Description
This delicious Vegan Quiche takes breakfast to a whole new level with a HASH BROWN CRUST, vegan cheese, sun dried tomatoes, and veggies.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
Hash Brown Crust
- 1 large russet potato (see note 2)
- 1 large sweet potato
- 2 tbsp ground flaxseed
- 4 tbsp water
- 1/2 cup potato starch (or cornstarch or arrowroot powder)
- 3 tbsp nutritional yeast (see note 3)
- 1.5 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 3/4 tsp sea salt
Filling
- 1 cup shredded vegan cheddar cheese, homemade or store bought
- 1 14-oz (~400g) package Firm tofu, drained but not pressed
- 3 tbsp garbanzo bean flour OR cornstarch or arrowroot powder (see note 4)
- 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 3-4 tbsp non-dairy milk
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp black salt / kala nemek, optional (for eggy flavor)
- 1/4 tsp turmeric
- 1/4 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
- 1 lb asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1” pieces (see note 5)
- 4-6 green onions / scallions, sliced
- 1 cup sun-dried tomatoes (see note 6)
- 1/2 cup grape or cherry tomatoes, halved, for topping
- 1/4 cup fresh chives, chopped, for topping
Instructions
- Equipment: I made this in a 9” springform cake pan which made it a breeze to get out. You could use a regular cake tin, a pie dish, or really anything that’s kind of deep. I also recommend a nonstick omelette or pancake spatula to help you get it out of the bottom if you desire. If you make it in a pie dish you could just cut the slices out. If you’re using a nonstick pan, try not to cut on it with a knife as you’ll scratch and ruin the nonstick coating.
- Prep beforehand: This may seem like a lot of steps but it’s not so bad. My second tip is to prep all your ingredients ahead of time for lower stress cooking. You can prep the quiche ingredients while the crust is baking.
- Preheat oven and make flax eggs: First preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (177 degrees Celsius) and grease your baking vessel with coconut cream or a neutral oil like avocado (or a spray if you prefer). Make the flax eggs now by mixing the ground flaxseed with water and setting it aside for 5-10 minutes or refrigerating for 3-5 minutes to gel.
- Grate the potatoes: You can peel them if you like, but I just scrubbed them with a vegetable brush and grated them as-is. If your food processor has a grating attachment like mine, you can do this in seconds. I sliced my potatoes in half lengthwise and fed them through. Use the coarse side of the grating plate. If you do not have a machine to do this, you can quickly do it with a hand grater or box grater.
- Remove excess liquid, this step is important: add the grated potatoes to clean kitchen tea towel or paper towels and squeeze as much of the water out as you can. Sometimes my husband spreads them out between two kitchen towels and uses a rolling pin to press out the excess liquid.
- Combine the mixture: Now add the shredded potatoes to a bowl and toss together with the seasonings and nutritional yeast. Now add in the flax eggs and potato starch/cornstarch/arrowroot powder/or flour if you’re not gluten-free. Mix well, with a spatula but maybe then with just your hands. I find that the mixture comes together better when I use my hands. You want the mixture to not be drippy wet, but it should hold together if you press together a ball of it in your hand.
- Make the crust: Add the mixture to your greased baking tin and use a jar or something cylindrical with a flat bottom (not a can with a ridge) and straight side (I used a metal water bottle) to flatten out the bottom of the mixture and press it up the sides of the tin. Try to make it even all the way around, and as thin as you can without seeing the pan underneath. The thinner you make it, the crispier your crust will be.
- Bake the crust: Bake for 25-35 minutes, until the edges are lightly browned and lightly crispy. For a softer crust, stick to the 25 minutes. If you want it even crispier, you can go as long as 45 minutes but it will bake again so try not to overcook it.
- Make the fillings: While the crust bakes, make the filling. After chopping your veggies, add the tofu, non-dairy milk, spices, nutritional yeast, and garbanzo bean flour (or starch powder of choice) to a blender of food processor and blend until smooth. Add to a large bowl and fold in your chopped veggies. Reserve the cherry tomatoes and chives for garnish.
- Assemble the vegan quiche: Once your crust is baked, sprinkle in the shredded vegan cheese in the bottom layer and spread out evenly. Then use a spatula to scrape all of the quiche mixture into the baking pan/dish and press it down lightly and evenly with your spatula. Sprinkle on the chives and press in the halved cherry tomatoes (cut side up so the juices remain in the tomato) and place back in the oven.
- Bake again: Bake the quiche uncovered for 40-60 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit (177 degrees Celsius). That is a long time range because the quiche is fully cooked at 40-45 ish minutes, but you can choose to cook it longer if you want the crust crispier. Let the quiche rest in the tin 10-15 minutes before attempting to remove it or serve it.
- Like it crispier? If you want the crust REALLY crispy, you can remove the quiche from the pan entirely, place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, and bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit (205 degrees Celsius) for 10-15 minutes.
- Serve: Enjoy on its own or topped with hot sauce or salsa. I love this with a bit of Cholula. This quiche is great cold or warm. It’s easy to reheat cold quiche, so you could make this a day in advance if making it for a special occasion, then just pop it in the oven until reheated and serve!
- Store: Refrigerate leftovers for up to 5 days in an airtight container or up to 3 months in the freezer. You can reheat in the microwave for softer quiche, or if you prefer crispy, reheat in the oven, toaster oven, or air fryer. We tried the air fryer idea and it was so good! We set it for 375 degrees Fahrenheit (191 degrees Celsius) for 5-6 minutes.
Notes
- Note 1: If you’d prefer to make the quiche in a regular pastry crust, you absolutely may. Try my vegan pie crust or just grab a pre-made one from the store. You can add the vegan cheese and the quiche filling and bake for the recommended time (if making a pastry crust though, you’ll want to blind bake it first).
- Note 2: A blend of sweet potato and russet potato was perfect in this recipe. There’s a bit of sweetness which contrasts nicely with the savory and eggy filling but it’s not overpowering. I really do recommend using a Russet or Idaho potato as opposed to a Yukon gold or red potato which tends to be softer, but you can absolutely try it if you’d like. You can also do all sweet potatoes or all white potatoes. Doesn’t matter really, just keep the proportions the same.
- Note 3: If you don’t want to use nutritional yeast, substitute the same amount of starchy thickener.
- Note 4: Cornstarch (or arrowroot powder or potato starch) makes a softer but creamy, melt-in-your-mouth kind of quiche. Garbanzo bean flour (chickpea flour) makes the whole mixture much thicker, resulting in a firmer quiche. I personally prefer the firmer version, so I wrote the recipe to use garbanzo bean flour but you can definitely substitute the same amount of the thickener of your choice (cornstarch, potato starch, or arrowroot flour).
- Note 5: Substitute any veggies you like such as broccoli, zucchini, bell pepper, cauliflower, spinach, etc. If you’d like to use mushrooms, I highly recommend sautéing those with some garlic and onion first, so they get a lovely flavor, then adding them to the wet vegan egg mixture.
- Note 6: I used the oil-free dried sun dried tomatoes in the plastic package--if using oil-packed jarred sun dried tomatoes, lightly dry with a paper towel before chopping and adding to the quiche mixture.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Blender, oven
- Cuisine: French
Keywords: Vegan, Oil-Free, Gluten-Free, Nut-Free, Sugar-Free, vegan quiche, tofu quiche