Made possible by the incredibly versatile power of chickpea flour, this Crustless Vegan Quiche is easy to make, satisfying and packed with veggies. It’s a must make for vegans and meat-eaters alike! | Gluten Free + Soy Free + Nut Free
A Quiche Without Eggs?
I know, I know! A quiche without eggs isn’t technically a quiche by definition, but we’re all about breaking the rules here on ASK. See also my: garlic free low fodmap pesto, meatless vegan lentil meatballs and bbq jackfruit pulled not pork.
Unorthodox? Definitely. Delicious and satisfying? Absolutely!
So how do you make a vegan quiche without tofu, eggs, dairy and all the usual suspects? With chickpea flour!
More Chickpea Flour Recipes
Chickpea flour is an incredibly versatile flour. It’s a high fiber, high protein flour that has naturally binding properties making it particularly handy in gluten free and vegan cooking. With chickpea flour you can often leave out binding agents like eggs and xanthan gum.
The base of this recipe is made up of a simple combination of chickpea flour, water and a bit of oil. It’s almost like a thicker, veggie filled socca, or panisses before they are cut and fried.
How to Make This Chickpea Flour Vegan Quiche Recipe
The ingredient list might look a bit long at first glance, but I promise this is not an intimidating recipe! Most of the ingredients are things you very likely already have on hand to make the batter (water, olive oil, garlic powder, etc) and veggies to fill your quiche.
The steps can be more simply broken down into a handful of steps:
- Prep the veggies as needed: boil the potatoes and dice everything up.
- Prep the batter: whisk the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, nutritional yeast and seasonings) then mix in the water, stock and oil.
- Tip: Chickpea flour can clump easily. Feel free to mix the batter in a blender or food processor if you’d prefer.
- Add the veggies to the batter: Mix the chopped veg into the batter to evenly coat the veggies.
- Bake & cool: Pour the quiche filling into an already greased pie plate (or line with a piece of parchment paper) then bake until set. The quiche should be lightly golden, puffed up and set.
Key Ingredients & Possible Omissions
- Chickpea Flour (necessary): This serves as the egg replacer for the vegan quiche filling. The chickpea flour and its binding properties are what makes up the base of this eggless quiche. It’s also what’s responsible for creating the soft, almost custard-like texture that’s typical in traditional quiche.
- Nutritional Yeast (recommended, but optional): Aside from the fact that its fortified with vitamins and minerals, nutritional yeast is great way to add a cheesy flavor to food. For anyone following a vegan diet – it should be a pantry staple!
- Nutritional yeast can be replaced with vegan parmesan or another vegan cheese. You can leave it out altogether, but I do think it’s worth adding if you can.
- Vegetable Stock (recommended, but optional): Vegetable stock is simply a way to infuse a bit more flavor into your quiche.
- Feel free to swap out the veggie stock with more water (so 1 3/4 cup [420ml] water total) if you’d prefer. If you leave out the stock, I recommend you add a teaspoon of gluten free soy sauce/tamari to the batter. I often do this in vegan cooking as a way to add a bit more umami to my food.
- Turmeric Powder (optional): Ground turmeric is purely added for the aesthetic. It adds a yellow/gold color which makes this vegan quiche look more like an egg-based quiche. It won’t have much impact on the flavor so you can ditch it is you want.
Where to find chickpea flour:
Chickpea flour can be sold under many names including: garbanzo flour, besan flour or gram flour. You should also ensure that your flour is free from cross contamination. While chickpea flour is naturally gluten free, certain brands may be unsafe for Celiac consumption depending on how and where it’s processed. Bob’s Red Mill is a great option is available to you. If you can’t find it available in a grocery store near you – try online retailers.
Substitutions & Adaptations
Here are a few ideas you can try out to make a quiche most suited to you and your preferences:
- Use roasted or sautéed vegetables.
- Roast or sauté the potatoes and onions before you add them to the quiche. This is always a great way to add more flavor to your food! Just keep in mind the additional time and clean up needed to do so.
- Add more veggies.
- Add sautéed mushrooms, red bell peppers and/or baby spinach for an even healthier and more filling veggie quiche. Do make sure to roast or sauté them before you add them to the filling. This will help cook out the excess water that might make for a soggy quiche.
- Play around with the spices/seasonings.
- Leave out the fresh chili and add up to a teaspoon of chili powder or cayenne powder instead.
- Add dried thyme, oregano, parsley, basil, etc. Fresh herbs are also a great addition. I recommend that you add the softer, leafy herbs (like basil and parsley) at the end to serve.
