The Key is in the Lime, Pie

I love to experiment with flavors, solidifiers, and crumbs, in an effort to come up with a commonly known result in my own, unique way. I do not like it to be difficult and I like that it can be replicated.  Most importantly, I have learned after a massive mistake I made in 2015 with not writing down the ingredient measurements for literally the most amazing key lime pie I ever made. It was stiff and yet creamy. The texture melted softly in your mouth like an ice cream will, and yet, the flavors had you begging for more.  I was doing some testing that day and it worked, but what I wasn’t doing is writing it down. The only thing I have left is this photo, my only living memory of that amazing day in Basel, Switzerland.

What I love about pies like this is that creativity is essential if we want to replicate pies that are not vegan friendly, with vegan ingredients and still have them taste exactly the same (or better) without any animal products.

With that said, Sandy and I are fortunate enough to have two amazing friends who happen to be from the United States like me, and live only one hundred meters away. Since he, David, loves Key Lime Pie, I decided to make one for him two days ago as a treat, but it failed miserably. Today, I have made another for him and here is how I did it.

This pie is not difficult, you just need certain ingredients that may not be laying around your house, patience, and of course, to follow the recipe to the best of your ability.

The Crust

This is a simple crust, and I made it with healthier ingredients than normal to cut out some of the fat you might find in a typical crust.

15 medium sized vegan cookies, unsweetened if possible
1 cup dates
¼-½ cups of water

Method
In a food processor, crumble the cookies down, then add the dates and some of the water and incorporate the three. When you sense you can press the crust together and it will stick, you are done. If no, add a little bit more water until you are able to accomplish this. The result should look something like this:

Once you are done, you can place it in the refrigerator if you like, though it is not necessary. If you make this with butter, which is the more traditional way, you will want to refrigerate it to ensure the crust hardens and stays in place.

The Pie Filling

Zest of 6 limes
Juice of those same 6 limes
1 ½  cups water
1 tablespoon of agar agar
¼ cup agave
10 ounces of sugar free soya yogurt
10 ounces of coconut cream
1 cup cashews
1/3 cup spinach leaves

The Method
First we are going to make the filling for the pie.
In a blender add the cashews and ½ cup of water. Blend until they are smooth. If you do not have a high-powered blender you should soak the nuts over night or in boiling water for 15-20 minutes to soften them up. We want this to be creamy.

Once you have the cashews creamy, now you can add 2/3s of the zest, agave, yogurt, coconut cream, lime juice, and spinach leaves. Blend this until they fully come together to look like a green cream. If you do not want your pie to have a green hue to it, you are welcome to exclude the spinach. You will not taste it in the pie, but it does an excellent job of giving your pie a nice light green hue.

Now we want to mix together the agar. This will be used to solidify the key lime pie so that it sits firmly on your plate. Do not worry, agar agar, a carrageenan and is completely harmless and comes from seaweed. If you do, you will find there are two types, one, which you find in additives like agar-agar or kappa, and the degraded carrageenan which is not safe to eat. The latter is also linked with colon cancer. I only mention this because there is so much talk that is spread around about these two different ingredients that both come from seaweed.

In a pot, add one cup of water and the agar-agar over a medium heat. Agar-agar needs to reach the boiling point to be effective, that is to say, where it will start to gel. With a whisk, keep stirring this mixture to ensure there are no clumps and it is smooth. Continue until it starts to boil. When it is boiling (not a full boil, just enough that bubbles are popping up) you remove it from the heat. Note, it will also be thickening at this time too.

Add the agar-agar gel to the mousse and mix together with a hand mixer of your choice. You want to make sure that they are one-hundred percent incorporated. When you are complete, it will be a creamy, somewhat thick, bowl of beautifulness, and it will look something like this:

We are in the home stretch

Gently pour your key lime mixture into the bowl where you already made your crust. Once you have it full, tap it down a few times on the counter to pull out any air bubbles. They do not hurt the pie, but when you cut into it later, you will not want to see them, you will want those nice solid slices of creamy loveliness awaiting your fork, or spoon, or fingers, or all three.

Sprinkle some of the remaining zest on the top for aesthetics and then place it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours to give the pie time to set. It should look something like this when done:

 

•         •     •

I want to tell you about why these recipes are all plant based, that is, they are all vegan friendly. I want to share with you my ideas on why I feel it is important, how I got there, and where I continue to go.

There are four main areas that I focus on when thinking about veganism and why it is a part of my life.

One, for the animals.

I am not an active activist. I have been to a couple of protests, but I realize they get me into a place of anger and resentment towards human beings for not understanding the suffering of animals, and honestly, I do not handle it well. Others, friends of mine, are amazing activists, some of which are excellent at taking away the fight and raising the cognitive level of discourse about animal suffering. I am envious of those friends.

If you include all animals in the numbers of which are killed every day, you will not believe how large that number is. Let me break it down for you, in a very simple way. This blog takes me roughly three hours to write (seems like a lot of time for a few words doesn’t it?). In the three hours of me writing this blog, 375,000,000 animals were killed for food. This includes our friends of the sea. I know that number seems hard to believe, but it is very true. If you go to animalclock.org, you can follow the count along.

