Super versatile and nutrient-dense, quiche is a great all-in-one meal for breakfast, brunch, lunch and even dinner. In a continuous effort to lower our carbon footprint by reducing our meat and animal product consumption, we opted for a vegan variation. Today's awesome Meatless Monday recipe comes to us from the Whole Foods Market blog — which we slightly altered to include fresh whole leaf basil and dried Italian herbs. We also recommend serving the quiche with a vegan basil pesto (recipe below).
We are pairing this uber healthy vegan meal with our Organic Honey Basil Ale. Because both boast notes of fresh whole leaf basil, this is an obvious pairing. Both the dish and the beer are medium in body, not too rich, and neither overwhelms the other. The Honey Basil Ale is extremely effervescent and finishes dry, completely cleansing the palate, leaving the tongue ready for another bite.
As with all of our Meatless Monday recipes, we encourage you to further decrease your environmental impact by choosing organic ingredients, whenever possible. Enjoy!
Vegan Quiche
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 8 ounces chopped mushrooms
- 2 cups chopped baby spinach leaves, packed
- 5-6 fresh basil, sliced into long, thin strips
- 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
- 1 package (14 ounces) firm or extra firm tofu, pressed to remove as much liquid as possible
- 1/3 cup unsweetened soy or almond milk
- 2 tablespoons sesame tahini
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoons dried Italian spices
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- Tamari and/or cayenne pepper, to taste
- 1 pre-packaged vegan whole wheat pie crust
- 1/2 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
Preheat oven to 375°F. Heat oil in a large skillet. Add onions and mushrooms along with a pinch of salt. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring often, until mushrooms have released most of their liquid. Add spinach and garlic and cook 3 minutes longer. Set aside.
Mash tofu and place it in the bowl of a food processor along with soy or almond milk and tahini. Puree until smooth. Add salt, pepper, curry powder, onion powder and garlic powder, and add tamari to taste. Add tofu mixture to sautéed vegetables, stirring to combine well. Adjust seasonings to taste and spoon into pie shell. Arrange bell pepper slices and basil decoratively on top and bake for 40 to 50 minutes, or until pastry and the top of the pie are golden brown. Let quiche cool several minutes before slicing.
Serve with Bison Organic Honey Basil Ale and vegan basil pesto (recipe to follow).
Vegan Basil Pesto
by Laura Friendly
Ingredients
- 3 cups packed fresh basil leaves
- ¼ cup toasted pine nuts
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
- 2 to 4 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- pinch of red pepper flakes
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Combine the basil, pine nuts, garlic, lemon juice and red pepper flakes in a food processor and pulse until the ingredients are finely chopped.
- With the machine running, slowly add the olive oil in a steady stream until it become a smooth paste. Season with salt and pepper to taste. note: if the mixture seems too thick, continue to add up to ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil, until it gets to your desired consistency
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Bison Organic Beer is an official Meatless Monday organization dedicated to lowering its carbon footprint by choosing to abstain from meat on Mondays. Our goal at Bison Brewing Company is to inspire the craft beer community to rally along with the millions of other people, like us, who support the Meatless Monday movement. We also urge everyone to take the extra step towards sustainability on Meatless Monday by pledging to drink green (local and organic) as well!!