- Make a pie crust!
- I think this recipe really works as a crustless quiche. That being said, I am never opposed to eating anything with a flaky crust!
- Use your favorite store bought vegan pie crust or make your own. I have an almond flour pie crust that would go well with this quiche.
Serving Suggestions
Serve this as an easy weeknight dinner or a Sunday brunch option – there’s no bad time to enjoy it! The leftovers can be eaten warmed up or cold, straight from the fridge.
You can serve this quiche as is or alongside a sauce or dip depending on your mood. Top with a hot sauce for an extra kick of spice. I made a peppery rocket pesto to serve with my quiche. Next time I might go all in with the sun dried tomatoes with this pesto rosso. I can also recommend a good roasted red pepper sauce, store bought or homemade!
Crustless Vegan Quiche
Made possible by the incredibly versatile power of chickpea flour, this Crustless Vegan Quiche is easy to make, satisfying and packed with veggies. It’s a must make for vegans and meat-eaters alike! | Gluten Free + Soy Free + Nut Free
Ingredients
Veggies
- 1 russet potato (baking potato), washed or peeled and diced into 1/4 inch cubes
- 1/3 cup (45g) frozen peas
- 4 spring spring onions, diced
- 1/2 small or medium red onion, diced
- 1 red chili, diced (optional)
- 1/2 cup (55g) sun dried tomatoes in oil, blotted dry and chopped
Batter
- 1 1/2 cups (147g) chickpea flour (garbanzo bean flour)
- 3 tablespoon (23g) nutritional yeast
- 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt or kosher
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1 1/2 cups (360ml) water
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) vegetable broth (or just add more water)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- Freshly ground black pepper and chopped chives, optional for serving
Instructions
Veggie/Filling Prep
- Preheat oven to 375°F/190°C. Lightly grease a 9 inch pie plate or tart pan and set aside.
- Add the diced potatoes to a small pan of water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and cook until potatoes are tender, about 7-10 minutes. Drain potatoes and set aside.
- While the potatoes are boiling, prep the remaining veggies as needed. Dice the spring onions, onion and chili. Roughly chop the sun dried tomatoes into bite sized pieces. Set aside.
Batter Prep
- In a large mixing bowl whisk together the chickpea flour, nutritional yeast, baking powder, salt, garlic powder, Italian seasoning and turmeric until combined.
- Add the water, vegetable broth and olive oil to bowl and whisk into a thin batter until no lumps remain.
- Add the prepared vegetable filling and potatoes to the batter and mix until well combined.
- Pour and even spread the batter into the prepared pie dish. Place in the middle of the oven and bake for 50-55 minutes. The top will be golden brown, slightly puffed up and no longer wobbly. Once cooked, let sit for about 10 minutes to cool. Don't worry if the 'quiche' slightly deflates and cracks on top as it cools - this is normal.
- Serve warm and enjoy. This will keep well if covered and stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to four days. You can also enjoy this cold, straight out of the fridge.
Karen says
I don’t use oils. May this be omitted? What could be substituted please? Thank you. It reads as a delicious recipe.
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Karen, good question!
You can leave out the 1 tablespoon oil in the batter. If the batter is looking too thick you could substitute it with water. The oil in the batter is mostly just for the sake of adding a bit of fat for the flavor/mouth-texture. If you’re already familiar with cooking without oils though I don’t think you’ll miss it at all here.
As for the sun dried tomatoes in oil, you can use dehydrated sun dried tomatoes (the ones not packed in oil) and then just rehydrated them in water to soften them up.
Hope this helps!
Donna says
I made it per your recipe and wasn’t thrilled. Too dense and kind of flavorless. This time I added chopped broccoli, mushrooms and ground plans based breakfast sausage. Came out amazing so thank you for the base recipe.
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Donna, I’m so glad to hear you’ve enjoyed it with more things to spruce it up!
PinkE says
I can’t eat garbanzos. Is there a substitute for the chickpea flour?
Sarah Nevins says
Hi there! I’m afraid I don’t have a good chickpea flour substitute for this recipe as it’s the main thing that binds everything together to make this work. Sorry I can’t be more help here, but I’d hate to give you bad advice without trying this first
Nan says
Looks good but when do the potatoes go in?
Sarah Nevins says
Sorry about that – should have clarified that more! The potatoes go in during step number 3 under ‘batter prep’ along with the prepared vegetable filling. Thanks for point that out to me so I could fix it!