Vegan Onion Pie
After I went vegan I looked back through all the recipes I'd posted on the blog, either making a note on vegan substitutions or removing the post until I could veganize it to my satisfaction. My grandmother's onion pie recipe is one of these. For Thanksgiving I thought I'd try to veganize this simple quiche using VeganEgg from Follow Your Heart.
[Update, 2024: alas and alack, FYH has discontinued this product. I’ve made this quiche with JustEgg and it turned out great. I’ll eventually rewrite this recipe using tofu and/or chickpea flour and/or aquafaba.]
I was feeling even more sentimental than usual when baking this onion pie; my grandmother is not herself anymore, she hasn't been for a good few years now. I want to get back into making (vegan versions of) her recipes to remember all the good times, back when she was still cooking and baking and decking the whole house with hundreds of snowmen decorations at Christmas. She doesn't remember any of that now, so our family will have to remember it for her.
Here's my vegan update. For the pie filling:
4 cups sliced cubed onions (I used red and white)
1/4 cup Earth Balance butter
2 VeganEggs (4 tbsp. powder whisked with 1 cup cold water)
1/2 cup non-dairy milk + 1 tsp. arrowroot [see note]
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
2 tbsp. nutritional yeast
1 pastry shell
[NOTE: to make a liquid as thick as the evaporated milk the original recipe calls for, I took Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's suggestion in The Joy of Vegan Baking, whisking 1 tsp. arrowroot into half a cup of homemade cashew milk. Cornstarch is another thickener option.]
I haven't made the pastry recipe from A Platter of Figs since I went vegan, but it's easy enough to tweak, and I added some extra ingredients for a more flavorful "co-starring" crust:
2 cups flour
2 sticks (1 cup) vegan butter (cut into thin slices)
1 tsp. salt
1 VeganEgg (2 tbsp. powder whisked with 1/2 cup cold water)
fresh and/or dried herbs/spices (I used 1 tbsp. dried chives, 1 tbsp. black sesame seeds, and 2 tsp. coriander)
This recipe yields two 9" crusts, so freeze the second for later.
Mix the flour, butter, and salt, then add the VeganEgg mixture and herbs. Refrigerate dough for at least an hour.
Now to the filling instructions:
Sauté onions in Earth Balance butter with salt and pepper until tender, stirring in nutritional yeast toward the end. Pour in pastry shell. Whisk VeganEgg with water, mixing in the thickened milk. Pour mixture over onions. Bake at 425º F for 25 minutes or until golden brown. (I left mine in for 30 minutes and the crust is a little crispy.)
Does it approximate a traditional quiche? Not looks-wise—the baked VeganEgg is dry-looking compared to a quiche made with eggs—but taste-wise it is very good indeed!
Next time I'll add mushrooms to the filling and fresh herbs in the crust, and maybe some poppy seeds.
Fancying up that crust was a very delicious idea; when we had late-night leftovers this was the first dish I reached for.
More scrumptious holiday recipes I used at Thanksgiving this year:
The Best Vegan Stuffing Recipe
Cabernet-Cranberry Sauce with Figs
Read my post about my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary here.
Onion Pie, mmm mmm!
[Update, 2016: check out the vegan version!]
My sister and I are doing some of the cooking for Thanksgiving this year, and today I baked this simple-but-delicious savory pie for the first time. My grandmother used to make it for family dinners.
3 cups sliced cubed onions
3 tablespoons butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 pastry shell
My favorite pastry recipe is from David Tanis' A Platter of Figs, which yields two crusts and is equally great for sweet and savory:
2 cups flour
2 sticks of butter (cut into thin slices)
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg, beaten, and enough cold water to make 1/2 cup
Mix the flour, butter, and salt, then add the egg and water. It'll be a little sloppy, so you'll need to throw in a bit of extra flour to make the whole thing come together. This dough needs refrigerating for an hour.
Anyway, back to the filling instructions:
Sauté onions in butter until tender. Pour in pastry shell. Beat eggs slightly then add milk, salt and pepper. Pour mixture over onions. Bake at 425º F for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown.
Some notes:
This recipe makes a 9" pie.
I added some cumin and fresh basil to the basic recipe.
I used both yellow and red onions.
The two pies were in the oven for just about half an hour.
(I'd rather not use disposable pie pans, but I am making six.)