quiche for a picnic

Silken tofu is my new best friend. I’ve been making all sorts of things with it – mayonnaise, cheesecakes, scrambled ‘eggs’. You name it, silken tofu can do it.

I went to a birthday picnic last Sunday and decided to make a quiche to take along.
I think quiches are pretty easy to put together and they keep really well for later use like picnics and lunchboxes. They are infinitely flexible too, using up all kinds of vegetables to add flavour. The ‘egg’ is – you guessed it – silken tofu. I used an olive oil pastry made in a food processor in about 1 minute. I’m still working on improving the pastry, I think it is a bit too hard when cooked, but it is delightfully easy to handle and roll out.

I’ve recently made two flavours of quiche, a mushroom one,  and a caramelised onion, carrot and tofu ‘feta’ cheese one (a great recipe for tofu feta can be found here).  Both were delicious. The mushroom one is the one in the photograph above, which I scoffed over the last few days. The onion, carrot and ‘feta’ one I took to the picnic. I think the carrot one is my favourite. The combination of sweet carrot and onion with the saltiness of the feta is hard to beat.

quiche

 

Print

prep time

20 mins

cook time

50 mins

total time

1 hour 10 mins

 

author: quincesandkale

recipe type: savoury

serves: 8

ingredients

• 1 quantity olive oil pastry
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 large onion (diced)
• 2 cloves garlic (crushed)
• 2 large carrots (peeled and grated)
• 1 pinch salt
• 50g tofu fetta cubes (either commercial or home made)
• 400g silken tofu
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• ¼ cup water or stock
• 11/2 tablespoons cornflour
• ½ teaspoon turmeric (for colour)

instructions

1. Heat the olive oil in a pan and add the onions and cook until softened and starting to brown.
2. Add the garlic to the pan and fry for 30 seconds to a minute, taking care not to burn it.
3. Add the grated carrot and continue to fry for another 5 minutes until well wilted.
4. Put the tofu, soy sauce, cornflour and turmeric into a blender with ¼ cup of water or stock. Blend until very smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt/pepper/soy.
5. Meanwhile, roll out the pastry and put into a quiche pan. Spray or brush with olive oil and bake for 10-15 minutes in a 175 degree C oven.
6. Remove the pastry from the oven.
7. Add the tofu feta to the pie crust along with the cooked vegetables, distributing evenly.
8. Pour the tofu mixture over the top, smooth and bake for 45-50 minutes at 175 deg C until firm.

notes

I have given a recipe here for a filling made with caramelised onion, carrot and tofu 'feta'. The silken tofu mix can be used with any vegetable flavour combination you like. But you really need to cook the vegetables first, otherwise they tend to leak water which then upsets the texture of the filling. Some of my favourite combinations are:

mushrooms cooked with caramelised onions, dried porcini mushrooms and truffle oil for a big hit of mushroom flavour (this is the one in the photo)

steamed potato, wilted spinach, caramelised onion and vegusto cheese

roasted vegetables such as cauliflower, pumpkin and capsicum

Let your imagination run riot...frozen corn, peas, tomatoes, broccoli, eggplant, kale in the vegetable mix, liquid smoke, chipotle peppers, nutritional yeast as seasoning in the tofu...leave the pastry off and cook them in muffin tins for little frittata...

3.2.2260