First off, an announcement!

Drum roll please…

(clears throat!)

Oye! Oye! Good people of “The Readership of The Healthy Foodie”.

If the words you are reading now still appear over a white, super boring background crowned by a suspicious looking, badly cropped piece of multi-grain toast, well, take a good look around (well, or NOT!) because if all goes good, this is the last time you will ever set eyes on this less than flattering environment.

Indeed, The Healthy Foodie’s new shiny colors should be revealed to the world sometime between sundown tonight and sunrise tomorrow.

Oh god, I’m so excited! I can’t waaaaait.

I can’t wait for you all to see the new look, I can’t wait to see it for myself (well, live, I mean) and I mostly can’t wait to find out what you guys think.

I really, truly hope that you all like OUR new environment.

Alright, enough with that… let’s move on with the eats, shall we?

Ever since I started making my own milk from nuts, I’ve been fascinated with finding all sorts of ways to use the leftover pulp.

It was only a matter of time before I tried incorporating it to pie crust. Ooooh, what a glorious idea that one was!

I’m not going to lie to you. This dough is a witch to work with. You can’t expect to roll it and lift it in one piece, for it lacks the gluten that it needs to hold it together.

Soooo, covering your pie dish will probably test your patience some. It feels more like patchwork than actual baking. You will have to cut your crust into smaller pieces and basically work at recreating it and putting it back together by “stitching” the pieces at the seams, patching holes and fixing cracks with your fingers right inside your pie dish.

BUT, all that hard work will be highly rewarded though, for this pie crust is SERIOUSLY good! It’s dense and doughey, chewy but crispy, almost a tad bready thanks to the addition of baking soda.

Not only that, but this crust is also SUPER TASTY!

Of course, you have to be a fan of buckwheat, because that would be precisely the ingredient that makes it super tasty. So if you don’t care for it, well, the tasty factor might actually turn you off. But if like me you can’t get enough buckwheat, by all means, give that crust a try. I’m sure that you too, will find that its flavor blends so magically well with that of the eggs and cheese and asparagus.

This was one seriously yummy quiche, and the good thing is it was just as good cold as it was right after it came out of the oven, so it made it a perfect candidate to take to work with me for lunch. It got invited every single day for an entire week. Sometimes I would reheat it, sometimes not.

I even tried two different methods of reheating. Microwave and toaster oven. And it behaved absolutely perfectly on every occasion.

And seriously guys… a quiche with its crust still attached that you can eat without feeling guilty in the least?

Vavoom! If that isn’t a winner, I don’t know what is!  

GRAIN FREE ASPARAGUS QUICHE
[Grain Free, Gluten Free, Vegetarian]

INGREDIENTS
(Serves 6-8)

For the Crust

  • 2/3 cup buckwheat flour
  • ¾ cup quinoa flour
  • 1 cup almond pulp (leftover from milk, no dates or vanilla used this time)
  • ¼ tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp cream of tartar
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • ¼ cup buttermilk

For the Filling

  • 6 eggs
  • 1 cup egg whites
  • ½ cup nutritional yeast
  • ¾ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp black pepper
  • ½ nutmeg, grated (as in half a whole nutmeg)
  • 1 lb asparagus, cut in half
  • 50g sharp cheddar, grated

DIRECTIONS

For the crust

  1. In a small mixing bowl, beat egg and buttermilk together and set aside.
  2. In a seperate (and significantly larger) bowl, add buckwheat flour, quinoa flour, baking soda, salt and cream of tartar and whisk until well incorporated. Whisk in almond meal and make a well in the middle.
  3. Pour egg mixture into the well and progressively mix in flour mixture with your fingers or wooden spatula. Continue mixing until dough comes together then turn over onto a floured surface (make sure to use grain free flour!)
  4. Knead dough for about a minute, until really well incorporated then shape into a flat rectangle. Cover with plastic film and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
  5. The easiest way to roll this dough is between two sheets of parchement paper, but you could also choose to do it on a floured surface. Again, make sure to use non grain flour, such as quinoa. Roll the dough to form a roughly 9″ x 15″ rectangle.
  6. Now this dough doesn’t have any gluten to hold it together, so you won’t be able to lift it and place it onto your dish in one piece. Get ready to do some serious patchwork!
  7. Cut your dough into 6 to 8 pieces and place them onto an approximately 6″ x 10″ oven safe dish, one piece at a time, “stitching” the pieces as you go, until your dish is entirely covered, sides and all. Make sure that your seams are closed really good so that your feeling does’t seep.
  8. Set aside… breathe… pat yourself on the back. You did it!

Assembly

  1. Preheat oven to 375F
  2. Blanch the asparagus in boiling water for about 30 seconds (or give them a quick steam bath) then plunge them in icey cold water for a couple of minutes to stop the cooking process. Drain and set aside.
  3. In a large mixing bowl, add the eggs, egg whites, nutritional yeast, salt, pepper and grated nutmeg. Whisk until well combined.
  4. Arrange the asparagus in the reserved crust, sprinkle cheddar cheese on top then pour egg mixture over.
  5. Place in the oven and cook for 40-45 minutes or until eggs are set and top is nice and golden.
  6. Allow to cool for 5 minutes then cut into 6-8 pieces. Serve with a side of greens.