There’s an amazing group in my community that works to reduce food waste. We gift unwanted food for free to other members so that that food will be used and not wasted. I picked up a box of food from one of these offerings and inside was a container of berry pie filling. It’s not something I would typically buy, and it was far too sweet to use in most dishes. Being determined to use the food and not waste it, I decided to make hand pies.
I had every intention of making these pies into beautiful and symmetrical shapes, but I was working with little helpers and decided that letting them have a larger role in the process was more important than the food being beautiful.
I searched the internet for vegan pie crust recipes that I could make with whatever I had in the pantry. After finding a recipe we whipped up the pie dough and rolled it out. We added the filling and baked the pies for breakfast on a cold morning. They were delicious!
We had enough filling to make two recipes, so after we sampled our pies and decided they were worth eating again, we made a second batch and stuck it in the freezer for another day. I love having food in the freezer for busy days.
Saving one can of pie filling from going to waste isn’t going to save the world, but I like to incorporate these small practices into my daily life. It’s a little reminder to not waste, to appreciate what we have, to make the best choice available, and to have fun while doing it.
Nice. Do you have a link to the pie crust recipe?
I loosely followed this recipe: https://www.noracooks.com/vegan-pie-crust/ . I didn’t have any shortening, so I used coconut oil instead. It did impart some coconut flavor, but I think it paired nicely with the berry filling. I would not recommend using coconut oil in a savory pie crust though.