‘Life is short, eat dessert first’ – I love this quote, as it reminds us to forget the routine and focus on living. This dish takes the quote literally as it is so healthy and nutritious, you can eat it for breakfast or serve it for dessert. Imagine your kids delight, when they sit down to breakfast and get apple pie! It has protein from the nuts and vitamin C from the apple and wins hands down in a nutritional competition versus most cereals.
This recipe just takes a little time with our trusted blender and the great thing about it is that each layer of the mixture tastes great on its own and can also be eaten as an energy snack, so 4 recipes in one.
You can also change the apples for pears and the walnuts for pecans and cashews for macadamias, so just see what you have to hand.
This is from peace and parsnips by Lee Watson, a vegan cooks dream with over 200 plant-based recipes.
I was going to switch back to posting a few savory recipes before posting this one, but having handed out a few portions for tastings, to my friends and neighbors, there was a plea to post this one. I take that as a thumbs up to this recipe and hope that you enjoy it as much as they did.
Ingredients
For the crust
- 5 cups (200g) cashew nuts
- 5 cups (200g) walnuts
- 1/3 cup (50g) dates
- ½ tsp. sea salt
For the filling
- 5 ounces (150g) dried apples, roughly chopped
- 2 cups (480ml) apple juice
- 13 ounces (375g) apples
- 1 tsp. lemon juice
- 8 dates, soaked until soft
- ½ tsp. nutmeg (optional)
- ½ tp. Cinnamon
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp. maple syrup
- ½ tsp. sea salt
For the topping
- 1 cup (90g) walnuts, finely chopped
- 4 dates, finely chopped
- ½ tsp. vanilla extract
- ½ tsp. cinnamon
Method
- Soak the dried apples in the apple juice for an hour
- To make the crust, blender all the crust ingredients until a crumble is formed. Gently press down into a baking tin, press down with a spoon and pop into the fridge for an hour
- To make the filling, drain the dried apples, core and chop the fresh apples (approx. 1 cmx1cm) and toss them in the lemon juice to stop them going brown
- Put half the fresh apples in the blender with the dates, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla extract, maple syrup and salt and blend till well combined. Add the rest of the fresh and dried apple to the mixture and spoon onto the pie crust
- To make the topping, mix together the walnuts, dates and vanilla in a bowl and spread over the top to form a crust. Sprinkle on the cinnamon.
- Cover and place in the fridge to chill. When ready to serve, carefully slice
