Vegan Quiche Lorraine with Leeks

Crispy shortcrust pastry meets a smoky, spicy, creamy filling.

Quiche - who doesn't love it, this delicious creamy and spicy specialty? The original version is of course anything but vegan-friendly with bacon, eggs and cream, but luckily we know to help ourselves. The magic word in this case is: TOFU. And it comes in two versions. In the smoked version, it performs the role of the bacon cubes and brings smoky flavor and spice to the story. The second version is silken tofu. Together with a few spices, it replaces the egg-cream mixture in an almost unmistakable way. For the shortcrust I chose a mixture of light spelt flour and whole spelt flour, but you can also use any other flour.

For a 26-size quiche or springform, you'll need:

For the shortcrust pastry:

• 150g light spelt flour

• 100g wholegrain spelt flour

• 100g cold vegan butter

• 1/2 tsp. salt

• about 50 water, icecold

• 1 tbsp. soy flour or flaxseed flour

• some turmeric for the color

For the filling:

• 185g smoked tofu

• 1 leek

• 1 onion

• 1 tablespoon Alba oil or other butter flavored oil

• salt, pepper

For the vegan "egg mixture":

• 400g silken tofu

• 1 tbsp starch

• 1/2 tsp Kala Namak

• 2 tbsp yeast flakes

• 1/2 tsp turmeric

• salt, pepper

Other:

• Dried pulses for blind baking

Preparation:

1. For the shortcrust pastry, chop the butter into small pieces and quickly work it into a smooth dough with the flour and ice water (it is best to hold your hands under ice water beforehand so that they are nice and cold). If the dough is still too crumbly, add another tablespoon of ice water. Make sure that all the components of the dough are well combined.

2. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill it in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

3. For the filling, squeeze the smoked tofu between two layers of kitchen roll and then finely dice it.

4. Halve the leek and cut it into fine rings. Then rinse it well under running water.

5. Peel the onion and finely dice it as well.

6. Heat the oil in a pan and fry the tofu in it for about 5 minutes.

7. Then add the leek and onion and sauté until the leek has shrunk.

8. Season well with salt and pepper.

9. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 356°F top- / bottom heat.

10. Take the shortcrust dough out of the refrigerator, knead it well once again and roll it out thinly on a floured work surface. If it tears when you roll it out, you can simply press it back together with your hands.

11. Grease a quiche dish with some vegan butter, place the rolled out dough in it and tamp it down.

12. Cut off the overhanging edges and put the leftovers in the fridge for later.

13. Prick the dough several times with a fork, place a sheet of baking paper over it and weigh it down with dried pulses.

14. Now the dough must bake blind for about 15 minutes.

15. While the dough is doing its first round in the oven, you can prepare the "egg mixture".

16. Put the silken tofu, starch, kala namak, turmeric, salt and pepper in a blender and mix until smooth. Season again according to taste.

17. Combine the mixture with the leek-smoked tofu mix and check again that everything is well salted (otherwise the quiche will be a bit flavorless).

18. After 15 minutes, take the dough out of the oven and remove the baking paper with the pulses.

19. Then put the tofu mixture on top.

20. Cut out shapes from the dough scraps as desired and place them on top of the mixture.

21. Then put the quiche back into the oven for about 45 minutes. It is ready when it has a nice brown color and the mixture has set.

Enjoy!