Vegan Fresh Strawberry Pie

An impressive fresh berry vegan pie with a crisp, flaky pastry. The golden crust is perfectly balanced with the soft, not-too-sweet strawberry filling – perfect with whipped coconut cream!

I got carried away while strawberry picking …

This recipe really came about from necessity. I came home with 4 kilograms of fresh strawberries, and while I love eating strawberries fresh, there is only so much one or two people can eat!

I had been missing my two young nephews, and decided, since it is strawberry season here, why not take them for a drive to the Polkadraai strawberry farm in Stellenbosch to go and pick our own strawberries straight from the farm.

It was a really special day, for me anyway, as I love spending time with these two boys, and I dote on them to no end.

We bought one bucket for each of them, which they proceeded to zealously fill. We washed them at a big tap outside, and the boys began to dig in … after a couple of minutes, there was a noteable change in the level of strawberries in their buckets, and a few minutes after that, their buckets were half-finished, and their mouths stained red. 🤣

Since I am in the habit of spoiling them, like any good aunty should, I bought them each another bucket to go and fill with more, so that at least they had a decent stash to take home.

After a second picking session in the strawberry fields, and lunch at a local restaurant, it was time to take them home.

The entire drive home was punctuated by the somewhat primal sounds of slurping and chomping coming from the backseats. My constant retorts of ‘save them for when you get home’ were drowned out by the sloshy cacophony!

When we made it back to drop them at home, upon inspection of their nearly-empty buckets, their attempts at feigning innocence were betrayed by the large red rings encircling their mouths, stained from the juice! It really was very cute…

Back to the pie, shall we?

I had all these strawberries, and wondered how to go about making a pie. After some experimentation, I finally had something which I thought would go down really well at a get-together or even at the Christmas table. It looks super festive!

The strawberries have a tartness, which is offset by just the right amount of sugar, and it contrasts so well with the sweet and buttery-tasting crispy pastry.

It is:

• light
• fresh
• fruity
• sweet but slightly tart
• flavourful
• buttery
• vegan
• crowd-pleaser

Vegan Fresh Strawberry Pie

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Recipe by Catherine Stevenson Course: DessertDifficulty: Easy

Servings

8

servings

Prep time

30

minutes

Cooking time

1

hour 

A fresh strawberry pie that bursts with berry flavours, has a delicious flaky golden pastry crust, and looks as festive as it tastes.

Ingredients

• one batch of my coconut oil pastry dough

• 600g or about 4 cups washed and halved fresh strawberries

• 1 Tbs lemon juice

• 2 Tbs vegan margarine/ Flora vegan/ vegan butter

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar

• 1/8 cup plant-based milk ( I used soya milk)

• 1 Tbs whiskey/brandy/sherry *optional

• zest of 1 lemon

• pinch salt

• 1/4 cup cornflour

• 1/2Tbs vanilla essence

• granulated sugar, for sprinkling

• extra plant-based milk for brushing pastry

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 180C and grease a 20cm pie dish.
• Divide the pastry dough in half. Roll out one half of the dough and carefully line the bottom of the pie dish. You may need to tidy the pastry shell once in the dish and patch up cracks or holes with your fingers.
  Set aside the lined pie dish and the other half of the dough in the fridge.
• Place 1 cup of the strawberries into a bowl and roughly mash with a fork.
  Add the lemon juice to the mashed berries.
• Place the mashed berry mixture in a saucepan or small pot over a medium low heat.
  Add the margarine/vegan butter, sugar, plant-based milk, brandy/liquor if using, lemon zest, salt, and cornflour. Whisk together well.
• Cook mixture, while stirring, for about 2 minutes, or until it becomes fairly thick.
• Remove from heat and let it sit at room temperature, stirring every now and then, until it is cool to the touch. To speed this up, you can put it in the fridge until it is cooled.
• Add the rest of the halved berries to the cooled corn flour mixture, and mix well.
• Spoon the strawberry mixture into your pastry case and level the top.
• Roll out the other half of the dough and cut into strips to create a lattice top. Instruction video in notes.
• Once the pastry lattice is on top of the pie, brush the pastry with a little more plant-based milk, then sprinkle extra granulated sugar on top.
• Place in the oven for between 45-60 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown.
• Cool completely before cutting.
• I recommend to serve with whipped coconut cream.

Notes

• Here are some great instructions from Simply Recipes on how to create a lattice pastry crust.
• If you prefer a video tutorial, here is a great one.
• Here is the link for my vegan pie crust.
• Recipe adapted from this recipe.