Eggless Quiche

Hubby was cooking bacon for breakfast when I suddenly craved quiche. I haven't eaten quiche since my lil' guy was diagnosed with a severe egg allergy five years ago. I bought an 8" flan/tart/quiche pan yesterday and immediately knew baking a quiche would be perfect for breaking it in. The problem. Alex can't eat eggs and the mere smell of eggs makes him nauseous so I did a search on egglesscooking.com. I found a recipe for Italian Tofu Frittata. I wanted crust so I could get the cute, fluted edge on the quiche and found this recipe. Wasn't sure if it'd turn out because it was basically a tofu dish. It was good and the texture was very much like quiche.

Used my Roul'Pat for the first time. Made rolling out the crust super easy. Love it!

Forgot to add the cheese. Ugh! I'm always forgetting something. Hubby noticed so I put slices on top right before baking. I should've put the end product under the broiler to brown the cheese but we were really hungry so I just dished it out.

The eggless quiche. Looks like the real deal, don't you think?

I think I may have conquered the crust. I took lululu's advice about prepping the crust in the food processor and doing very little to it to keep a flaky crust. It worked!

Eggless Quiche

Crust: for 9" pie pan

• 1 c flour, sifted (I used 3/4 c for 8" pan)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/3 c butter (I used margarine), cut into "pats"
• 3-4 tbs milk, cold

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Add flour and salt to food processor and mix. 
2. Add small pieces of butter and process till coarse. 
3. While food processor is running, slowly add cold milk. 
4. Dough should hold together when pinched. 
5. Add a little more milk if necessary.
6. Place dough on heavily floured Roul'Pat, put flour on rolling pin and gently roll out the crust to about 1/4" thick and large enough for pie pan. 
7. To maintain a light, flaky crust, work with dough as little as possible. 
8. When rolled out, gently press into pie pan. 
9. Perforate bottom of crust with fork. 
10. Bake at 350F for 12-15 minutes till very lightly browned. Crust will finish baking when filling is added and baked again. Set aside.

Filling:

• 1 pack tofu (I used 3/4 of the brick)
• 1/4 c flour
• 1/4 c Swiss cheese, cubed (I used 3 slices, enough to cover 8" quiche pan.)
• olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4-6 garlic cloves, diced
• 1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
• salt and pepper to taste
• 4 slices bacon, cooked and chopped
• 3 sundried tomatoes, chopped
• 3-4 basil leaves, chopped
• flat Italian parsley, handful of leaves, chopped

Directions:

1. In pan, heat olive oil. 
2. Saute onions and garlic for 3-5 mins. 
3. Then add yellow bell pepper, salt, pepper, bacon, basil and parsley.
4. In a food processor, add flour and tofu. Blend well. If too dry, add a little water to make tofu "paste." Add the tofu mixture to veggies and cook 2-3 mins stirring continuously. 
5. Add cheese cubes and mix some more.
6. When tofu mixture is well blended with veggies and cheese, add to crust. 
7. Add cheese slices on top.
8. Bake at 350F for 20-40 minutes depending on size of pie pan. 
9. Cool 5 mins before serving. 
10. Garnish with bacon and parsley.

Source: Crust adapted from Food o' del Mundo. Filling adapted from Olives and Basil.