In western cultures, we segregate animals into classes. Much like driving a vehicle in India, where there is a hierarchy to the road, we apply the same to animals. For instance, we do not eat dogs as they are our best friends, but bacon from pigs is no problem. I should point out, that only dogs are only a bit smarter than pigs and separated by cats in the middle. Pigs feel pain of family loss, suffer emotions, can cry, and yet, in many “hog farms” they are kept in cages so tight that they cannot stand, turn their bodies, itch their backs, or move at all. I have a friend from a long time ago, he has had a pig for over twenty years as a pet, which lives in his home. Is cleaner, cleaner than his dog, and better potty trained. Ok, his tableside manners leave a bit to be desired with those cute grunting noises he makes while chewing, but that bothers me even when humans do it, so it doesn’t count.

I can tell you hundreds of stories of animals suffering, but I just want you to know what keeps me awake at night, when I think about the food choices I make.

Two, for my health

Do you know those tasty street corner hotdogs and bacon are classified as class-1 carcinogens? In case you are wondering, that is the same as smoking.  I suppose if you are a smoker you do not much care about that statistic, but your body does. There are more and more links to cancer through the food we eat, and more. Do you know where cholesterol comes from? There are two sources, what comes from your liver, which is a good cholesterol that your body needs, and the other is food. But, what food would that be? Only foods that contain animal meat, dairy, or eggs. You love that dairy yogurt or cheese; they both can raise your cholesterol. Seafood, steak, other meats, sardines, etc. are all sources of cholesterol.

Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn's, a doctor at the Cleveland Clinic, wrote a book called Prevent & Reverse Heart Disease. In this book he outlines his work over decades where he has in one hundred percent of his cases, reversed heart disease through a plant-based diet. Not, ninety-nine, but one-hundred percent. Only in the cases where the subjects did not stick to his diet recommendations were there outliers.

T. Colin Campbell wrote a book called The China Study. This study is based on work he did for many years which showed those who ingested animal-based foods were linked to coronary disease, breast cancer, prostate cancer, bowel cancer, and diabetes. Those who ate a whole food plant-based diet, escaped these diseases, and reversed such illnesses from growing.

As a child, every single day on television I was told to drink milk, it was good for my body and made my bones strong.  Today, we see more research pointing to the detriment of ingesting animal milk, including osteoporosis.

I choose to minimize my risk of dying by the food I eat. I plan on living to be 110, it seems like a good number and who knows, maybe when I am 100, I will change my mind and want to live to be 120.

Three, for World Hunger

I am not sure if you are aware of how much food is grown to feed animals, but the numbers are insanely high.  Here is a direct quote from earthsave.org.

                “It takes 2,500 gallons of water, 12 pounds of grain, 35 pounds of topsoil and the energy                equivalent of one gallon of gasoline to produce one pound of feedlot beef.”

Can you imagine how many families could eat dinner on twelve pounds of grain alone? It goes a lot further than the one pound of beef that is created for sure. Additionally, we lose two thousand five hundred gallons of water for that one pound of beef.  I do not have it in me to say I want a burger knowing how many more people could eat if they had the grain alone as their own food.  

And finally four, for the PLANET

Here is a quote from timeforchange.org with the science behind cows and methane.
                “A cow does on overage release between 70 and 120 kg of Methane per year. Methane is a          greenhouse gas like carbon dioxide (CO2). But the negative effect on the climate of Methane is            23 times higher than the effect of CO2. Therefore, the release of about 100 kg Methane per year for each cow is equivalent to about 2’300 kg CO2 per year.

                Let’s compare this value of 2’300 kg CO2: The same amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) is    generated by burning 1’000 liters of petrol. With a car using 8 liters of petrol per 100 km, you could drive 12’500 km per year (7’800 miles per year).”

Our planet is warming up at an alarming rate and we cannot stop it without making changes to what we put on our plate. It is interesting to me. In California, as an example, water consumption for the home (showers, food, lawns, etc.) only make up about ten percent of water consumption, while livestock farming is over forty percent. Yet, when there is a drought, the residents are told to take short showers and stop washing their cars. Why not ask the livestock farmers to stop impregnating more cows, chickens, turkeys and more, to stop the increase of water usage?

Livestock farming now utilizes thirty percent of the planets land surface. In our homes we may not see that because we live in areas where we see one cow farm every fifty miles and think it is not possible. But in places like the amazon where forests are being burned down to create live stock fields, and grain fields to feed those livestock, it is a much different story to tell.

In closing, I really do not want to make this a conversation about what is right or wrong. For the record, I do not spend a lot of time with many vegans in my community because they want to close the doors to those who do not see the world the same way they do. I prefer to use my energy in a more positive manner, by educating, mostly through food. If you eat something I make, I promise you will finish with a smile. I also promise you I will be thankful because they are one or two less bites into an animal product. I would be a hypocrite if I said someone who ate animals was a bad person because it was what I did too, for a large part of my life. We all grow, and we all change in our own ways, my hope is that one bite at a time, I can make a positive difference in these four areas that encompass my plant based lifestyle.