Clearly I have a fever, and the only prescription is more tomatoes. I’m sorry to anyone who’s reading these that my last three recipes have featured the same vegetable, truly. This experience is teaching me that between late July and early August my diet shifts to be primarily tomato based, a funny and absurd thing to come to terms with.
At any rate, if you’ve never enjoyed a biscuit crust tomato and corn pie you need to rectify that situation now. It’s savory summertime perfection layered with vine ripened tomatoes, corn and basil... plus a little plant based cheese, salt and pepper. What more could you ask for?
So if you haven’t read up on how we grow tomatoes and care to do that, you can find the recipe by checking out our post about Gnocchi in Tomato Broth. If you’re only hear for this fantastic recipe, look no further.
The original source is Smitten Kitchen, this time from her blog.
I’ve altered the recipe, as I’m sure you’d guessed, since it is originally not plant based. Read on dear pie lovers.
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 3/4 teaspoons salt, divided
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons or 3 ounces) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes, plus 2 teaspoons melted (I used Miyoko’s cultured vegan butter)
3/4 cup milk (I used Silk soy milk)
1/3 cup Vegenaise
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 3/4 pounds beefsteak tomatoes (I used Striped German and regretted it for the aesthetics, yellow tomatoes with corn just looks like a whole mess of corn)
1 1/2 cups corn (from about 3 ears), coarsely chopped by hand or lightly puréed in a food processor, divided (I used a can because I didn’t have fresh corn available)
2 tablespoons finely chopped basil, divided
1 tablespoon finely chopped chives, divided (I skipped this)
1/4 teaspoon black pepper, divided
7ounces coarsely grated cheese (1 3/4 cups), divided (I used Parmela Creamery Mozzarella style aged nut cheese)
Whisk together flour, baking powder, and 3/4 tsp salt in a bowl, then blend in cold vegan butter (3/4 stick) with your fingertips or a pastry blender until it resembles coarse meal. Add plant based milk, stirring until mixture just forms a dough, then gather into a ball.
Divide dough in half and roll out one piece on a well-floured counter into a 12-inch round (1/8 inch thick). Fold the round gently in quarters, lift it into a 9-inch pie plate and gently unfold and center it. Pat the dough in with your fingers trim any overhang.
Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle. If your kitchen is excessively warm, as ours is, go ahead and put the second half of the dough in the fridge until you’re ready to use it. Whisk together vegenaise and lemon juice.
Cut an X in bottom of each tomato and blanch in a large pot of boiling water 10 seconds. Immediately transfer with a slotted spoon to an ice bath to cool. Peel tomatoes, then slice crosswise 1/4 inch thick and, if desired, gently remove seeds and extra juices. Arrange half of tomatoes in crust, overlapping, and sprinkle with half of corn, one tablespoon basil, 1/2 tablespoon chives, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon pepper and one cup of grated cheese. Repeat layering with remaining tomatoes, corn, basil, chives, salt, and pepper. Pour lemon vegenaise over filling and sprinkle with remaining cheese.
Roll out remaining piece of dough into a 12-inch round in same manner, then fit over filling, folding overhang under edge of bottom crust and pinching edge to seal. Cut 4 steam vents in top crust and brush crust with melted vegan butter (2 teaspoons). Bake pie until crust is golden and filling is bubbling, 30 to 35 minutes, then cool on a rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.