Our Veggie Kitchen

I haven't used lard in years and years, or so I thought. Then I learned that the refrigerated pie crusts have lard in them. I hopped in the car and checked out my local grocery stores. Yep, every brand that every store carried had lard. How does the rest of the world synthesize the creamy goodness that is quiche with the rendering of pig parts? I won't understand.

That got me exploring for alternatives. The first obvious option is to make your own. I hear it's easy and I'll have to take your word for it. My wife will sometime make one for me though. The second is frozen. After some checking, many frozen pie crusts are animal free but most have trans fat. I've played with frozen hash browns, tossed in a bit of Earth Balance and that works relatively well. I've also been tossing around the idea of a hearty frittata, which I'll explore some more.



Anyway, you can find a thousand tofu quiches on the web and here's another one. It's basically my rendition of Susan's Quiche at fatfreevegan.com. Broccoli and mushroom make look and taste nice together and it's got a nice 'eggy' quality.

Broccoli Mushroom Quiche
1 frozen pie crust (watch for lard)
12 oz firm silken tofu
1/4 cup soy milk
1 tbs cornstarch
2 tbs nutritional yeast
1/4 tsp ground mustard
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp Indian black salt (preferred) or salt
2 cups broccoli florets
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
1 clove garlic
2 green onions, whites only, sliced thin

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Bring about 1/2 cup water to boil in a sauce pan. Add broccoli and mushrooms, cover and cook on high until the broccoli is bright green, 2 or 3 minutes. Remove cover and cook until the remaining liquid is steamed off. Add the garlic and green onions and cook for a minute longer, until the garlic becomes aromatic. Blend the remaining ingredients.

Spread the veggies across the bottom of the pie dish and pour the tofu over the top. Bake until the tofu is firm, and you can insert a butter knife and pull it out clean, about 45 minutes.