This is surprisingly easy to veganise for a dish that is usually very egg-y! If you are lucky enough to live somewhere where you can buy vegan pre-made pastry then this is really easy to make.
The pastry is a standard shortcrust pastry, but instead of butter use a vegan butter, margarine or a solid coconut oil. Pastry is best make with a fat which is cold, so use it straight out from the fridge. My coconut oil is usually totally liquid, Jakarta being a hot place, so I put some in the fridge and it solidified really quickly, and worked really well.
Here is a link to a basic vegan pastry recipe from the BBC.
For the quiche veggies you can use any number of combinations, the same as for an egg-quiche:
- Leek and mushroom
- Spinach and mushroom
- Zucchini and red pepper
- Onion, peas and corn
Take your pick, or make up something different.
Now we come to the magic part – how to make the “egg” part of the quiche without egg? The answer is tofu. Blend a 250g block tofu together with the 2 magic vegan ingredients: 3 tablespoons of nutritional yeast, 1/2 teaspoon of kala namak (black salt)) and 1/2 teaspoon each of garlic powder and onion powder. How thick the mixture comes out will depend on how wet/soft your tofu is, but I wouldn’t worry too much about which kind you use as you can always add a little plant based milk to thin it out. Don’t add too much milk as the mixture won’t set in the same way egg will through the cooking process, so you just want it runny enough to mix in through the vegetables well.
To make the quiche: prepare the pastry and pre-bake for 15 mins in a pie dish, lightly stir-fry the filling vegetables, stir the tofu mixture into the vegetables, fill the pastry and bake for another 30mins at 200degC.
Even non-vegans will be impressed with how good this is! Give it a try….
Letter from Jakarta. 