Raw Strawberry Macadamia Pie with Chocolate Chia Crust

Making pie crust with the chocolate chia seed crackers was so intriguing to me, I quickly took some strawberries out of the freezer.  I had some macadamia nuts in the fridge just waiting for the right recipe. I don't buy them often but thought we could have a nice treat for Thanksgiving.  One of those items I love that are in the bulk section because I can buy a small amount.  This was not only a good recipe, but with dates for sweetener, bananas, fresh frozen strawberries, and raw nuts, it made a great breakfast too.  After all, the day after Thanksgiving, pie most often finds it's way to breakfast around here.  This pie isn't too far from what I'd put in the blender for a morning smoothie. 

The chocolate chia seed crackers are not crisp like a flax cracker.  They are firm, but have some pliability about them.  It was easy to mold them around a pie plate into a crust. You can use raw cashews in place of the Macadamia nuts.  I used regular dates found in any bulk section of the grocery store.  If you're using Med Jool dates, they tend to be a bit larger, I would decrease the dates to  seven or eight.  This is a very versatile recipe.  You can also replace the fruit with any fruit or berry you like.

Strawberry Macadamia Nut Creme Filling

3 cups frozen strawberries, thawed (two 10 packages)
2 medium bananas
12 dates, pitted
1 tsp. lemon zest
1 cup macadamia nuts

1 TB Agar powder
1 Cup boiling water

Place strawberries, bananas, dates, lemon zest, and nuts in a blender and blend for 20 to 30 seconds or until smooth and thick.  If you don't have a high speed blender like a Blendtec or VitaMix you can still make this pie.  Just soak your macadamia nuts for an hour and blend.  It will work, it just may take a little longer. 

Whisk the agar powder in the hot boiling water and stir until dissolved.  Add the agar to the blended berry mixture and blend for about 5 seconds.

Pour the whole mixture into the pie crust and chill until firm, about two hours.

I served mine with some strawberry sauce and a little rice whipped creme.  We really liked this dessert, it's light, sweet and tangy, and very refreshing.

This is a very easy Vegan Fusion recipe from the Vegan World Fusion Cuisine, my first vegan cookbook and the one that really got me excited about plant based cooking.

Simso's Strawberry Sauce

1 Cup strawberries, fresh or frozen
7 TB filtered water
1 TB Agave, maple syrup, brown rice syrup, or sucanat
1 tsp Mirin
1/2 tsp Mint
Pinch Cardamom powder
Pinch Cinnamon Powder

Place strawberries and filtered water in a small saute pan and heat over  low heat until strawverries strt to break apart, approxmately 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add remaining ingredients and stir well.

Chocolate Chia Crackers

I am so excited about this little recipe.   What a treat, chocolate crackers that are high in protein, iron, calcium, and omega 3s. In my opinion, they have a taste like an Oreo cookie. I couldn't believe it when I read the recipe over and realized it was dehydrated pudding.  I couldn't wait to see how they would turn out.  I liked them so much, I immediately made another batch. I took a bag of crackers over to share with Rachel and her first words were "This would be great for a pie crust." What an awesome idea.  For our Thanksgiving dessert I used them as a pie crust for a raw strawberry pie.  The crust was tender, but not so moist you didn't know it was crust.  The next time I make this recipe with the idea of using it as a crust, I'll make it a little thicker.

This recipe calls for making hazelnut milk to use in the mix, but you can substitute with cashews, almonds, or macadamia nuts or any non dairy milk.  I used some millet milk and almond milk in my second batch and it worked out just fine.  Organic cocoa powder works well if cacao powder isn't available.

Chocolate Chia Crackers
   Fills 2 Dehydrator trays

Ingredients 

 - 1 cup chia seeds, depending on how thick you like your puddings
- ½ cup raw cacao powder
- 3 T + ½ cup agave nectar
- 1 cup raw hazelnuts, almonds, cashews, or macadamia nuts
- 1 ½ t pure vanilla extract
- 2 T raw coconut oil
- Celtic sea salt

Directions
- Blend the hazelnuts with 3 cups water and 3 T agave. Strain the liquid through a nut milk bag or cheesecloth to remove the fiber. (I don't strain if I use cashews or macadamia nuts)

Mix 2 cups of hazelnut milk with the chia seeds. Let stand, stirring occasionally.

- Blend the remaining 1 cup of hazelnut milk with the cacao powder, agave nectar, vanilla extract and coconut oil, along with a dash of sea salt. Mix in the soaked chia seeds, and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

- Spread the pudding onto 2 lined dehydrator sheets, and dehydrate for about 4 hours, or until you can flip the crackers on a mesh tray. If desired, score the crackers into small pieces. Dehydrate overnight, and keep the crackers in a sealed bag in the fridge. They will stay fresh for a couple of weeks.

Here's a look at what I did with them for Thanksgiving.  The crust isn't quite even as I didn't plan on using them as a crust.  But, when Rachel mentioned it, it sounded so right.  Next time I'll not score the crackers and make it a little thicker for a raw pie crust.  The crackers softened a bit under the pie, but were still firm enough to slice like a crust.

 Raw Strawberry Macadamia Creme Pie with Chocolate Chia Cracker Crust

Holiday Crafts at Grandma's House

We squeezed in a little holiday fun together too this weekend.

A Plant Based Thanksgiving

Grateful to have my son at home, my granddaughter close by, and no travel plans this Thanksgiving holiday, I settled in for a four day weekend at home.  I shopped last weekend for the cooking items I might need this weekend besides our fresh produce so that I could stay at home if I wanted or the weather demanded all weekend.

We haven't had a family Thanksgiving at home in a few years.  We used to travel all day to fetch our granddaughter for the weekend, but her family moved back to our area and I am loving it. Funny, I had to reassure my son that we only tried the Tofurky once about six years ago and won't repeat it again.  I enjoyed the flavor of the Tofurky and all the roasted vegetables, but the texture has much to be desired.  It is a good transition food for new plant based eaters on the holidays and many vegans who went to a friend's or relatives probably found it on the table, but it's really a processed food item and I do feel like I'm eating deli lunch meat.  It's the first thing people mention when I tell them we are having a plant based Thanksgiving dinner.

What did we have? Ooh, I tried a wonderful recipe by Mark Reinfeld, Link to recipe: Mediterranean Pistachio Crusted Tofu with Saffron Quinoa Pilaf  It recently won Vegan Recipe of the Year by Vegan.com.  I had already practiced a version of this in Mark's two day vegan cooking workshop and knew it would be tasty and easy.  The whole meal only takes a little over an hour from start to finish. The quinoa was easy and colorful and the Mediterranean vegetable salad brightened the whole plate. I thought I'd give it a try for our Thanksgiving meal.  I added some fresh cranberry sauce with some frozen strawberries added for extra sweetness. I doubled the recipe for some planned leftovers.  It was great for lunch today.  I was especially pleased when I saw my son, who is still a bit leery about our plant based lifestyle, go to the refrigerator and heat up a plate for a meal today.

Marinating Tofu Cutlets

Pistachio Crusted Tofu Cutlets on Fresh Baby Spinach

Mediterranean Vegetable Salad

Saffron Quinoa Pilaf

Apricot Almond Pie & Four Ingredient Pumpkin Pie

Four Ingredient Vegan Pumpkin Pie

Way behind on posting, I've been neglecting my blog.  I have been busy in the kitchen, as usual, but a lot of the meals I've been making have been repeats.  Although there are a few I want to share, many of the meals I've been making have become staples like the vegan mac & cheese or flax crackers.  It's been pretty handy having the recipes I like or create posted somewhere so I can look them up again.  So many meals in the past I've not been able to repeat very well because I didn't write down what I did.

I've had a great four day holiday weekend complete with some cookie baking with my son, cooking and crafts with my granddaughter, and some great meals at the dining room table.  Thanksgiving has been a week long celebration here beginning with a Vegan Compassionate Thanksgiving last weekend with the NW Veg folks in Portland, OR.  Three hundred and forty people gathered for a holiday vegan meal.  We met some new friends and shared some hugs with familiar friends.  There were so many wonderful dishes.  We walked around the tables looking at them and taking some photos as guests arrived.  I could tell there was no way I was going to taste everything I'd like to.  I am also really glad we got some photos of the ingredient cards as well as the food.  I can recreate some of the ones I like and some of the ones I didn't get to try.
I brought the pumpkin pies I've been making this fall and winter. I found a pretty easy pumpkin pie recipe. It contains only four ingredients that bakes up like the traditional pumpkin pie people are used to.  It's firm, but creamy when you slide it in your mouth with the cashew coconut creme.  They disappeared pretty quickly.  I took home two clean pie plates. I made it with a gluten free oat flour crust for Thanksgiving and my granddaughter loved it.

Four Ingredient Pumpkin Pie

vegan, makes one pie

1 1/4 cups raw soaked cashews
1 cup maple syrup
1 can organic pumpkin puree (16 ounces) (or use fresh puree)
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

optional: 1/2 tsp salt to taste (depends how much salt you soaked your cashews in)

ingredients notes: using high quality spice is helpful. Also, I prefer grade B maple syrup for its rich amber tones and caramelized flavor - but grade A works too.

One standard vegan pie crust - or make your own using my instructions in this post. Also reference my crust-making how-to video here.

To Make:

1. Soak about one cup of raw cashews in about 2 1/2 cups of water in a large bowl. Add about 1/2 - 1 tsp of salt to the bowl - mix to dissolve. The salt allows the water to absorb more efficiently into the cashews and also adds some salt for your recipe. Note: you may want to soak more cashews than needed and make two pies - or use in other recipes.

2. Soak this cashew bowl for two hours. You want well-soaked cashews so that your pie mix blends up perfectly creamy.

3. The day of your actual pie making allow at least 3 hours from the time you start to the time you wish to serve the pie. I like a cool time of at least 2 hours.

4. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

5. Drain the water from your cashews. They should be very soft to bite and a slight purplish dark hue. This is normal. Add 1 1/4 cups of cashews to your food processor - or even better, or high speed blender like a Vitamix or Blendtec.

6. Add pumpkin to blender. Next, add in the maple syrup and pumpkin pie spice. Blend on low -> high for about 3-5 minutes until the mixture is completely creamy. If your mixture is a bit thick for some reason - you can add in a few teaspoons of either water, maple syrup or even non-dairy milk. After blending, do a taste test and add a 1/2 teaspoon of salt if needed. I added in about 1/3 tsp extra salt. But taste before adding.

7. Pour your mix into a par-baked vegan pie shell (I toast my raw pie shell in the 400 degree oven for about 8 minutes). You can buy a frozen crust or make your own per instructions linked in recipe above.

8. Bake pie at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Then reduce to 350 degrees and bake for an additional 30-40 minutes - or until the edges look fluffy and a darker caramel orange tone. Use a toothpick in center if unsure. The tooth-picked filling should come out slightly wet - but very thick and dark. It is important to remember that your pie will firm up significantly upon cooling and chilling in the fridge.

9. Remove pie from oven. Cool on counter for at least 30 minutes. Then place in fridge until ready to serve. At least 2 hours cooling and/or chilling time is my preference. A warm pie will be tasty, but still a bit "wet" to slice.

10. I serve chilled with a swirl of my vegan coconut whip on top!!