Quiche is a popular cold summer lunch in England, often served with salad or as a packed lunch or picnic treat. But most most store-bought quiche is made with factory-farmed eggs and bacon. So whether you are vegan, vegetarian or omnivore, try making your own quiche. Once mastered, this will become a lovely lunch time staple, with no plastic packaging or palm oil.
This Easy Vegan Quiche (Rainbow Nourishments) includes a simple homemade crust filled with a blend of tofu, plant milk, vegan cheese, tomatoes, garlic/onion powder and ‘eggy-tasting Indian black salt. Top with caramelized onions and grated vegan cheese.
Before cooking, read up on food safety for people and pets. Don’t give leftover quiche to dogs, due to salt and other unsafe ingredients.
For ingredients packaging, most councils and supermarket bag bins now accept all soft plastics for recycling.
Learning to cook your own simple plant-based recipes is peaceful politics in action. You don’t have to be vegan to whip up a plant-based meal. Which gives less profits to the supermarket ready-meal industry, costs less, uses less packaging and tastes better!
If you’re not a natural cook, just keep trying a few good recipes. Once you’ve mastered them, you’ll have a small repertoire of meals that you enjoy, to make again and again. Most of us only eat the same nine or so meals most of the time. So it won’t be long before you’re eating mostly home-cooked meals, which taste good and do good!
Ingredients for Vegan Quiche
Most store-bought pastry contains palm oil. So make this vegan pastry (Doves Farm) by mixing cold vegan block butter with plain flour, a pinch of salt and water. Leave the dough to stand for 15 minutes (away from children and pets), then roll out on a floured surface.
Organic Tofoo (made in Yorkshire) makes a good protein-rich filling for quiche. It has no taste, so absorbs the flavours of whatever you marinate it with. Blended with oat drink, this makes the ‘batter’ which you use to coat your veggies (try onion, spinach, mushrooms or peppers). Add grated vegan cheese, seasonings and a little turmeric for colour.
How to Prepare Vegan Quiche
- Make your homemade pastry crust, roll out the dough and press into a greased pie dish, trimming the edges for a neat finish. Prebake if needed, to stop it going soggy from the filling.
- Drain and press tofu, then blend with above ingredients, until smooth. Saute vegetables, cool and stir into the batter.
- Pour filling into crust, smooth the top with a spatula. Bake for around half an hour, until top is set and slightly golden.
Let the quiche cool for around 10 minutes, before slicing. Keep leftovers for up to a few days in the fridge, in an airtight container. If you don’t want salad, serve quiche with roasted potatoes.
A Few Simple Vegan Quiche Recipes
This vegan quiche (Ela Vegan) is made with onion, peppers, leek and spinach, and homemade pastry made with chickpea flour. To get fancy, mix in vegan cheese and plant-based bacon!
These Vegan Quiche Muffins (Jessica in the Kitchen) are made with tomatoes and spinach. They’re a little more work, but then you don’t have the bother of making pastry. Leftover mini quiches can be stored in the fridge for a few days, in an airtight container. You can also freeze them for up to 3 months in a reusable silicone freezer bag.
This Quiche Recipe (Mississippi Vegan) makes use of store-bought vegan egg (this blogger uses a different brand as he’s from the Deep South, y’all!) Along with onion, spinach, tomatoes, vegan cheese and dill, plus a little nutmeg (so don’t give any leftovers to pets). Top with vegan shredded cheese (the recipe has a variation for a vegan bacon shallot quiche).
Crack’d Vegan Quiche Recipes
Crack’d makes a pea protein vegan egg replacement (rich in vitamin B12 and D). Its own ready-made quiche contains palm oil, but it has two good recipes to make your own, using their product: Mediterranean Quiche (tomato, garlic, broccoli, vegan cheese) or Coronation Quiche (spinach, tinned broad beans, vegan cheese, nutmeg).
