Vegan Mushroom - Leek Quiche

Leek-Tofu Quiche is one of my favourite quiches that I have made it many times now. Its tasty, healthy and best of all, versatile. Johanna of Green Gourmet Giraffe agrees with me on that. If there is anything I would want to change in this recipe, it is the egg. Since Radhika chose the Allium family for this month’s JFI, I took this opportunity to do just that.

I was aware that flax seeds can be used as an egg-replacer, but never tried it myself. A tbsp to muffins and cakes for a little crunch, was all I used them for. To my surprise, the flax mixture was as glutinous as eggs. Not to mention the nutty flavour it lent the crust. I am going to try this technique in few other recipes that I normally make with eggs. This is a formula to remember.

One egg = 1 tbsp of ground flax + 3 tbsp of hot water.

Amongst the Allium family, leeks are the most fragrant, in my opinion. They are mild, sweet and don’t overwhelm other ingredients. This time I paired leeks with mushrooms and red bell peppers. Otherwise, the filing remains the same as the original version.

Vegan Leek-Mushroom Quiche

Ingredients

Crust

All purpose flour – 1 cup
Ground flax seeds – 1 tbsp
Hot water – 3 tbsp
Soymilk – ¼ cup
Rosemary – 1 tsp, chopped
Baking powder – ¼ tsp
Salt – ¼ tsp
Pepper
Olive oil – 2 tbsp

Filling

Leek – 2, cleaned and sliced
Mushrooms – 1 cup, sliced
Red bell pepper – ½, diced
Garlic – 2 cloves
Green chillies - 2
Sun-dried tomato – 6, reconstituted in hot water and chopped
Walnuts halves –1/3 cup, roasted and chopped
Lemon - 1
Cilantro – 2 tbsp, chopped
Parsley – 2 tbsp, chopped
Olive oil – 1 tbsp
Salt

Method

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease two 4.5 inch springform pans or one 9 inch pan with olive oil.

To make the crust, mix ground flax and 3 tbsp of hot water in a big bowl. Whisk vigorously for a minute. Microwave for 30 seconds and whisk again. Microwave for another 30 seconds and whisk again. The mixture should now be thick and gelatinous like egg. If you don’t have a microwave oven, do this on a stove-top. Simmer the mixture for 5 minutes for the desired result.

To this, add rest of the ingredients to make the crust. Press the dough on the bottom and sides of the pans. Prick the top few times with a fork and bake the crust for 8 minutes.

Make the filling by sautéing mushrooms in olive oil. When they are lightly browned, add leeks, red bell pepper, garlic, green chillies and salt, and sauté for another 3 minutes. Remove from heat and add sun-dried tomatoes, walnuts, cilantro, parsley and lemon juice. Spoon filling onto the crust and bake for 40 mins. Serve warm with a side salad.

Vegan Leek-Mushroom Quiche

Check out Nupur’s Vegan Cornbread made with flax seeds.

41 comments:

amna said...

I loved quiche the one time i tasted it in the US. Is there any native name for flax seeds which you can pass on, either in hindi, or better still, telugu :D

KonkaniBlogger said...

Looks great Suganya. Love the way the mushrooms and veggies have roasted in there...you think I could use plain milk in there instead of the soymilk ?? I never have soymilk at home :(..

Suganya said...

Nags, Googling got me this:

"Flaxseeds is known as San, Alsi in Hindi, Gujarati, and Punjabi, Ali vidai in Tamil. Flaxseed is also known as Linseed, Atasi, and Jawas in Marathi, Tishi in Bengali, Pesi in Oriya, Agasi in Kannada, Avise ginzalu in Telugu, and Cheruchana vithu in Malayalam."

Maya, I used soy milk to make it vegan. Plain milk wouldn't hurt at all.

Rachel said...

Lovely and sigh..the pics are way too good!!! I love the way the look of the mushrooms!

Nags..You get it in "Nuts and Spices" If you have one in Hyderabad!

