As I mentioned in my previous post, I have not made a tomato pie in about 15 years. But I got inspired when Ron’s and my friend Shawn dropped by with some of his garden goodness, which included several pounds of heirloom tomatoes.
At first, I thought I would use the tomatoes to make a marinara, but then I remembered Tomato Pie! No question now, I would be making that.
My challenge would be in finding a recipe for a crust that isn’t made from refined white flour.
It may not be an issue for you, but we eat based on a Nutritarian diet, which has as its foundation the formula
H=N/C
“What does that mean?” you may be asking.
It stands for “Health equals the Ratio of Nutrition to Calories.” In other words, eat food that has high nutrition and low caloric value to achieve optimum health. So, I’m sorry to say, refined flours do not fit the equation. Hence, I needed to find a truly healthful crust recipe.
And what better place to start than the website of the doctor who is a major proponent of the Nutritarian Diet, Joel Fuhrman? I am a lifetime member (which was gifted because I participated in a year-long nutrition study that he organized) and so I have access to his vast recipe library. I found a good crust recipe that is suitable for savory dishes. After a bit of modification, I think it came out fantastic!
In case you’re wondering, the base I used for the crust was almond flour, even though Dr. Fuhrman’s recipe calls for walnuts. (It’s true: I don’t like walnuts!)
As per the recipe, I par-baked the crust for about 12 minutes.
About an hour earlier, I had sliced the tomatoes and set them on a towel to drain off the excess juice. I didn’t use salt, because we don’t add salt to anything (well, except my homemade miso, but that’s for another post). But the towel worked well enough on its own to get most of the juice out. I sprinkled the tomatoes with some salt-free TJ’s 21 Seasoning Salute, which contains dried herbs, onion, and garlic, so I figured that would take up some of the tomato moisture, too.
I realized that the small heart-shaped dishes would be best filled with smaller tomatoes. Thankfully, Shawn’s garden bounty came with small tomatoes. So I sliced and drained enough to fill the hearts; I just didn’t take a photo of them.
The tomato part of the pie came from this recipe by Your Weird Vegan Friend. Her pie photos looked enticing.
But, as is typical for me, I made a few alterations to the recipe. I guess it’s just in my nature to get creative, even with a tried-and-true family dish.
I subbed out the onions for diced sautéed fennel bulb, then added chopped spinach. I also had some leftover kale sautée from two nights previous. It included onion, mushrooms, bell pepper, and tomatoes. So I chopped it all up and tossed it in with the fennel and spinach. What a great way to add a lot more low-calorie nutrition to my pie!
Instead of using vegan cheese by itself as per the recipe, I made a plant-based cream cheese layer. It included a couple of slices of Daiya vegan provolone, some TJ’s vegan cream cheese, Dijon mustard, and my homemade cashew créme. It was well worth the extra effort.
I left out the olives and capers from the recipe because I wanted my pie to be ALL ABOUT THE TOMATOES.
My 15+ years of both veganizing and altering recipes paid off once again. The tomato pie was absolutely delicious!
And so pretty.
(The dark bits are dried crushed basil; it wasn’t burned even though it kind of appears that way.)
BONUS: The crust remained crunchy! That’s another thing I dislike about white flour “crusts”: They always look great on the top with some fancy pastry leaves or cut-out designs or lattices, and the wavy edges get nice and toasty, but the bottom is mushy, and the inside of the crust gets pasty, too. Gross. Easting paste is not my thing.
Well, this pie was so good that we ate two-thirds of the big dish for dinner, AND there are leftovers, enough that I gave my friend Karla one of the heart pies.
This pie says I won’t be cooking dinner tonight!
As always, I wish you excellent health, well-being, and life-affirming creativity!💖
Oh wow! That looks so delicious, and beautiful!! I love how you get creative with recipes!! And, I'd love to hear about your year-long nutrition study sometime (perhaps in Mesa)!! ❤️❤️💖
I am impressed with your creativity, just amazing. I am still giving away tomatoes to my neighbors on my improvised fruit stand made from a lounge chair. Best wishes to you and Ron.