Sunday, February 14, 2010

Vegan Quiches - Sun Dried Tomato and Basil

Ingredients:

1 500g block plain firm tofu
1 cup vegetable stock
1/3 cup tahini
1/3 cup savory yeast flakes
3 stems shallots - diced
4 cloves roasted garlic - crushed and finely chopped
1 cup sun dried tomatoes (the oily type)
1 cup packed fresh basil
2 teaspoons paprika
Fresh black pepper
2 cups soy milk or rice milk
1 packet vegan shortcrust pastry (i.e. using veg oil based pastry, not butter)
Olive oil

Equipment:

large fry pan, preferably cast iron.
1 jumbo muffin tray
1 spray can of olive oil
1 blender
1 large mixing bowl
Oven heated to 180 degrees C

Directions:

In mixing bowl crumble the tofu well, using your hands to squeeze and crumble until no large chunks remain.

Heat olive oil in pan, and add shallots and tofu, cook until the tofu is browning slightly, for approximately 10 minutes. Add the stock to deglaze pan as required while tofu is cooking.

Stir tahini and savoury yeast flakes through tofu, then cook for a further 5 minutes, then turn off the heat and let cool slightly.

In the blender, blend the sun dried tomatoes and basil a little, then add the cooled tofu mix.

Blend into a paste adding soy/rice milk a little at a time.

Shake in paprika and some fresh black pepper to taste.

Spray the muffin tin with the oil then line the muffin tin with a circle of defrosted pastry (use a cup the same size as the base of the muffin holes to cut out the base) then with two strips around the edges, overlapping with the base and with each other.

At the pastry edges press well so that there are no visible joins that can separate.

Fill each pasty cup with the tofu filling and smooth the top.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, then add a slice of tomato to each quiche before baking for a further 10 minutes.

Garnish with a sprig of basil and serve with tomato sauce, a salad or baked veggies and white sauce (recipe below).



Monday, February 1, 2010

Doing the numbers

I find it a little weird to be worrying about the numbers, since I am healthy and not deficient in anything, but people have this "but where do you get your protein" obsession, so I thought I'd start doing some number crunching....

The general consensus is that a sedentary 33 year old women needs 0.75 grams of protein per kg of body weight per day. For high activity you apparently make this 1gm/kg/day. So I'll work on the 1gm principle. That means I need 58 grams of protein per day.

Here's the values on some of the high protein vegan foods I regularly eat:

My breakfast is a total of 23 grams, so that's over a 1/3rd in one meal!

2 slices of Helga's bread = 12.5 grams
250ml Soy Milk = 7.5 grams
10 gram serve of vegemite (I like it thick) = 3 grams


Other protein quantities I regularly eat are:

1 serve of tofu = 16.25 grams

1 serve of savory yeast flakes (on my pasta, in soups, sauces etc) = 8.4 grams

Vegetable soup = 8.2 grams

Bean and lentil vege soup = 17.4 grams

1 serve of vegeroni pasta = 15 grams

1 serve of pasta sauce = 4 grams (plus I add canaloni beans/butter beans, and savory yeast flakes and other goodies to my pastas)


Plus I have a thing for nuts occasionally, and often add walnuts to things for some extra oomph.


So no protein deficiency here!

Try Veg's vegan nutrition page

Here's a great link to information about vegan nutrition on the Try Veg Australian website: http://www.tryveg.net/vegetarian_nutrition.aspx

I like their tables showing you the equivalent vegan food to eat to get your calcium, iron, protein etc, very user friendly.