Carrot pie! (paleo, AIP, vegan)

Author: Julie Hunter

Recipe type: Paleo, autoimmune protocol, sibo diet/vegan friendly

Cuisine: Let's call it...old school frontier cooking that should never have been lost

Prep time: 30 mins

Cook time: 45 mins

Total time: 1 hour 15 mins

Serves: 1 8-inch pie

Readers - let not any old preconceptions of our humble Vitamin-A-filled friend prevent you from taking a chance on this one. Stand aside squash, push over pumpkin, scram sweet potato, you've met your match in this sleeper root agent. To be honest, stumbled upon this in a total mad-sibo-diet-induced-hail-mary-haze to create something for breakfast that didn't taste like meat or veggies (seriously, AIP SIBO is tough). Was delighted to discover that carrot makes the smoothest custard with no need for any additional sweetener! Just some good flavor enhancers (salt, cinnamon), handy fat, and ta da - pie filling! Kicked it up a notch for the actual pie, but I swear to you now and until I get sick of it, carrot pie is my new favorite of the entire gourd-root-pie genre. Never a smoother, naturally sweet, complex custard pie did your tastebuds yet meet whilst fulfilling their vegetable quotient for the day. Give it a try (oh yeah your wallet will thank you also).

Ingredients

Carrot filling
2 pounds orange carrots (other colors could be fun)
1 cup coconut milk (solid part of can)
1 tb ground cinnamon
1 tsp sea salt
2 tsps nutmeg or mace for AIP
2 tsps ground ginger
1 tb grassfed butter (P), ghee (AIP re-intro) or
coconut oil (V)
2 eggs (paleo), 2 tb grassfed gelatin (AIP) or agar agar (V)
3-5 stevia drops (optional, non-AIP) or 2 tb maple syrup (optional)
1 tsp vanilla extract
Crust
mint sprigs (optional), whipped coconut cream or heavy coconut cream (creme anglaise-style) for serving

Instructions

Clean, rough chop, and boil all of the carrots in a pot on the stove (can add some water, ~1 cup) until carrots are very soft and water is mostly boiled off (you can add more if the carrots don't seem done/soft).
While carrots are boiling, make the crust: mix flours and salt, and then cut in cold lard with a pastry cutter. Add water a tablespoon at a time until the mixture adheres and can be shaped into a ball. Flatten into a disc, cover in wrap and refrigerate while you prepare the filling.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
When carrots are cooked, blend with a stick blender. Add all other filling ingredients and keep blending (if using eggs, wait until carrot mixture has cooled some before blending those in) until super smooth. Check flavor and adjust seasoning/sweetness as desired.
Roll out dough and lay in 8-inch pie plate (9-inch probably also okay). Cut off any extra and reserve to make essential carrot crust cut-out decorations. Flute edges.
If using egg version: pour filling into pie crust, smooth out if needed. Bake at 375 for ~40-45 minutes, or until top has darkened.
If using gelatin/agar-agar: pre-bake the pie crust at 375 until crust has darkened/hardened. Remove from oven and pour in pie filling, then set in fridge to solidify.
Decorate as desired (rabbits, mint carrot tops, and anything to do with Bugs Bunny highly encouraged).

Recipe by J.S. Hunter Fiction at https://jshunterfiction.com/carrot-pie-paleo-aip-vegan/