
After a little more than two years, it’s about time to bring this blog back to life. At least every now and then. Today’s recipe is the result from an idea I had been playing with for quite a while. Quite to my surprise, the quiche immediately turned out the way I had hoped. The recipe is amazingly simple, yet for the best result it is key that you find a satisfying vegan bacon alternative. That used to be smoked tofu from Taifun in my case for many, many years (that is really the best smoked tofu I know of, and I even like it plain cold), but for a while now (I think about 1,5 years), a few supermarkets carry the vegan bacon bits from Vivera. I find those to be quite like the real thing, at least as far as I can remember after almost 24 years. At any rate, I am hooked, and the rest of the family love them too, which is why I always try to have some in my fridge or freezer. In Belgium you will find them both at Albert Heijn and Carrefour (at least at the larger supermarkets), and also supermarkets in the Netherlands and Germany stock this brand. I use them in vegan mac & cheese (or rather: mac & cheese & bacon & veggies), of which I will soon share the recipe too, but yesterday I had them in a beautiful quiche Lorraine. When making quiches I do not use tofu, which I find makes for an odd texture, but gram flour (Indian chickpea flour). I have been using that method succesfully for years, thanks to this recipe that I once came across.


Quiche Lorraine.
Ingredients
1 package (or 2 packages đ ) vegan puff pastry or a homemade quiche crust
2 onions
1 package vegan bacon bits (I used the Vivera brand, 175 g per package)
1 cup gram flour (= Indian chickpea flour)
1,5 cup water
1 cups soy cream
1 tsp kala namak (black salt)
2 TB nutritional yeast
100 g grated vegan cheese (I used a mix of Wilmersburger hearty cheese slices and some Violife mozzarella grated cheese)
pinch of turmeric
pinch of nutmeg
some salt and black pepper to taste
Directions
Preheat your oven to 200°C.
If using puff pastry, bake your pastry 20 minutes ahead of filling it. (I actually used two layers of puff pastry)
Slice the onions into rings and fry them until translucent and slightly caramelised.
Bring the water to the boil, add the gram flour, whisk the mixture, and then gradually the soy cream. Continue whisking until there are no lumps left. If you don’t manage that, just cheat and use your immersion blender.
Add the remaining ingredients and the fried onion rings.
Take your (prebaked) pastry shell and fill it with the quiche mixture. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 200°C.
You may serve this immediately (with a vibrant green salad on the side), but you will notice that the quiche will hold up much better after a day. So if your priority is having a nicely sliced piece of quiche on your plate, then I would recommend making this dish half a day or a day in advance and then reheat it before serving.

