Hawaiian Mountain Apple Pie

Have I told you guys lately how much I love my job? Teaching yoga at the YMCA is so rewarding. One of the coolest things is about my job is all the fresh produce my students bring me. Yesterday, I received a bag of fresh Ginseng greens and a dozen Hawaiian Mountain Apples, fresh picked off the tree.

 I had never heard of a Mountain Apple, have you? My student called them by their Vietnamese name, so I was clueless. I enlisted the help of Facebook, and my clever friend recognized it immediately.

A little Google research revealed that they don't last long after picking, so I looked for a recipe to use them all in quickly. Rebekah's Ka'a'awa Mountain Apple Pie was a clear winner!

I veganized the recipe by swapping 1 TBSP of Smart Balance Vegan Margarine for the 3 TBSP of butter, and Raw Turbinado sugar for the regular stuff. I used a frozen crust that was dairy and egg free.

I'm not much of a crust artist - clearly Rebekah is from the looks of her pie! - so I always cut up strips from the 2nd crust in the package to decorate the top roughly. This crisscross shape results in "V is for Vegan" pie slices! ;)

The pie was delicious! It was sweet and tart all at the same time. It was even better after being chilled. Perfect for a hot summer day in Hawaii. Now I'm trying to figure out how I can get more Hawaiian Mountain Apples!

The last slice of pie is calling my name right now, and I'm going to close this post so I can do dig in!