Last Vegan MoFo Iron Chef Challenge: Carrot & Apple Pie

I'm sad and happy today. Happy to bring you a iron chef challenge recipe that I am really enjoying as I type ;) and happy that with this post, I'm completing my first Vegan MoFo! But sad to see it be over too. More on that below. Let's talk pie!

The ingredients for the challenge were carrots and oats. I thought about lots of different options, but decided to go for pie. And I L.O.V.E. the way it turned out! The only thing I would change is my distribution of ingredients. I just mixed it all together and plopped it in the pie. As you can see in the picture, some pieces are more heavily apple or carrot than others, so I'd place them more carefully next time. The bites with apple and carrot together are definitely the best!

What you need:

4 Crisp Apples, cored and peeled, and sliced thin.

5 Medium Carrots, peeled, and sliced lengthwise.

1/3 Cup Raisins

1 Pie Shell (Frozen, or per your own recipe)

Lemon Juice (enough to coat apples)

3 TBSP All Purpose Flour

1 Cup of Sugar (3/4 cup for pie, 1/4 cup for topping).

1/2 Cup of Rolled Oats

1/4 Cup Earth Balance, melted

1 Heaping Tsp. Cinnamon

1/2 Tsp. Allspice

What you do:

Prep your pie shell if you aren't using frozen.

Preheat the oven to 350.

Bring a pot of water to boil while your prep the apples and veggies.

Boil the carrots until just tender.

Meanwhile, mix the apples, lemon juice, raisins, 3/4 cup of sugar, flour, spices, in a mixing bowl. 

When the carrots are done, drain and add to the mixing bowl. Incorporate well.

Add to the mix to the pie shell - being careful to evenly spread apples and carrots, and tamp it down lightly with the back of a spoon.

In the same mixing bowl (so you get any leftover sugar, spice, and juice), add the melted Earth Balance, Oats, and remaining 1/4 cup of sugar. Mix well, and then spread evenly over the top of the pie.

Place the pie on a baking sheet to protect the oven from spills.

Bake for 40-45 minutes, until the oat topping is crunch and the crust is golden.

Cool on a cooling rack for an hour, steal a slice, then chill in the refrigerator. 

It really is good. Just like apple pie, but will a little bit more earthiness combined with the sweetness. I might try less sugar next time, too.

The Oat topping is so crunchy and good! I never would have thought to add oats to a pie, but I'm glad the challenge took me in that direction. 

And now, about the end of Vegan MoFo 2011. I'm so happy to have met so many awesome Vegan Bloggers! I look forward to catching up on reading and cooking the recipes of others now that the writing portion is done.

But most of all, I hope to stay involved in the community! 

If you are here because of the challenge, I'd love to see you stick around. Take a moment if you'd like, to follow on the right, or add the RSS feed. (My feed wasn't correct in the original bundle.) Or, find me on Facebook or Twitter. My handle is KristenDSG. I'd love to see you again!

With a big cheesy grin and misty eyes... Happy End of MoFo everybody!