I’ve been disappointed by my last few attempts at developing new recipes and was feeling pretty discouraged after so many misfires.  With so much emphasis in our culture on comparing accomplishments, it’s pretty easy to get into a bit of a funk when our own execution falls short of the expectation.  But what we don’t see in all our favorite food blogs, and in all those flawless Instagram posts, is the many, many hours, days, and dollars that went into mastering each recipe and its presentation.

That’s why, when I get into these slumps, I think it’s important to take a moment to re-focus, reassess your standards – where they come from, whether or not they are reasonable – and then push on.  If we expect to achieve perfection in our first pass at things, we’re inevitably going to be met with a lot of frustration.  Social media often puts emphasis only on the end results, but our own personal satisfaction should come from the process, in all its educational messiness.

So, after being briefly disheartened, I pulled myself back on track and finally came up with this delectable chickpea quiche.  Eat it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner – or all three. It’s delicious at any hour of the day and is full of good stuff.  It’s also gluten-free!

Ingredients
For the Baked Chickpeas Topper:
1 can of chickpeas
1 tbsp of olive oil
1 tsp of salt and pepper
1 tsp of cumin
1 tsp of garam masala
1 tbsp of liquid smoke
1 tbsp of paprika

For the Quiche:
14 oz soft tofu
1 cup chickpea flour
1 cup plant-based milk
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
salt and pepper
1 tsp of turmeric
1 tsp of garlic powder
1 cup of finely chopped sun-dried tomatoes
1 cup of spinach

For the Guacamole:
4 tbsp of lemon juice
3 or 4 medium avocados
4 tsp of cilantro
4 tsp of salt
4 tsp of garlic

Directions
1.  Make the chickpeas.  Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  You can keep it at the same temp
2.  In a medium-sized bowl, mix the chickpeas with the olive oil and stir until the chickpeas are coated with the oil.  Add in the salt, pepper, cumin, garam masala, liquid smoke and paprika, and stir.
3. Spread the chickpeas out on a baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes.
4.  Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.
5.  In a blender or food processor, combine the tofu, chickpea flour, milk, yeast, salt, pepper, turmeric, and garlic powder.  Blend until smooth.
6.  Transfer the blended mix into a large bowl and mix in the sun-dried tomatoes (finely chopped) and the spinach.
7.  Distribute the mix into the quiche dishes.  There should be enough mix for about six quiches.  If you don’t have a quiche dishes, you can also use a 9-inch pie plate.  Bake the quiches for 30 minutes.
8. Prepare the guacamole.  In a small bowl, use a fork to mash the avocados with the salt, lemon juice, cilantro, and garlic.
9.  Top the quiches with the chickpeas and guacamole and serve hot.