Bharathy said...

Ali vidhai???Cheruchana vithu?? hmm no idea..(never bother too):)
We see a wonderful combo of veggies sitting royal in that cup of bread :)!..
Graet shot!!Classic recipe, again!!

Sia said...

thats a gr8 tip to use linseed sug. i have been looking for egg replacer and u just made my life easy :) thanks

Meeta K. Wolff said...

Quiches are great and so easy to make. I like the way you made this a vegan dish.

Miri said...

That is such a juicy looking quiche!! and though I love quiches, what sometims puts me off eating them outside is the smell of eggs when I bite into it - I eat eggs but hate eggy smelling stuff when it shouldnt!

I even made a crustless quiche sometime back because i didnt want the bother of a crust - its on my blog - but this recipe looks so simple, its a must try! thanks for posting!

sunita said...

Love the flax seed idea...and I adore quiches..your's surely looks beautiful :-)

FH said...

Gorgeous dish and photography Suganya! I have never made Quiche although I have many recipes for the same, got to try one day!:)

indosungod said...

Suganya, Quiche looks lovely, I have always liked the tiny frozen ones we buy and tasted the real deal at a friends house. Now I have enough information to try this on my own.

Laavanya said...

I love the crust recipe.. no butter or eggs to boot.

Mythreyee said...

A classy dish. Photography is excellent too.

Suganya said...

Rachel, 'Nuts and Spices' is new to me too. I will remember that when I come to India next time.

Bharathy, I didn't know that flax seeds were available in India. Ali vidhai is unheard of. It is available in speciality drug stores (Naatu marundhu kadai), it seems.

Thank you Sia. This technique really works. Do try.

Meeta, I have always been wanting to veganise it. But w/o the egg, the crust would crumble. Flax seeds were just right.

Miri, I love quiches. Even the egg ones, when prepared the proper way. I know what you mean by eggy. I did have a quiche that was so eggy that I don't order quiche everywhere. Just the places I am comfortable with. The best quiche I have had was in Key West. I totally fell in love with it :)

Thanks Sunita, Asha.

ISG, I have seen those tiny frozen ones too. Spinach and cheese, tomato and cheese. Never tried though.

Laavanya, No butter, no eggs is the reason I tried tweaking the recipe again :).

Thanks Mythreyee.

Dhivya said...

Hi very nice blog.I am anew blogger.plz do encourage me


http://dhivyaskitchen.blogspot.com/

bee said...

yumm. gorgeous. i had bookmarked this the first time you posted about it.

Johanna GGG said...

Looks as beautiful as your first one - I still think this is one of the best quiches recipes!

Using flax seeds sounds interesting - I have used them a little but not as much as I would like, so it is good to see how you are using them.

Anonymous said...

This looks fabulous--we ate dinner hours ago, but I am drooling now and ready to cut into this photo!

I've been using flax seeds for a while in my (vegan) baking, and they really do work beautifully. I find you can replace up to 2 eggs in baking with no obvious change in taste or texture.

Srivalli said...

well..thats another beauty of a shot suganya...though I dont eat mushroom..they do look good to decorate!

Rajitha said...

ah! looks lovely!!

Anonymous said...

The quiche looks groovy Suganya! Did not know that flax seeds could replace egg! I have a bunch of friends here who refuse to eat anything baked with egg, i'm gonna have to try this next time!

Anonymous said...

I just love dishes overflowing with veggies like this, so I can easily see myself devouring this with a gusto. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!

Sagari said...

great looking quiche sughanya ,beautiful pics too

Sig said...

Love that filling, I could just have that and skip the crust altogether :)

Susan said...

That filling! Such colors and textures. How I love mushrooms.
Suganya, is the crust dense or airy? Either way, I would love a big wedge still piping hot.

Shilpa said...

I have never tasted quiche. But this looks absolutely yumm.

Ramya's Mane Adige said...

Lovely pic!! the filling looks really yummy! And thanx for the info about the egg replacement.

vimmi said...

