Vegan Pie Crust — The Foundation You Keep Ready

Brandon made breakfast on Saturday — pancakes from a box, as is the custom — and I drank my coffee and let him. The week was a winter week, the kind where the light through the kitchen window arrives at a particular angle and the freezer hums in a different register depending on the temperature in the garage. I made notes in my prep notebook on Sunday afternoon, the way I always do: meal name, ingredient list, cost per serving, prep time, freezer instructions. Twenty-eight bags. Two hours and eleven minutes. A little slow this week, by my standards, but Brandon was helping and the conversation was good, and I have learned, slowly and against my own grain, that the conversation is sometimes the point and the time is sometimes a courtesy I extend to my husband for being willing to chop onions on a Sunday afternoon.

The children are doing what they do, which is the central report of every week of my adult life. Ethan is 21, finishing his mission in the Philippines. We have a countdown calendar on the fridge — Olivia's idea, executed in her handwriting, which is mine. Olivia is 19, at BYU studying elementary education — the path she chose at age seven and has not deviated from once. Mason, 17, is in Brazil on his mission. His weekly emails are short and full of jokes. He does not write much about the work. He writes about the food. Lily is 15, in high school, asking the kind of questions in Sunday School that make the teachers uncomfortable, which I find difficult and also, secretly, admirable. Noah is 12, in high school, deeply involved in the drama program — the Larson kid most likely to make a career out of being looked at. That is the family report. I do not have a system for these reports. I just listen and remember and call back when I said I would call back, which is most of the time and not all of the time, and the difference between most and all is the territory of motherhood.

I do not preach in this blog. I never have. My faith is in here the way air is in a room — invisible, essential, not discussed. I am still a Latter-day Saint. I am also a woman who has sat in front of a casket the size of a bread box. I do not see those two things as contradictions, but I do not pretend they sit easily together either. The bench in the chapel where I sit on Sunday is the same bench. The woman is not. The faith makes room for the woman. That is what I have learned to ask of it.

The recipe of the week was shepherd's pie, which I have made some specific number of times in my life and have refined to a system that I now hand to other people in printed form. The version I made this week fed eight, cost under fifteen dollars, and required twenty-six minutes of active prep, which is within my requirements and not a coincidence. I taught a freezer meal class this week and someone cried at the cost-per-serving column on the handout. I took the cry as a compliment. I have stopped explaining the freezer-meal philosophy to people who already follow my work, and I have stopped apologizing for it to people who do not. The philosophy is simple: tomorrow is coming whether you are ready or not. You can either be ready or not. I pick ready.

The week ends the way most of them do — with a labeled bag, a tomorrow, a kitchen light I leave on for no one in particular, and a quiet that holds.

The shepherd’s pie I made this week runs on a good crust — and this is the one I keep in rotation alongside the labeled bags. A vegan pie crust made ahead on Sunday means the week has one fewer decision in it, which is the entire point of Sunday prep. I roll them out, wrap them flat, stack them in the freezer, and let them wait. They are always ready before I need them, which is the goal.

Vegan Pie Crust

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 0 min (unbaked) | Total Time: 45 min (includes chill) | Servings: 8 (one 9-inch crust)

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup refined coconut oil or cold vegan butter, cut into small cubes
• 3–4 tbsp ice water

Instructions

1. Mix dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and sugar until combined.
2. Cut in the fat. Add cold coconut oil or vegan butter. Using a pastry cutter or your fingertips, work it into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs with a few pea-sized pieces remaining. Do not overwork it.
3. Add ice water. Drizzle in ice water one tablespoon at a time, mixing gently with a fork after each addition, just until the dough holds together when pinched. You may not need all 4 tablespoons.
4. Chill the dough. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface, shape it into a flat disk, and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before rolling.
5. Roll and fit. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough out to a 12-inch circle, about 1/8 inch thick. Transfer to a 9-inch pie dish. Trim edges to a 1-inch overhang and crimp or fold as desired.
6. Freeze for later (optional). To freeze, lay the fitted or flat-rolled crust on a parchment-lined sheet, freeze until firm (about 1 hour), then wrap tightly and store for up to 3 months. No thawing required before blind-baking or filling.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 182 | Protein: 2g | Fat: 12g | Carbs: 17g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 146mg