tofu-broccoli quiche

if you've ever come over to my place and eaten a quiche-like object, it was probably this tofu-broccoli quiche, inspired by a similar recipe in Vegan Brunch. this quiche seems to be successful with vegans and non-vegans alike. at clm, we are devotees of the cookbook series coming from the ladies of the post-punk kitchen. in particular, if you know me at all, you've likely tasted a cookie and cupcake inspired by their cookbooks.

• olive oil
• onion
• garlic
• 2 heads broccoli
• a bit of tumeric for color
  
• seasoning (i used thyme, but you can also try curry or other types of herbs/spices)
• salt/peper
• 1/2 C raw, unsalted cashews
• 1 lb extra firm tofu
• 1 tsp mustard
• 1 prepared pie crust (i like the spelt crust sold at coop)
  

preheat your oven to 350 F. lay out the pie crust in whatever pie pan suits you.

sautee the onion and garlic, then add the broccoli, seasonings, salt and pepper to taste. cook until the broccoli is soft.

in the food processor, process the cashews into crubs. after squeezing the water out of the tofu, crumble into the food processor with the mustard. add half of the cooked broccoli mixture to the mix and process a bit further.

transfer to a mixing bowl, add the rest of the broccoli mixture and combine. once combined, transfer everything into the pie crust. bake for ~40 minutes.

pasta with fried eggplant and tomato-almond-basil pesto

some friends came over for a quick bite before hitting the movies, so i put together an easy pasta dish. we agreed it was a hit and that we should've taken a photo for the blog, but alas, we ate it all before we had the chance! the recipe is based on this one.

• eggplant, sliced and salted
  
• fresh tomatoes, chopped into chunks
• almonds
• fresh basil
• garlic
• olive oil
• hot chili flakes
  
• salt
• pasta, whatever shape you want and cooked to specification
  

fry the eggplant slices in olive oil. meanwhile, whiz together the olive oil, garlic, almond, and tomatoes in a food processor. add hot chili flakes and salt to taste. i'm not specifying exactly how much of each ingredient, as you may like it with varying amounts of tomato, almonds, basil, garlic, etc.

toss the fried eggplant and pesto with the pasta, and you're done!

momimoto's miso

my mom helped me make this super simple but tasty miso soup when had a dinner party with her in geneva.. it was her first time in europe, and momimoto as well as her miso were a big hit!

it's really easy to prepare and can include all kinds of things. i list below the version that we made for the dinner.

• kombu (dried kelp), or something else to make a stock with "authentic oriental flavor", as momimoto would say.. shiitake mushrooms would do, for instance
• wakame (another kind of seaweed, which you see in big chunks in the image), rehydrated
• tofu (silken or firm), cut into bite size pieces
  
• age (fried tofu), cut into strips
• miso paste (here we used white miso)
• green onion, chopped

Heat a pot of water with the a couple large pieces of kombu to make a stock. Add the miso paste, to taste. You can melt it with warm water before adding it to the pot. Add the remaining ingredients. Before adding the fried tofu, rinse it through with boiling hot water to remove some of the oil. That's it!