Vegan roast vegetable quiche

A friend was a having a party and needed to cater for some vegans, so I offered to help! I'm not vegan myself but I'm always keen to try new things, and this was surprisingly good. It was certainly devoured in two minutes flat! I would totally bet that if I'd not said anything, no-one would've known it didn't contain eggs! And it's actually simpler than making an egg-based quiche, which is all too easy to overcook. This recipe is much more forgiving.

I made a bit of a mess of the vegan pastry using vegetable fat. I used Trex which allegedly makes "perfect pastry" but I think the fat content is higher than butter, so my first attempt went horribly wrong. Fortunately, cheap packaged shortcrust pastry is made entirely with vegetable fat so that's a far simpler way to satisfy a hungry vegan!

• 2 courgettes, sliced into rings
• 1 medium onion, cut into thin wedges
• 1 bell pepper, sliced
• A few slices of salad tomato (for topping)
• 350g firm tofu
• 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 3 tbsp gram flour
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 tsp thyme
• 4 sundried tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 1 quantity dairy-free shortcrust pastry

1. Chop the vegetables, toss in bowl with a slosh of oil of your choice, and roast on a baking tray at 200C for about 30 minutes, until lightly roasted.
2. Meanwhile in a food processor (or with a wooden spoon if you're feeling energetic), whizz up the tofu, yeast, flour and garlic to a smooth mixture. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
3. Roll out your pastry, grease a loose-bottomed flan tin and line it with the pastry, leaving a little bit of pastry hanging over the edges.
4. Remove your veggies from the oven when they're done, and leave to cool.
5. Turn the oven down to 180C, and blind bake the pastry for about 15 minutes.
6. Pick out a few pieces of pepper, onion and courgette to decorate the top, and roughly chop the rest into big chunks.
7. When the pastry's done, remove from the oven, leave to cool a bit, then trim the excess pastry with a sharp knife.
8. Mix your pseudo-eggy tofu filling in a bowl with the cooled vegetables, sundried tomatoes and thyme, then pour the mixture into the pastry case.
9. Decorate the top with your vegetables, and a few slices of tomato.
10. Bake in the oven at 180C for 30 minutes until cooked and set.

Variations

This is a good base for any kind of vegan quiche or flan. Asparagus is particularly good, mushrooms, tomatoes.

Wholemeal pastry adds extra flavour and texture, as do finely chopped nuts and seeds in the pastry mix.

Tomato bean salad

Part of the reason I write down these recipes is just for myself - I invent something random that's so nice I want to make it again! This is a simple bean salad I made to use up some leftover pasta sauce and some cooked beans. Yum.

I served it with a simple carrot and ginger salad that's very nice though hardly worth writing a separate recipe for! (Grated carrot, grated ginger, splash of rice wine vinegar, simple.)

• 1 quantity tomato pasta sauce
• 1 can borlotti beans (or cooked equivalent)
• 2 juicy tomatoes, skinned and chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 spring onions, roughly chopped
• Half tsp smoked paprika
• Glug of red wine vinegar
• A few sundried tomatoes, chopped
• Slosh of oil from the sundried tomato jar
• Lots of salt & pepper
• Inch of my seitan chorizo, in chunks

It's really as simple as stirring it all together! The oil and vinegar are the dressing so add as much as you like. Taste it and season generously, then leave for at least an hour in the fridge. Taste it again for seasoning before serving.

Variations

Really any haricot-type beans will do. Red peppers make a nice addition. Fresh herbs parsley or basil would go great in this, I didn't have any to hand.

My vegan seitan gives extra flavour and texture but isn't necessary. Give it a go though!