Vegan MoFo Day 1! Quiche & Pumpkin Pockets

Yeah! MoFo! I'm really excited that I started my blog just in time to participate this year. Plus, today is World Vegan Day, which is totally appropriate. Okay! Here goes....

Hands down, the books by Isa Chandra Moskowitz (and Terry Hope Romero) are my most used. Buuuuut….I have somewhere in the vicinity of 20 cookbooks. Most sit on the shelf, yearning to be as dog-eared and nooch-stained as VWAV and V’con. Sorry, guys. I try. I really try. I alwayslook at the other books, but Isa & Terry’s always sound so good! So, with this whole MoFo/fancy new blog thing, I’m going to make a concerted effort to expand my cookbook horizons.

First up! Urban Vegan, by Dynise Balcavage. I’ve made a couple recipes from here since I got it. I love the Punk Rock Cakes (post for another day). They’re super easy and give you that scone-y feeling without going through the trouble of making scones. The rock cakes are fool-proof. Scones, somehow are not (for me, anyway).

Anyway, I’ve been craving quiche for a while, and I thought that my first step out of the PPK box would be the Quiche Du Jour. It wasn’t until I was ready to start assembly that I realized she called for all of the fillings to go on top. Hmmmm. Okay. I’ll go with it.

The recipe is designed to be flexible. Basically, add 2 cups of whatever fill-ins you want with the tofu mixture. Sweet! I can handle that. I used some of my favorite veggies: zucchini, red pepper, sundried tomatoes, kale, garlic and onion. The combo was good, but I really think I would have preferred it if the veggies were integrated with the quiche mixture. Since the veggies were just sitting on top with nothing to hold them together, the quiche fell apart as I was eating it.

If anything else, this recipe introduced me to the Flaky Pie Crust recipe from the book, which is oh so good. I like the idea of using whole wheat pastry flour along with straight-up all purpose. This is probably the first time I haven’t over-mixed my dough, pretty much ever.

The hot quiche action:

Man, the lighting in my kitchen is horrible.

Dessert looks better. Promise.

There’s a bakery in town that sells Pumpkin Empanadas. Anytime I see them in the case, I have to buy one. They’re flaky, handheld bits of love. But unlike pumpkin pie, these suckers are mostly crust. That’s pretty appropriate, since an awesome crust can seriously make a pumpkin pie.

While I was rolling out the dough for the quiche, I knew there would be more than enough. Conveniently, I had half a can of pumpkin purée sitting in my fridge from the VWAV pumpkin oatmeal cookies I took to a Halloween party. I threw in some cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger and maple syrup, gave it a good stir, tucked the filling in the leftover dough, and sprinkled a little raw sugar on top.

It’s not a perfect recipe, by any means. The ratio of spices, etc was a little off, and I stuffed them a little too full, but they were a quick and tasty. They were so tempting that I ate one before I snapped the picture. I think I’ll revisit these guys again someday. *Mental note*

I hate using the flash, but they do look slightly more appetizing. These guys were in the oven for about 15 minutes or so. I didn't really time them, I kept checking until they looked done.

Well, there's my first official food post. Many more to come.