Saturday, February 21, 2009

Vegan Quiche and Pumpkin Pie

Loretta and her lovely crew (her kids are so adorable I just want to eat them up!) came over for dinner last night. It is always a delight to get together with them, but it was even better this time because they brought dinner. Sweet! I didn't want to feel like a complete slouch so I decided to make something. I noticed I had two Wholly Wholesome Pie Crusts in the freezer which Rob bought a couple weeks ago when I meant to tell him to get a different type of crust. Parker has been asking me to make something with the crusts and for some reason I thought of quiche. Now I have never made quiche before that I can remember, vegan or otherwise, but I remember my mom's quiche. Mom was a feminist. She was a stay-at-home-mom or home maker or whathaveyou most of her adult life until I was in Middle School (and I'm the youngest by 7 1/2 years), but she worked without pay. She worked a lot and I'm not just talking about the normal work which is plenty that those of us who "stay home" do. She was a professional volunteer, except the professional part would imply money earned and she received none for her tireless time and effort making the community better. One of the many, many organizations she belonged to was NOW. One of the first political rallies I remember attending was when I was young, but old enough to know what was up, and my mom took me to Springfield, IL for an ERA rally. What the heck does this have to do with food? I'm getting to it, I promise. I remember a bag mom carried with the logo "Real Men Eat Quiche". It always made me laugh, unlike the poster which was on our family room wall which read "A Woman's Place is in the House...AND Also in the Senate" which just made me think. Years later, I'm vegan and I think real men don't eat animal products, but I guess they can still eat vegan quiche. I found a recipe for vegan quiche in my Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook and it made filling for a 10 inch crust and mine was 9 inches so Josie and enjoyed the filling before it baked. It tasted just like my memory of my mom's quiche. It was great to be taken back. I didn't have two boxes of silken tofu so I used one box and some leftover cooked chickpeas...it worked well and it was a good balance of tofu and beans. I added steamed broccoli, but next time I think I'd also add some homemade seitan or something too. I didn't know if quiche was supposed to be served warm or cold so I warmed it up a bit. It was even better this morning for breakfast.I still had another crust to use up and I didn't want to make another quiche in case no one liked quiche. I also thought the kids would enjoy a pie since I rarely make them. I didn't have any silken tofu left though so I was sort of cleaning up the kitchen wondering if I could find a pie filling without tofu. I picked up one of the cookbooks Josie had been playing with on the floor. It was Vegan World Fusion. I was looking through the cookbook thinking about the fact that I have never once cooked anything from this book. It is one of Josie's favorites because of the pictures (I'm just guessing since she isn't even 1 1/2 years old yet and can't tell me what it is that draws her to it, I'm just pretty sure it isn't the words and it does have beautiful pictures). I was writing a blog post in my head about what makes a good cookbook and pictures is up there, but there is something that turns me off about this cookbook as well which is why I'd never made any of the recipes. Maybe it is a tad to "hippy healthy" looking for me. I'm all about healthy, but it has a slightly new agey feel which just isn't me. I like to look at it, but not to cook it. I was about to put Vegan World Fusion back on the shelf when Prem's Pumpkin Pie caught my eye. It called for cooked pumpkin, but I figured subbing canned pumpkin would be okay. No tofu at all in the recipe which is unusual for vegan pumpkin pie and the almond butter and molasses had me sold. I didn't have enough almond butter, but it was fine. The pie came out very dark due to the molasses so I was worried it would be too over-powering for some people. It was hard to tell last night what I thought of the pie because I was so incredibly stuffed from Loretta's wonderful food (she brought Indian Cauliflower and Kidney Bean Stew with Coconut Milk from Robin Robertson's Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker which was a big hit and I definitely need to buy that book, Roasted Garlic Bread from Mirabelle, salad, samosas, and Raspberry Blondie Bars from Vegan with a Vengeance...it was all so yummy and I was stuffed long before I stopped eating). This morning's breakfast confirmed that I have a new pumpkin pie recipe. It was gone before lunch time and Rob wasn't home to help. The boys loved it, but they love molasses. If you are looking for a vegan pumpkin pie with no soy...this could be it. Next time I'll make some sort of topping for it.

4 comments:

Jumbleberry Jam said...

New Agey cookbook? I'm curious now :-) That's so cool that your Mum was a feminist!

Loretta said...

The quiche was delicious!! I'm so glad I got to try a taste, and I'm pretty sure the fact that you used combo of tofu and chickpeas was part of the reason it tasted so good. Sometimes I feel like too much tofu is not necessarily a good thing (and I typically like tofu. Not as much as K who loves to eat it uncooked and by itself...but I do like it!) You're going to have to send me the recipe. And I'm glad to have a link to the pumpkin pie. It was so good, too! Thanks for having us over! :)

Jennifer said...

Oh that quiche looks so yummy! What a great idea the chickpeas were. I will have to try this now that I have been on my quiche kick lately - thanks to Charity! :)

Jenna said...

I have to make the quiche...I love quiche.

Off topic....Meijer is slacking in their tofu stocking...too often they do not have any or only one type (of course I stocked up last week when they not only had it stocked but it was on sale).