Vegan Maple Peanut Butter Pie

Georgia is famous for quite a few things - peaches, grits, Gone With The Wind, Coca Cola, pecans and Vidalia onions - but nothing has quite the history like peanuts...in my humble opinion.  Maybe it's because of all the reading of my youth involving one Mr. George Washington Carver.  A botanist, a scientist, a philanthropist, a slave who became a freeman and an innovator in agriculture, Carver is world famous for his interest in the peanut, and how it could be cultivated and consumed.  Some of the ideas were considered flops (using peanuts as a form of gasoline) but most of his ideas allowed for the continuation and promotion of peanuts as a delicious and nutritious food.  And I have to agree with him wholeheartedly.  Peanuts are amazing.

As a flex-etarian with mainly a lean toward vegetarianism with a dash of veganism I tend to search out protein in a variety of ways and peanuts are my favorite.  Boiled via roadside stand and eaten out of a paper bag at a picnic table.  Roasted and tossed in a salad.  Or pulverized and spread on toast.  Yummmmy.  And, if I'm at work, I make something sweet with them.

Maple Peanut Butter Pie

1 12oz box silken extra firm tofu

1/4 cup maple syrup (or you can use regular corn syrup based pancake syrup)

1 cup peanut butter (I use smooth but I image chunky is just fine too)

Combine all items in food processor and blend til smooth.  Be sure to scrape the sides of the bowl numerous times to ensure all items are processed thoroughly.  Once smooth, spoon product into prepared graham crust (you can make your own, like this one but substitute vegan margarine for the butter, or store bought is fine) and chill for at least an hour.

I decorated mine with a few dollops of vegan 'butter' cream (recipe is here) but you can add whatever you want to make it pretty.  You can also add yummy stuff to the pie to mix it up!  Layer the crust with bananas before filling.  Elvis would be proud of that one.  Or top with some jam or jelly of choice.  But I tend to keep it simple because I love maple syrup almost as much as peanut butter (maybe the same, really) so I want to keep those flavors a'shining!

Hope you enjoy!

Find out more about George Washington Carver here.