when i lived in knoxville, there was a great scottish pub. little did i know that the scots like everything ala pie, my kind of people. one of the more decadent pies to select from was a macaroni pie. now with various allergies, the real shabang is out of the question so i created a vegan version. dudes enjoy……and raise a pint to the macaroni pie!

how can you go wrong when there is pie crust involved

RECIPE: VEGAN MACARONI PIE

serves 4

DOUGH

2.5 cups flour

1/2 cup ice cold water

1 cup vegan butter or all vegetable shortening

1/8 cup applesauce

1 TBSP vodka

MACARONI AND CHEESE

4 cups macaroni noodles

3 cups shredded diaya cheddar cheese

1/2 cup dairy free sour cream or plain yogurt

1 TBSP nutritional yeast

1 tsp onion powder

1/2 TBSP ground mustard

1/2 tsp black pepper

3 TBSP soy or almond milk

olive oil for coating

*set oven to 375 F

* cook macaroni according to package directions, while macaroni noodles are cooking start on your pie dough

*in a large mixing bowl combine flour and butter, the butter needs to be cut into the flour, you do this by using a pastry cutter or forks, cut the butter into the flour until it forms crumbles. mix in applesauce and vodka, use a wooden spoon to mix till dough becomes moist. gradually add in ice cold water, you may not need it all, only add enough till the dough is slightly sticky and is not dry and crumbly. pie dough works best when it’s at room temp!

* when noodles are cooked and drained mix in the rest of the mac & cheese ingredients together with the noodles. stir till nice and creamy, helps to get this effect if the noodles are still nice and hot when you start mixing them.

* oil 4 pot pie pans with a small amount of olive oil, don’t want nothing stickin! roll your dough as if you were making a full size pie. about 18 inches in circumference and 1/4 in thick. cut the rolled dough into four equal squares.

* scoop 1 cup of mac & cheese into each of the pot pie pans. next place one dough square on top of the pie pans filled with mac & cheese. sculpt the extra dough around the edges inward to form the pie crust edge. brush on olive oil on top of pie crust to help it brown

*bake for 25 minutes until crust becomes golden