1 food 5 ways, Mushrooms, Way #3: Sloppy Joe Pie (new and improved gluten free crust!) & Bonus EZPZ Pie

Yesterday was a nice break. After cycling class this morning, I was ready to get back in the kitchen and try Mushroom way #3. I originally was going to make a cheeseburger pie, but it morphed into this Sloppy Joe Pie. I'm so glad it did. It's just the way I like my food: saucy with a little kick.

Even better than the pie is a new and improved pie crust. My sister, who has a lot of the same allergies I have, has recently discovered a problem with cane sugar and tapioca. She's ok with the little bit of tapioca in the daiya, but was afraid of the crust that relied heavily on tapioca starch). So the mission was pie crust without tapioca and using agave. Since I was no longer using my go to flour mix with the tapioca, I decided to ditch the brown rice flour too. I've never been a big fan. I find it to be gritty and a little hard to work with. This new crust was easier to work with, didn't get too hard on the edges (where its doubled up a little from pinching it together) and had a better texture after baking too. The recipe is for two single crust pies or a double crust pie. So I had enough to make an EZPZ Apple pie for dessert!

Sloppy Joe Pie:
1-9" deep dish pie

1 prepared gluten-free, cane sugar free pie crust (recipe follows)

Filling:

2 tsp olive oil

1 medium yellow onion, diced

3 cups cremini mushrooms cut in large dice

1-1/2 cups cooked green or brown lentils
2 Tbsp water
1 tsp salt

2 tsp liquid smoke, optional but recommended (some flavors/brands have sugar, others dont)
fresh ground black pepper to taste

Filling Sauce:
6 oz can of Tomato Paste
1/2 cup water
1 Tbsp Agave

2 tsp yellow prepared mustard

Topping:
1 cup cheddar style Daiya vegan cheese (Gluten and Soy-Free!!)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 and have pie crust prepared and waiting.

Prepare filling: Heat oil in cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add onions and saute until translucent, about 5 minutes. While the onions are cooking, mix all sauce ingredients in a small bowl and set aside. Add mushrooms and 2 Tbsp water and continue to cook until the mushrooms are soft, about 5 more minutes. Add salt, pepper and liquid smoke and cook for another 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Add the lentils and stir until well combined. Add sauce and stir to mix well.

Put the filling in the crust. If it doesn't go quite to the top, roll the crust edges in toward the filling a little bit. Sprinkle the daiya on top.

Bake 45 minutes. Check it at about 30 and cover the edges with foil if the crust is getting too dark.

Here's a look at a single piece. To tell you the truth, neither of us could eat just one piece.

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Gluten-free, cane sugar free pie crust:

1/2 cup arrowroot

3/4 cup garfava flour (garbanzo and fava bean flour)

3/4 cup sorghum flour

1 tsp xanthan gum

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup soy-free vegan shortening (like Spectrum)

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1 Tbsp agave nectar

1/2 cup very cold water (you may end up needing a little bit more for desired consistency)

Directions:

A little tip to start out with - I think it helps if the shortening is cold, so I put it in the freezer for about 10 minutes before I start mixing anything.

Put the first 5 ingredients in a fine mesh sieve and "sift" into a medium mixing bowl. Divide the shortening into thirds. Add 1/3 of the shortening into the flour mixture and cut into the flour mixture. Repeat with each of the other two thirds. There should be no big chunks of shortening, just little flour-y crumbles.

In a small bowl, mix the vinegar, water and agave. Again working in 3 batches, mix the water/vinegar mixture into the dry ingredients with a fork. The dough should hold together. If you need to add a little more water to achieve a good dough consistency, you can. (I think I needed about a tsp extra this time)

Gather the dough into a ball and knead until it all holds together. Form into a ball and flatten out a bit. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes. After 30 minutes it is ready to roll. Keep some of the garfava on hand for folling. Lightly flour the surface (I use wax paper taped to the counter) and the rolling pin.

Use about 1/2 of the dough for a single crust deep dish pie. Roll out and place in pie pan. If the pastry cracks, just use your fingers dipped to "heal" it.

Please note: This crust is a little browner to begin with than most pastry crusts (because of the agave), so you may end up with a darker than usual crust. Mine was a little darker than ideal, but it's certainly not burned. You may be able to cover the crust a little earlier than you would with a regular pie crust and solve that.

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BONUS EZPZ Apple Pie:

Never thought you'd see an apple pie in a post about mushrooms, did you? Me either.
But I had extra dough and a 32 oz jar of EZPZ Pies Apple Pie filling, so I made a bonus pie!

Roll out the crust, put it in the pan, pour in the filling. I had a little crust leftover, so I cut out stars to top the pie. If I had used a 9" deep dish, instead of a 10" deep dish, there may have even been enough for a lattice crust on top. Or I could have used the crumble topping recipe on the jar (which I didn't think of until after the fact!)


Let me tell you a little bit about EZPZ Pies apple pie filling: It has no high fructose corn syrup, no artificial colors, no trans fat and no gluten! It's full of crisp-tender apples and perfectly seasoned.

The founders of EZPZ Pies are dear friends of mine who have a heart for children and the family. The proceeds from the pie fillings go toward funding their own adoption (which should be complete soon!!) and to support other adoptive families. Please support them if you can! You will not be disappointed in this product! (Note: the crumble crust topping that is included the gift baskets is not gluten-free, but the recipe for the topping is on the pie filling jar so you can use soy-free earth balance and your own gluten-free flour and that should work just fine. If you don't happen to be gluten-free, the topping mix has no butter in it already, so you can just use your usual butter replacement)

Note after eating the apple pie: be careful to roll the crust out thin. I left the stars thicker so they didn't get quite as cooked and were a little beany tasting. The crust itself was not like that presumably because it was thin and cooked thoroughly.

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Happy for a good kitchen day! Hope the next experiment works as well. How did yours go today?