Food & Drink
The Balanced Kitchen
Plates with creativity, colour, health and happiness
After a life-changing medical experience, Joanne Wood, aka The Balanced Kitchen, decided to have a complete overhaul of her diet and now shares her experiences and recipes with others. For Joanne, food is about much more than sustenance and she believes it can bring creativity, colour, health and happiness to our lives.
This month Joanne shares a delicious, healthy three-course meal, which has been created to reflect the vibrancy of the ingredients and the excitement of reconnecting with friends and family over fabulous food.
Turmeric, thyme & tomato with red onion vegan quiche
Serves: 6
This stunning show stopper of a tart, which doubles up as a nutritional powerhouse of a main course.
Ingredients – Base
- 200g buckwheat flour
- 150g oats
- 00g hazelnuts, ground
- 40g sesame seeds
- 100g coconut oil, melted
- 1/2 cup gram flour
- 1 tbsp xylitol sugar alternative (available as Total Sweet)
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 grind sea salt
Extra
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 5 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds
Filling
- 1 block firm tofu 396g net weight, drained
- 150g gram flour
- 250ml water
- 1.5 tsp wholegrain mustard
- 30g cup nutritional yeast flakes
- 1/2 tsp kala namak salt (optional)
- 1 clove garlic peeled
- 1 tbsp of turmeric
Topping
- A selection of your choice of tomatoes, enough to cover the surface of the quiche. I used 5-6 of different sizes. Slice larger ones and halve the smaller ones.
- 2 red onions sliced
METHOD
Base
Process the hazelnuts to a fine crumb texture in a food processor. You could sub the hazelnuts for almonds or ground almonds. Then pour the ground hazelnuts into a large bowl and add the buckwheat flour, oats, sesame seeds, gram flour and salt.
Melt the coconut oil gently in a pan and add the xylitol. Gradually pour the melted mixture over the flour mixture and work quickly with a spoon to mix until you reach a crumb-like texture and no dry flour remains – scrape down the sides of the bowl until all ingredients are combined. Now, add the water and continue to stir and combine well.
Pour the mixture into the flan baking dish (my dish measures 35cm dia – adjust the quantity of the ingredients to suit your size of dish).
Press the mixture flat and up the sides of the dish until evenly spread. Smooth out with the back of a spoon. Bake the base blind (without the filling) in a pre-heated oven for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven ready for the filling.
Filling
While the base is baking in the oven. Wash out the food processor jug (if used from the hazelnuts). Add the drained tofu, gram flour, mustard, nutritional yeast flakes, kala namak salt (if using), garlic, turmeric and water. Process until smooth. Pour the filling into the base and smooth out using the back of a spoon or spatula. Top with the sliced red onion and tomatoes, ensuring the topping is generous to provide maximum flavour per slice!
Bake in the oven for a further 20-25mins until baked through and turning golden. Remove from the oven and add sprigs of fresh thyme, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and a scattering of sesame seeds before serving.
Recipe Notes
Serve alone or with green salad leaves.