Never made quiche before. Looks so great. the color is amazing.

Bharathy said...

Hmm,so the medicines here(T.N) are your main food there!..(U.S):)

Great to adopt the good things!!!

Krithika said...

Looks perfect ! love the fact that there are no eggs. not too fond of quiches b'se of the egg smell. got to try yours.

Vineela said...

hi suganya,
love your no egg quiche.noted down the recipe.
thanks for sharing the perfect veggie recipe.
photos are always like ready to go in magazines coz they look so professional .
vineela

Nupur said...

I'm enjoying your experiments with non-traditional pie/quiche/tart crusts! I tried the cornmeal crust for a tofu quiche last week, and thought the crust was quite good. This one looks delicious!

Mansi said...

that's a really nice twist Suganya...I'm yet to try your tomato-cornmeal tart:) mushrooms seem to ge well in a quiche...

Red Chillies said...

Wow, that looks beautiful. I knew about using flax meal as substitute for egg, but did not know the actual process of creating the final "glutenous egg replacer". Thanks for sharing this Suganya. This helps me a lot.

Aparna Balasubramanian said...

Suganya,
Never tried making this at home. Will certainly do so. I am also going to scour the shops here for flax seeds!

Lucy said...

Stunning!

Aren't those little flax seeds amazing? You can't imagine how it will work at first, but the results speak for themselves.

Will be making this as soon as the weather cools just a little!

musical said...

Beautiful pictures and a great recipe, Suganya! Love teh idea of using flax seeds as an egg replacement. This crust is totally a delight, especially when one plans to entertain some vegan guests. Mushrooms and leek is such a mouthwatering combo, isn't it :). Try chard and spinach in the quiche, they totally rock too :). btw, i tried red chard with zucchini as a sabzi and it turned out great, i though you'd like the idea too.

cheers,
musical.

amna said...

ah hmm.. saw that now. but still they should have asked, right? anyway, since this is happening more and more now, i guess i shud just let it go. sigh..

Suganya said...

Dhivya, Thanks for your visit.

Bee, I totally enjoyed this version too.

Johanna, I agree with you. I haven't found any recipes for crust with so little fat, yet.

Ricki, I didn't know flax seeds are only good for 2 eggs. Thanks for this useful info. Will keep that in mind.

Thanks Srivalli, Rajitha.

Do try Latha. They will be impressed :).

Hannah, I feel good eating stuff like this.

Sagari, Sig, Thanks for dropping by.

Susan, The crust is slightly dense, but thin. Its slightly chewy than being melt-in-your-mouth. But its totally likeable.

Shilpa, Ramya, Vimmi, I am happy to introduce this recipe. Hope you guys enjoy it too.

Bharathy, Not many people know about flax seeds here.

Me too Krithika. Some quiches do put me off.

Vineela, Great to see you here. Thanks :)

Nupur, Nice to hear that you liked cornmeal tarts. They are slightly crumbly, aren't they? I have few other ideas to play with cornmeal and flour ;)

They do, Mansi. Tofu can be substituted, but 'shrooms are earthy.

RC, Aparna, Glad to be of help.

Lucy, I was taken aback when I saw those tiny things in action. Hats off to whoever discovered it :).

Musical, Did you just saute it? I am waiting for Spring to buy zucchini. They are quite expensive now. And spinach in quiche, I agree. You know, I had leftover filling from this recipe. The next day, I sauteed red chard, and baked the filling with milk and cheese ;). Creamy comfort.

Nags, Totally not. It is not justifiable to make use of your work without your consent. Never stop fighting.

musical said...

Yeah, just saute' it with some spring onion (or regular onion), salt, ground pepper, turmeric and lemon juice.

Oh, and am sold on the idea of using the left over filling with milk and cheese (does a lil' dance) :-D.

Kribha said...

Quiches are my favorite. I just recently learned about flax seeds. Great to see that you have used them here. I got to try this soon.

Post a Comment