bowl until all ingredients are combined.

Now, add the water and continue to stir and combine well.

Pour the mixture into the flan baking dish (my dish measures 35cm dia – adjust the quantity of the ingredients to suit your size of dish).

Press the mixture flat and up the sides of the dish until evenly spread.  Smooth out with the back of a spoon.

Bake the base blind (without the filling) in a pre-heated oven for 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven ready for the filling.

While the base is baking in the oven.  Wash out the food processor jug (if used from the hazelnuts).  Add the drained tofu, gram flour, mustard, nutritional yeast flakes, kala namak salt (if using), garlic and 1 cup water.

Process until smooth.

Pour the filling into the base and smooth out using the back of a spoon or spatula.

Top with the sliced red onion and tomatoes, ensuring the topping is generous to provide maximum flavour per slice!

Bake in the oven for a further 20-25mins until baked through and turning golden.

 

Remove from the oven and add sprigs of fresh thyme, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and a scattering of sesame seeds before serving.

Serve alone or with green salad leaves.

This recipe will serve 6 portions.