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For people going vegan, the hardest part of their journey is often pressure from family (whether real or perceived) to conform to tradition––especially when a holiday rolls around. All of those old buttery favorites evoke temptation, and explaining your new vegan lifestyle can start to feel like a burden. I experienced this when I first became vegan 12 years ago. Not touching the sweet potato pie was torture, and it made me question my resolve.
The hardest things to give up in life are our habits, especially with food, and especially if that food is connected to family and culture.
When you become vegan you need not sacrifice all of the delicious things that connect you to your people. Traditions are beautiful and important, and they can be altered without losing a single pinch of goodness and love. Replace animal products with compassionate plant-based alternatives in favorite dishes. Share them with your family and a fresher tradition can be born. Quiche, for example, was a dish my mother always loved and made when I was growing up. I simply replaced the eggs with tofu and the cheese with nutritional yeast. We can both enjoy it again!
One could argue that Jesus himself was a vegetarian, so in the spirit of compassion for all of God’s creatures, let’s enjoy a vegan Easter brunch this year. If you’re sharing a meal with family, why not bring a delicious and recognizable dish that everyone will love? I think this vegan broccoli and kale tofu quiche would be a beautiful addition to your table.
Happy Easter!
Vegan Quiche
Ingredients
- 1 store-bought vegan crust, Or homemade crust
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, or other oil
- 1/2 yellow onion, thinly sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 cups broccoli, chopped
- 2 cups kale, chopped & packed
- 1 1/2 cup baby bella mushrooms, or other mushrooms, chopped
- 1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped (soaked ahead of time to soften if necessary)
- 1 tsp Italian spice blend
- 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
- 1/2 tsp chili flakes
- 7 basil leaves, chopped or chiffonade
- 1 package firm tofu
- 1 tsp sea salt , + more to taste
- 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375° and ready your pie crust––if necessary.
- Warm oil in a skillet on medium-high heat, and sauté the onions and garlic. Add about 1/2 tsp of sea salt, and cook until translucent.
- Stir in the rest of the veggies, and sauté until tender, about 8 minutes (careful not to overcook and lose the color). Remove from the heat.
- Stir in the Italian spice blend, fennel, chili flakes, and basil, and season to taste with sea salt.
- While you are sautéing the veggies (or after), you can work on the tofu filling.
- Place the tofu, nutritional yeast, vinegar or lemon, salt, and pepper into a food processor and blend until smooth.
- Spoon the tofu mixture into the cooked veggies, and stir to combine.
- Scoop the tofu and veggie mixture into the pie crust evenly. Bake for 40 minutes.
- Allow it to cool for 10-15 minutes before eating.
I did a trial run on this before serving it next week for Easter brunch. This was a hit with my vegetarian husband; he said he liked the firmer texture than a regular egg quiche. It looks like this will be in regular rotation around our house.
I didn’t have all the ingredients so I made a different version of it. Here’s what I did.
1. Sautéed the onions, garlic then added just chopped brocolli and the spices listed in the recipe.
2. I didn’t have dried tomatoes so I added 1/4 cup of fire roasted tomatoes to the sauté
3. I then added the blended tofu. I had all the ingredients for that. Also, I usually press the water out of my tofu first, because I have a tofu press. I find that pressed tofu absorbs flavors that are added better. I do that every night so I have tofu ready for the next day. If you don’t have time to do that you can usually get a good amount of the water out within half an hour.
4. Next I added pre-cooked elbow pasta because I didn’t have a pie crust. After I combined the sautéed food with the tofu and the pasta I put it all in my casserole dish and baked it covered for 20 minutes at 400 degrees. Oh and I also added some Panko Japanese style bread crumbs on top.
The recipe turned out great and I was glad I could use less ingredients to make something similar. It tasted great the next day too! Only complainant my husband had was that chili flakes made it too hot for him. LOL! He can’t take any heat! HAHAHAHA! Thanks for the inspiration Jenne! You’re the best!
I know, I know, I should always read a recipe ALL the way through before attempting it. However, when I read “Prep time 25 minutes, Cook time 22 minutes, I thought sure, I can get this done before I go to bed, leave it to chill and have it ready to eat cold or warmed up for brunch the next day. WOah! I neglected to notice at the end of the sentence in step 8 of instructions (not in its own step where it may have jumped out in my initial read through: BAKE 40 MINUTES And that is in addition to the 47 minutes of prep and cook, even though I did process the tofu during some of the veggies “cook” time.
Nonetheless, when I read at the top nothing about the BAKING time, I feel a bit misled. Having licked the spoon after scooping the mixture into the crust, I am certain it twill be delicious. I will just miss out on a half hour of sleep I was hoping to get to be rested up for company. (YAWN?)
Can I use extra firm tofu?
Hey! I wondered if you have any reheating instructions for this dish? I would love to make it the evening before and take it to be heated up in the oven the following if possible! Thanks 🙂
Hi! Sorry for the delay. I rewarm mine in the toaster oven or microwave 🙂
This looks great! Do you reccomend pressing the tofu first?
Thanks! Not necessary for this recipe.
Jenne – I totally also believe Jesus was a vegetarian. I am from South Africa and I’m so glad I stumbled upon your blog via One Green Planet. Thanks for your amazing recipes and sharing them so selflessly. Paying it forward is definitely something that has amazing power.
Ps. Its so hard to find TOFU in South Africa and its VERY expensive. Gonna see if I can try and replace TOFU with Chickpea flower – maybe it will work, maybe not – will see and let you know.
Hi Elsje!!
Thank you for your kind words. I’m so glad you came here from OGP 🙂
I’ve seen recipes using chickpea flour for the tofu sub in vegan quiche. I haven’t tried it myself yet though. Please let me know if you do, and how it comes out 🙂 Sending my love to SA! xo
Is there a substitute for nutritional yeast? I can’t find any where I live (in Egypt). I can only find active brewers yeast, and I hear that doesn’t taste as good.
Hi Madiha! Do you have access to miso? You could put a tsp of that into the filling 🙂
Yeah I do! Awesome! Thanks 😀
Is there a substitute for the tofu? I would really love be to try this recipe but I don’t care for tofu.
Good question. I haven’t done it with anything else, BUT I did find this recipe for you https://goodnessgreen.com/sweet-potato-paprika-spanish-omelette-gluten-free-soy-free-dairy-free/
I’m going to give it a try. Let me know if you do too 🙂
That looks good! Thanks
Look so tasty and creamy, I can’t wait to make this recipe 🙂
Thanks Sam. I’m glad its tastiness came through in the photo. Let me know how you like it 😉