Vegan Summer Fare-Blueberry Pie

By Linda Lovely

Here's another dessert that would my vegan chef heroine, Brie Hooker, would be pleased to serve to her friends. I'm posting vegan recipes every other Friday. Okay,  I'm on a dessert kick at the moment, but blueberries are in season. Still picking from my bushes.

Blueberry Pie Filling

For baked single-crust 9-inch pie

5 cups fresh BLUEBERRIES

4 tablespoons of cornstarch

3/4 cup sugar

Pinch salt

½ + Tsp. Lemon zest (grated lemon peel)

1 Tblsp + Lemon juice

½ Cup Water

In a 1 quart pan, thoroughly stir/mix the sugar & cornstarch. This ensures no lumps. Then add 2 cups of blueberries, the lemon peel, lemon juice and water. Cook over medium high heat. You need to stir constantly after it starts bubbling. It will come to a full boil and thicken rapidly after it does. It’ll be almost like paste when it’s ready. Take the pan off the heat and fold in the 3 cups of uncooked blueberries. Then spoon the combined mixture into your baked pie crust. Let cool, then refrigerate.

Not a vegan? You can serve with ice cream or whipped cream. A vegan? The pie’s good solo or with one of the nondairy ice creams.

Hints: Buy a real, fresh lemon. Use a grater to zest the skin, then squeeze the lemon and remove the seeds. I use half the lemon zest and half the lemon juice for one pie. You can refrigerate the rest of the lemon juice/zest for your next pie, which will be baked tomorrow if your family eats blueberry pie like mine does.

The uncooked berries are what makes this pie so delicious. You can make the pie with frozen/defrosted berries but it won’t have the same texture and will tend to be more watery. But in the winter, it’s still a treat.