Gluten free Shiitake “Bacon” Vegan Quiche
Well, I am finally back with a new recipe. My previous few recipes received a lot of attention, and I felt a little frozen to try and top them! This may not top the rainbow cookies, but I am excited that I made it. This recipe is adapted from my jalapeño popper quiche I made awhile ago here.
This recipe is quite nutritious. 1/6 serving has about 15g of protein, 325g potassium. It also contains 19% zinc (which I have a hard time getting in my diet), 14% iron, 122% b-12, 20% calcium (depending on the vegan milk you use), and is also a good source of folate, B-6, Riboflavin and Thiamin because of the nutritional yeast.
The Shiitake bacon:
I am now quite smitten! In fact, I think it is the closest us vegans have come to replicating the texture of actual bacon. I have adapted my recipe from Chloe Coscarelli…her recipe requires a pound of shiitake (which would cost me at least $10, probably more) and I can only seem to find 3.5 oz containers of sliced shiitake near me. It is so good though. And it is not even fried! I like it by itself, in her Carbonara recipe (http://chefchloe.com/entrees/pasta-carbonara-with-shiitake-bacon.html), and now in this quiche, which is the perfect place for it!
Ingredients:
- 3.5-4 oz sliced shiitake mushrooms
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ¼ tsp sea salt
- 1/8 tsp ground black pepper
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Place mushrooms in a ziplock bag. Add in the oil and salt and pepper.
- Seal bag and shake until mushrooms are coated.
- Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes.
- Flip over.
- Bake for another 10 minutes.
- Voila! They should be simultaneously crispy and chewy (the smaller, thinner pieces will be more crispy, and the thicker bigger pieces chewier)
- Use for whatever reason or in the quiche recipe below.
Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Pie Crust
I am back to eating gluten free after majorly slipping up during the holidays. I have been using this packaged pie crust dry blend for awhile, and I have adapted the rest of the ingredients and directions more to my liking. I do love this product and it makes gluten free pies much easier but the method for using it could use some improvement. In the past when I followed their directions, I often found myself working with a very crumbly crust that was almost impossible to roll out and use without it cracking or worse. I have been thinking of ways to make it better and more like an actual pastry pie crust, and this seems to have worked.
Ingredients:
- A bag of Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Pie Crust Dry Mix
- 12 tbsp Earth Balance Sticks (1.5 sticks total)
- 8 tbsp coconut oil
- 6 tbsp water
Directions:
- Pour the dry mix into a food processor.
- Cut up the Earth Balance into small pieces and place into the food processor. Do not process yet!
- Place the coconut oil into the processor by each tablespoon at a time.
- Process until a smooth somewhat cohesive mixture is formed.
- Take out and place in a large bowl.
- Sprinkle the water over it.
- Use your hands to combine everything together and make it moldable.
- Separate in half. If making the quiche, keep one half out and wrap the other in a disk shape in plastic wrap and keep in the freezer, defrosting before ready to use for another quiche or pie of some type later. If making a double crust pie instead, place the disk in the fridge for 30 minutes before using.
BEHOLD! THE QUICHE!!
Ingredients:
- ½ recipe Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Pie Crust as prepared above
- 1 lb firm tofu
- 1 tbsp Ener-g Egg Replacer (do not add water to it!)
- ½ cup nutritional yeast
- ¼ cup plain almond milk or another favorite vegan milk substitute
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- ¼ tsp Indian Black Salt (optional, it makes it have an eggier flavor. When searching for this, please note it is actually a pink color and not black) If you can’t find it, place ¼ tsp of your favorite salt instead
- ¼ tsp sea salt
- ½ Daiya cheddar shreds
- 1 3.5 oz batch of shiitake bacon as provided above
Directions:
- Spread half the prepared pie crust into a deep dish pie pan with your fingers. Try your best to make it even across the pan and up the sides.
- Let sit in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Place pie crust with several fork stabs to the bottom in the oven for 10 minutes.
- Prepare the filling by placing the tofu, egg replacer, nutritional yeast, and plain vegan milk in a food processor. Blend together until smooth.
- Add the onion powder, turmeric, and black salt, and process until combined, scraping down the sides with a rubber spatula a few times to really incorporate everything.
- Scoop out into a large bowl and fold in the Daiya cheese and shiitake bacon until they are evenly dispersed throughout.
- Spread into the prepared pan with the pie crust in it.
- Bake for 30 minutes.
- Take out of the oven and allow to cool for a bit (10-15 minutes…although it is easier to cut when you wait longer) before digging in! Enjoy!
Banana Curl, Vegan Girl 