Zucchini & Cherry Tomato Quiche version 1.1

So, for whatever reason, I had the biggest urge to try and make a vegan quiche the other day. It was an urge that stuck with me all day and dragged me out of the house and out to the store for supplies. I had never made a quiche before, but I knew of recipes that use tofu instead of eggs. So I just kinda added things until everything felt "right."

Having said that, this is more of a prototype recipe in this current state...and by that I mean: no amounts, no measuring, just a basic list of stuff I used. I will remake this very very soon because I want to eat more of it, and....I want to get a real recipe for this written down.

Ok, you have been warned! Enter at your own risk, but doing so may result in awesome deliciousness!

Things I used:
1 block of firm tofu
1 pint of cherry tomatoes
3 small zucchini
1 small onion
garlic - chopped
soy creamer
salt/pepper/all purpose veggie seasoning
nutmeg - fresh grated
nutritional yeast
grated veggie parmesan
1 tsp. curry powder
fresh basil
corn starch
olive oil
1 pie crust

ok...I hope those are all of the ingredients I used and am not forgetting anything. So, start out by chopping up your garlic and adding it to a hot pan with a bit of olive oil. While your garlic is cooking, slice your zucchini into about 1/4 inch slices, and then cut into halves. Add to your garlic. Finely chop up your onion, and add to garlic and veggies. Turn to a lower heat.

While veggies cook ( do not over cook since they are still going to cook in the oven), cut your tofu into managable sized chunks and put about 1/2 into the food processor. Or if you have a really big, fancy food processor...go ahead and throw all of the tofu in there. As if starts to look more like a paste, add your soy creamer....I would say I added maybe 1/4 cup to each half? Again...I'm sorry for my lack of amounts here...this was purely a test case! Back to the quiche.....add the soy creamer and blend so it is a nice, thick but creamy texture. Put this into a medium to large sized bowl, and repeat this for the rest of the tofu. Add to bowl. Turn off heat on the veggies and set aside.

I began by adding a tiny bit of curry powder, about 1 tsp, I mainly did this for the color and usually use tumeric for this, but I didn't have any and this worked fine. Season with salt, pepper, veggie seasonings to your taste. I also added a bt of italian seasoning for mine, which includes some hot pepper flakes...yum! Add your veggies to this mixture...and reseason if neccissary. Grate your nutmeg into the mixture, I would say I added about 1 - 2 tsp. to mine, but then again, I really like nutmeg....it's quite a strong flavor so be careful and try the mixture as you go.

I added maybe 1/2 - 3/4 of a cup of nutritional yeast. Stirred in maybe 1/4 cup at most of some grated veggie parmesan. Then I roughly chopped up about 6 or 7 large fresh basil leaves and mixed those in as well. And the final thing I did was add 2 tsp. of corn starch, so make sure it would thicken up as it baked. Mine turned out ok, but if you want yours a tab firmer, I would go ahead and add around 3 - 4 tsp. of corn starch.

As for a pie crust, mine needs some serious work and attention. I did however make a more savory pie crust using a mixture of flour and wheat flour, and adding spices and herbs into the crust as well. For things like this, I really like savory crusts a whole lot better than just a sweeter, store bought crust. Hopefully, I will soon have a good pie crust recipe to match my future, complete quiche recipe!

Anyways...back to the quiche......when everything is seasoned to your taste, pour it into your pie crust.


Also, you want to pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees. I topped mine with some additional slices of cherry tomatoes that I had set aside for this. I sprinkled the top with some veggie parmesan and put it in the over. Bake for about 40 - 45 minutes or until the top of your quiche looks like it has an almost crispy layer.

Let cool for a few minutes so it has a chance to set, and won't be a runny mess on your plate. If you want it to look all fancy, add a bit of fresh basil to each slice of quiche served...it looks really, really pretty against the bright red of the tomatoes.

Eat. Enjoy. Repeat.

So, once again, I am determined to start up this thing again. My day has been filled with productivity, photos, logging and organizing a lot of things. I finally am one step closer to having actual pictures up on my ravelry of my projects that I have completed forever ago.

Hence, my interest in this blog again. I wanted to share a really easy and fairly quick bread recipe I made this morning. Its my first go at bread, and I was surprised at how nicely it turned out!
I think this is a great basic recipe, and I am looking forward to tweeking it, adding things to it ( sunflower seeds, caraway seeds, subbing rye flour for regular flour, etc). Also, I used my lovely, cherished KitchenAid mixer for this.

I used:
3 cups flour
2 tbsp vegan sugar
1.25 cups water
2 tsp salt
1 package of yeast

First, I heated up the water to around 100 degrees, warm enough to active the yeast. Once it got to temp, I poured the water into the mixing bowl and added the yeast, gave it a little stir as I added in the sugar.

Then I set the KitchenAid to mix around 2, as I added in about half of the flour and let it mix for about 2 minutes or until the flour seemed to be mostly worked in. Then I gradually added in the rest of the flour.

As I was doing this, I preheated my oven at the lowest temp for a few minutes, then turned it off, making it just warm enough for the dough to rise. Once, everything was mixed up, I put the dough in a large bowl, covered it, and put it in the warmed up over for about 40-45 minutes.

After the dough rises, I placed the dough on a lightly floured cutting board and made sure to flour my hands as well, since the dough can be a tad sticky.

After shaping the dough, I put it into a flat baking dish, which I also sprinkled with flour. I let it bake at 350 degrees for about 45-50 minutes. The crust turned out nice and the inside was soft. I would maybe bake it a bit longer next time to get a bit of an extra crispy, crust.

Happy Baking!