We’ll take just about any excuse to bake up something delicious (and sustainable). And Pi Day (3/14) is as good a reason as any to celebrate our favorite meals cooked up in the round. These pie and pie-adjacent recipes cover all the bases, from sweet to savory and from stick-to-your-ribs suppers to light and bright pizza pies.
Brown sugar apple galette
Think of a galette like a free-form pie that bakes directly on a cookie sheet, but with a higher crust-to-fruit ratio (mmmm more crust). You just pile some fruit in the center and fold the dough over the edges with zero stress about making it perfect—it’s meant to be rustic! Galettes look impressive—and taste delicious—even with all their charming irregularities. Bonus: You can eat ’em while they’re hot.
Gardener’s Pie (aka lentil sheperd’s pie)
If a shepherd’s pie is made with lamb and a cottage pie calls for beef, then we’re dubbing our version—overflowing with lentils and veggies in an umami-rich gravy—gardener’s pie. This recipe relies on a few cheat codes to get maximum flavor in the shortest time possible. We’re leaning on precooked canned lentils, frozen veggies, canned tomatoes, and Marmite, a go-to pantry umami-booster, to make the filling. You can totally use dried lentils and cook ’em yourself, but we’re in this for the quickest laziest comfort we can get.
Mushroom and leek quiche
Quiche may be an obvious choice if you’re trying to use up eggs, but how do you make the custard base without heavy cream? Sure, you could simply swap it for a plant-based milk, but your filling won’t be quite as luxurious. To solve this quiche conundrum, our spin includes a quick plant-based bechamel to help set up the filling for smooth and silky success. First we make a roux, a cooked mixture of flour and nondairy butter, before whisking in oat milk and our fave faux-cheesy addition, nutritional yeast.
Zucchini butter pizza (pie)
In this bright supper, creamy zucchini butter replaces tomato sauce in a dairy-free pie that celebrates the other seasonal bounty. Normally, we’d advise against adding grated zucchini to a crust unless you want a soggy-bottomed mess. Zucchini butter, though, is a perfect solution because the moisture mostly evaporates in the cooking process. Plus: Its shallot-perfumed oil seeps into the crust, and the shredded squash gets an irresistible char on the edges.