Maggie's Vegan Strawberry Pie

While I love all fruits and vegetables, I certainly have my favorites. For fruit, there's no comparison to strawberries, as far as I'm concerned. This year, I planted my own strawberry plants, which hopefully means I'll have my own source of strawberry deliciousness for years to come! In the mean time, I'll be making this strawberry pie with berries from other local & organic sources. That's actually how this pie originated! 

Shana knows I love strawberries. Last summer, she surprised me with a delivery of 5 pounds of local & organic strawberries. That's love, folks. I kept eating them a bowl at a time, but worried that I wasn't going to get through them all quickly enough! Then a dinner party with some friends took shape and I asked if they'd all mind trying out a new strawberry dessert. After enthusiastic positive responses, I decided on a strawberry pie and began scouring the internet for ideas. As usually happens, none of the recipes I found were quite right. Instead, I decided to take some ideas from all of them, plus from some of my other recipes, and created a magical dessert. It was a hit at the dinner party and is a perfect cool treat for summer temperatures.

Maggie's Strawberry Pie
Ingredients
3/4 c. almond flour/meal
3/4 c. wheat flour
1 tsp. + 1/2 c. white sugar, divided
scant 1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 c. canola oil
4 T. unsweetened soy milk
4 c. chopped strawberries
3/4 c. water, divided
1 T. non-dairy butter
1 tsp. lemon juice
2.5 T. cornstarch
topping of choice

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
1. Whisk together the almond meal, flour, 1 tsp. sugar, and salt in a bowl. In a measuring cup or small bowl, whisk together the canola oil and soymilk.
2. Add the liquid mixture to the flour mixture, stirring to combine. Press into a well-oiled pie plate, then bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and cool.
3. Mix the chopped strawberries, 1/2 c. sugar, and 1/4 c. of the water in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Boil and stir for at least 5 minutes, so that some of the strawberries start to break down.
4. Add the non-dairy butter and stir until it is melted.
5. In a small jar or bowl, combine the remaining 1/2 c. water, lemon juice, and cornstarch, then add to the strawberries and cook until thick.
6. Allow the strawberries and crust to cool considerably, then pour the strawberries into the crust and chill for at least 4 hours before serving.
7. Serve chilled and top with a creamy topping of your choice (such as CocoWhip, almond ReddiWip, or vegan vanilla ice cream).

Helpful Hints

• Although I have not tried, my guess is that this pie crust would work just as well with a gluten-free replacement flour. I have the best luck with Bob's Red Mill's 1-to-1. 
• Need this to be soy-free? No problem! Another non-dairy milk should work just fine in place of soymilk.
• Seriously, organic strawberries are so important. They are the produce most filled with pesticides in the US. 
• Make sure that the strawberries are easy to touch in terms of temperature before you pour them into the pie crust. You will keep the crust a bit crispier this way. 

The post "Maggie's Vegan Strawberry Pie" first appeared on Maggie's LesVegan Kitchen.