Real vegans eat quiche

Julia Child probably never had a dairy-free, eggless quiche in mind when she brought French cooking into the American mainstream, but in 2008 even vegans can eat a really delicious quiche. Yesterday afternoon Ben and I came up with this recipe for a vegan one. He made the pie crust while I worked on creating a filling that would have the right texture and firmness, and when it was all done, and we sat down to sup, I braced myself: a tofu quiche is exactly the sort of recipe that could easily take half a dozen attempts to get right.

But we got lucky, because our experimental French cuisine turned out without a flaw, unlike the dish we'd planned to prepare as a simple accompaniment to the quiche (here's a hint: it could have been called "potatoes au verre"--ouch!).

Here's our quiche recipe, followed by a photo of my sweet husband making a pie crust.

Vegan Quiche

1 bottom-only pie crust, store-bought or your favorite recipe
3 T olive oil
1/3 c. thinly sliced onion
1 1/2 c. broccoli, chopped
3/4 c. mushrooms, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
12 oz. firm or extra-firm tofu (not silken), pressed
1/2 block Follow Your Heart soy cheddar
1/2 c. nutritional yeast
2 T water
1 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper
1/2 t. dried basil
1 c. fresh spinach, not packed down

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a large pan, sautee the onion, broccoli, mushrooms, and garlic in the olive oil, covered, for about 8 minutes. Don't let the broccoli get too tender, because it will continue cooking in the oven. In a food processor, combine the tofu, soy cheddar, nutritional yeast, water, salt, pepper, and basil. Blend well and spoon into the pan of vegetables. Remove from stove and stir in the fresh spinach.

Pour the filling into the pie crust and bake about 30 minutes. Remove from oven when the center is done. Allow it to set for five minutes or so to firm up. And now, an action shot: