WOAH is all i have to say about this pie/tart that’s completely raw AND vegan! If you love your desserts but want to not feel guilty about eating them, make this. You will thank me. I couldn’t stop eating the filling right out of the blender, it’s that good. I tasted it before i added the bananas and it was even fantastic on its own. This may sound like an odd comparison, but the taste reminded me of Gerber”s baby food vanilla custard. Okay, don’t get judgey, but my brother and i loved that baby food so much, we used to eat it as a snack up until we were in high school! I can just imagine my mom at the grocery store trying to cradle 30 jars of vanilla custard baby food into her cart and someone trying to make small talk with her. Hey, how old are yours? Oh, my babies? They’re 17 and 18. ha! We never wanted to grow up, even our pediatric physicians had to beg us to please move on! I was devastated. I digress. If you wanted to make a vanilla pudding, I would just add a little more vanilla to the base. Feel free to get crazy with testing out other flavor ideas and let me know how they come out, but please make this one first!

Makes 2 MINI tart/pies

Raw/Vegan Walnut Crust Recipe :

1 Cup Raw Unsalted Walnuts
2 Pitted Mejool Dates
1/2 Tsp Cinnamon
1/4 Cup Water
Pinch Salt
Pinch Nutmeg

Place walnuts and dates into food processor, blend into smaller pieces that look like very coarse sand. Add water and pulse a few more times until the mixture starts to come together. Don’t over mix it, you’ll end up with walnut butter. Press finished mix into two mini tart or pie shells. Refrigerate tart shells for at least 2 hours to set up.

Raw/Vegan Banana Pudding Recipe :

1 1/4 Cup Soaked Raw Unsalted Cashews

3 1/2 Tbsn Coconut Oil Melted

1/2 Cup Water

2 Tbsn Lemon Juice

1/4 Tsp Salt

1 1/2 – 2 Tsp Ground Turmeric

1 Tsp Vanilla Extract or 1 Vanilla Bean Scraped

1/4 Cup Agave Syrup

1 1/2 Medium Size Bananas

Soak the cashews in water overnight in the fridge. Next day, drain the cashews and place into a high speed blender. Add, all other ingredients and blend on high speed until completely smooth and creamy, about 1-2 minutes. I actually gave my soaked cashews a head start in the food processor before adding them to the blender with the other ingredients, but that’s completely optional. Pour finished pudding into chilled tart/pie shells and freeze until set, about 4-6 hours. To serve, take out of freezer and thaw for 5-10 minutes. Top with fresh banana slices and a mixture of crushed walnuts with a little cinnamon. Note: you can make this recipe and keep in the freezer for up to one week.

As soon as we moved in to our house last year we knew we wanted to build an edible garden but were going to have to wait out the chilly winter before doing so. Now that the weather has been warming up the past couple of weeks, we started clearing out the sunniest spot in our yard and are just now starting to build our raised vegetable boxes. I noticed there were a lot of tall, graceful plants in the shaded areas, so I dug one out suspecting they were something in the onion family. Turns out, I was right! We have leeks, and a whole butt load of them! What to do with all those leeks? Quiche!

Pastry Dough Recipe :
12 oz Pastry Flour
8 oz Unsalted Butter
.25 oz Salt
4 oz Ice Water

Sift dry ingredients. Cut cold butter into flour by hand or use food processor. Pour ice water in and mix until dough comes together. Place onto floured surface and form a disk, wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Next day, roll out dough until it is about 1/4″ thick and place into deep dish spring pan with removable bottom. Cover inside of pie shell with parchment paper and fill with baking beans ( i only had rice ) and blind bake it to 375*F for 30-35 min or until edges are lightly golden.

Filling :
2 Lbs Mushrooms
1 Cup Sautéed Leeks
1 Tbsn Fresh Thyme
1 1/2 Cups Grated Comte or Emmentaler (Swiss) Cheese

Sautee mushrooms with thyme in olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Let cool. Sautee your cut and rinsed leeks in olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Let cool.

Custard Recipe :
8 Large Eggs
2 Cups Whole Milk
2 Cups Heavy Cream
1 1/2 Tsp Salt
1/2 Tsp Ground Pepper
Scant Grated Nutmeg

Wiz all ingredients in a blender until frothy, about 1 min.

Preheat oven to 325*F. Place a third of the cheese onto bottom of par cooked pie shell. Top with half the cooked mushroom and leeks. Next, fill with half of the custard and sprinkle with another third of cheese. For the second half, place the rest of mushrooms and leeks into pie shell and fill with custard. Top with the remainder of cheese. Bake for at least 1 1/2 hours or until center of quiche has set. Let cool. While still in pan, trim the top of the crust so it has straight sides. Release quiche from pan and eat room temp or chilled.