Tofu Quiche with Hashbrown Crust

A week or so ago I stopped into the grocery store to pick up a few things we needed. An employee stopped me and asked if I was going to spend $7.50. Glancing at my list, I said "Yes, probably" and she replied with "Want some free potatoes??" and extended a five pound bag and a bright yellow coupon in my direction. "Uhh.. ok.." I replied and took the potatoes. I don't normally buy potatoes in that quantity simply because I know we won't eat them all before they get eyes, and in my house, for whatever reason, tubers sprout like crazy almost instantly. But you can't wave a free vegetable in front a vegetarian and have them say no, so since then I've been trying to figure out healthy ways of incorporating them into our dinners before they go to waste. This is even more challenging because I loathe baked, boiled, or mashed potatoes, and potato salad. I really only like them roasted or fried, and I don't mind them too much in soup. This weekend on the Food Network, Paula Dean made a quiche with a hashbrown crust and I thought that might be a good use of some of the potatoes! Of course she used butter, and eggs, and cheese... and frozen hash browns... but conceptually I was in. This isn't necessarily the most photogenic bit of dinner, but it really was yummy! As a bonus, it used up some random veggie bits from my fridge, and some of the taters!


Tofu Quiche with Hash Brown Crust

For the crust:
3 cups grated potatoes
2 tbsp margarine
2 tbsp olive oil

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

2. Spray your pie pan with nonstick cooking spray

3. Grate the potatoes and toss with the oil and margarine to coat. Press the potatoes in the bottom and up the sides of a 9 inch pie plate and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the potatoes are getting golden brown.

For the filling:
1 (1 lbs?) box of silken tofu (I used Nasoya)
1 cup plain rice milk
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tbsp dijon mustard
2 cups broccoli, chopped
1/2 bell pepper, diced
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 tbsp oil
1 cup soy mozzarella
salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat and sautee the broccoli, bell pepper, and sautee until fork tender.

2. Meanwhile, blend together the tofu, milk, turmeric, nutritional yeast, mustard, and salt and pepper.

3. When the Hash Brown Crust is finished baking, put the veggies in the bottom of the crust. Top with the cheeze, then pour the tofu mixture evenly over the top.

4. Bake the quiche in a 375 degree oven for about 45 minutes until the tofu is set and starting to brown. It will still be a little jiggly coming out of the oven. Allow to cool at least 10 minutes before cutting.

Of course you can change up the veggies and cheeze and seasoning as desired. Onions or mushrooms would probably be nice in it.

Hash Brown Crust!

Perhaps not the prettiest dinner, but it was really delicious and bizarrely egg-like!

Tofu Scramble and Rosemary Roasted Potatoes

One of my favorite meals for cleaning out the fridge of all it's random bits of vegetables is Tofu Scramble. A lot of people eat tofu scrambles for breakfast but I'm not a really big breakfast-in-the-morning type person. Breakfast for dinner is definitely more my speed! This meal is fairly simple but full of flavor and texture and a great way to fulfill a ketchup craving.

I use the tofu scramble seasonings and method from Vegan with a Vengeance, but use my own veggie mix. One thing you may notice with my recipes is that they rarely contain onions. Onions make me quite ill so I work around them/sub them out in most recipes. I happen to live with an onion lover, however, so sometimes I find myself cooking with them in big pieces and picking them out, or making them on the side and stirring them into his portion. On the flip side, he's a mushroom hater. Meals made with mushrooms are generally ones I've made for myself and/or friends with other things for the hater. The original recipe called for both onions and mushrooms... hence the mods.

The potato recipe is mine, as much as you can claim a recipe for roasting potatoes. I don't like mushy potatoes (i.e. mashed, baked) unless they're in soup, and I like my potatoes with skins on, thus roasted potatoes and oven fries are two of my favorites.



Tofu Scramble ala Things Left in Megan's Fridge
1 1/2 cups broccoli, chopped fine
1 1/2 cups cauliflower, chopped fine
1 small red bell pepper, diced fine
1 carrot, grated
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 lbs firm or extra firm tofu
1 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp cumin
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp tumeric
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
Juice of 1/2 a lemon

1. In a large pan over medium heat, heat the oil. Add the garlic, broccoli, cauliflower and pepper and cook for about 8 minutes until it starts to soften.

2. Add the spices (not the yeast or the lemon yet) and 1/4 cup of water and stir to coat everything. Crumble the tofu into the pan. Fold everything to mix it up.

3. Cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. If it's getting too dry, add a bit of water to moisten it back up again. Add the carrots in the last 3 minutes.

4. Add the nutritional yeast and lemon juice and mix it around to make sure everything is evenly distributed. Add more water if needed to make everything come together. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve.

Rosemary Roasted Potatoes

1 lbs Idaho potato(es) [I happened to have one giant potato, but several smaller are fine too]
1 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees

2. Scrub your potato(es) well. If you are truly opposed to potato skin, peel it (them), but that's where all the nutrition is so you can decide how guilty you feel about getting rid of all those nutrients and fiber. Dice the potato(es) into about 1" dice.

3. Put all the diced potatoes into a large bowl or ziplock bag. Add the olive oil and rosemary and toss to coat evenly.

4. Lay your potatoes out on a baking sheet in one layer. I find a silpat sheet to be very helpful to prevent sticking. Sprinkle with salt as desired.

5. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the potatoes are toasty brown (flip one to check the bottom) and they're fork tender on the inside.