This vegan tofu veggie flan is loosely based on one we used to serve in Moles Cafe. That was after we opened in 1978! It’s one that Sue Gough our cook found in the celebrated Whole Earth Cookbook or so I believe. That particular flan was very “worthy” but this is a considerably jazzier and tasty elaboration on that theme!
It’s got lots of tasty veggies – you can swap them around. But I used red peppers, red onions, mushrooms, broccoli & baby plum tomatoes. I also added in things that were unknown back in 1978, like nutritional yeast, onion powder & kala namak. With a few sprinkles of crushed cashews on top – you could even add a few chilli flakes – it really is scrumptious.
The pastry has some extra goodies too, with a bit of buckwheat, and gram flour to boost the nutritional profile. It does of course use wholemeal grains and not that yucky tasteless, low nutrient white stuff!
Chop the veggies (except the broccoli) & sautee them – onions first, then peppers & mushrooms until fairly soft but not mushy. Then you can add in the halved baby plum tomatoes. For the broccoli cut it into small mini florets by cutting the large florets in quarters. I also suggest blanching the broccoli or steaming it for 4 to 5 minutes – but don’t over do it.
Weigh the other stuff into the blender, & whizzed it around to make a fairly runny sauce. Veg in the pastry, pour on the sauce and cook for 45 minutes. That’s the tricky part – making sure it’s done and set, but still juicy and moist.
This goes well with steamed or sauteed new potatoes, smashed potatoes, garlic bread, hummus sweet corn – just about anything. Or in the summer any kind of salad, Greek, avocado, green, or tomato – you can’t go wrong with this vegan tofu veggie flan.
Vegan Tofu Veggie Flan
Equipment
- 1 20cm flan case straight sided and loose base is preferable.
Ingredients
For the pastry case
- 100 g wholemeal pastry flour you can just use 200g of wholewheat - and omit the other flours
- 50 g gram flour
- 50 g emmer or buckwheat flour
- 100 g vegan butter/shortening - flora plant based is good or use 75g coconut & 25g rapeseed frozen
- ½ teasp salt - lo salt is best
- 3 tbsps cold water or 4 tablespoons of cold vodka
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
- 50 g vegan cheese, cheddar, blue, shropshire optional - reduce flour by 25g if using
For the veggies in the filling
- 150 g Red onion a good sized medium one
- 3 cloves garlic
- 150 g red pepper
- 150 g chestnut mushrooms
- 125 g broccoli steamed for 4 mins
- 100 g baby plum tomatoes halved
- 25 g cold pressed olive oil or however much is needed
For the sauce to pour over the veggies
- 400 g medium firm tofu
- 35 g gram flour
- 2 tbsp heaped nutritional yeast flakes 15g
- 1 fl tbsp corn starch
- 1 whole onion, umami or veg stock cube
- 1½ teasp marigold stock powder
- 1 teasp onion granules or powder
- 1 teasp turmeric
- 1 teasp ground black pepper
- 1 teasp paprika
- ½ teasp salt - lo salt is best
- ½ teasp kala namak optional
- 150 g soya milk sweetened or unsweetened
- 2 teasps dijon mustard
- 50 g vegan cheese optional
- 25 g moderately crushed cashews I used the end of a rolling pin
Instructions
- Make a batch of wholemeal pastry and line a 20cm tart tin - instructions to follow.
- add the olive oil to the saucepan, and put on a low heat, at the same time put a few inches of water into a steamer pan and heat the water so it's ready for the broccoli.
- peel and chop the onions in slivers & add to pan and saute along with the sliced garlic.
- Slice the peppers into thin strips and cut in half add to pan....
- slice the mushrooms in half, and then into slices and add to the same pan & continue to sautee
- cut the broccoli into quite small florets - cut each main floret into at least 4 smaller pieces and put on to steam for 4 to 5 minutes. Very important not to over cook.
- Cut the baby plum tomatoes in half. When the onions, peppers and mushrooms are nicely cooked, but not mushy, add the baby plum tomatoes & part cooked broccioli and stir to mix. Then turn the heat off. Turn the oven on at this point & set to 180°C FAN or 190°C convection.
- tip all the veggies into the pastry case and shake level them.
- In between all this, add all the other ingredients from the sauce section to your blender.
- Then process until you have a quite sloppy, liquid that can be poured, but isn't too runny.
- Pour the liquid into the flan case......
- It should come right to the top, but may need a little gentle shaking to get it to fill all the gaps at the bottom.
- Sprinkle the roughly crushed cashews on top - you can add a few chilli flakes if you like too.
- Bake for 45 minutes at 180°C (fan) or 190°C if convection oven. Check with a cake probe that it's set in the middle, it shouldn't be runny, but can be sticking to the probe.
- When finished it should look like this - slightly browned on top.
- Removed from the flan case it will look like this.
