Spinach and Tomato Vegan Quiche
Course: Lunch Servings: 12
Prep time: 20 min Cook time: 1 hour in total (including the pastry)
Difficulty level: A little effort
Author: Jennifer Sargison
This recipe will amaze you! A delicious quiche made without eggs or dairy, you have got to try this. Perfect for those of you who eat a plant-based diet or are intolerant to eggs or dairy.
You will need to prepare part of this recipe the night before as it is made using pre-soaked split mung beans that need to be soaking overnight. The rest of the recipe is pretty easy but it does take some effort so it’s best to save this for when you have a bit more time or if you want to make a delicious dish to impress your family and friends.
Ingredients
For the quiche base
1 cup of split mung beans soaked and rinsed
1/4 teaspoon of black salt (gives a natural eggy flavour)
1/2 teaspoon of asafoetida (or onion powder)
1 teaspoon of turmeric (for a nice yellow colour)
2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast (for flavour)
1 cup of coconut milk from a tin
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Half a cup of gram flour
The rest of the ingredients
1 packet of shop bought shortcrust pastry (I use jus roll as its tasty and vegan)
1 bag of spinach (cooked and cooled) or 5 portions of frozen spinach defrosted - You will also need to squeeze out the excess water.
1 punnet cherry tomatoes cut in half or 4 large tomatoes diced
Method
I’ll divide the process into different parts to make it easier to follow.
Part One
Preheat the oven to 180 C
Line a large deep cake tin with the shortcrust pasty and make sure you leave an over hang of pastry of around 1 cm or so long as the pastry will shrink as it cooks. The over hang of pastry will be cut off after the quiche has cooked so don’t worry if it looks messy.
Prick the base of the pastry with a fork
Prepare to blind bake the pastry
Add a sheet of baking paper on top of the pastry
Pour ceramic baking beans on top of the baking paper (so they don’t get cooked and stuck into the pastry), the beans ensure the pasty stays flat and bakes evenly.
Blind bake for 20 minutes. (it will need an extra 10 mins after the blind bake…see part four)
Part Two
Add all of the quiche base ingredients to a high speed blender and whizz up until smooth.
A word of warning! As this recipe contains black salt to give an eggy flavour the quiche filling will smell REALLY eggy. It’s quite an unpleasant smell, this is totally normal and when cooked the smell disappears and leaves you with a subtle egg flavour.
Part Three
Add the quiche ingredients to a large mixing bowl and add the spinach and tomatoes and slowly stir to combine
Part Four
After 20 minutes of the pastry blind baking remove it from the oven. Remove the ceramic beans and baking paper and cook the pastry again for a further 5 - 10 minutes for the base to crisp up.
The overhand of the pastry may look burnt at this stage but don’t worry as you will cut this off when the while quiche is cooked.
Part five
Once the pastry has crisped up on the bottom and is golden in colour (this ensures no soggy bottom!) remove from the oven
Pour the quiche mixture into the base filling it to the rim. (If you have any left overs you can save it to make a vegan scrambled egg)
Bake for between 25-30 minutes.
Mine took exactly 28 minutes, five minutes prier to that it still wobbled and felt soft to touch. When it’s cooked it will feel spongy and look golden on the top with no jiggle when you gently shake it.
Part six
Leave to cool and set in the tin for 10 minutes or so
Using a sharp knife gently cut of the over hang of pastry (It may look quite burnt at this stage but the rest of the pastry will still be golden as it has been covered with the filling that will have prevented it from burning)
Transfer the quiche onto a serving plate
Slice and enjoy with a nice side salad or your favourite sides.
Good luck with this recipe, I really hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
If you do make this then I hope you love it
Any thoughts or comments?
Leave a message below and I’ll get back to you
Big love, Jen x