This Vegan Rhubarb and Ginger Pie takes some of the best seasonal fruit and transforms it into a delicious dessert. Best served with vanilla ice cream or custard!
The perfect pie
I love rhubarb but it makes an especially good pie filling. Hopefully after trying this recipe you will be converted. Whether you buy your rhubarb from the supermarket, or grow you own. This is a recipe you need to have in your repertoire.
To start off this Rhubarb and Ginger Pie is made with a sweet crust – a basic short crust pastry spiked with sugar to give the pie a lift and balance out the sour notes from the rhubarb. The filling however isn’t just sweet and sour; the ginger adds a warming note too.
By tossing the rhubarb and ginger in cornflour and sugar it all melts into a soft, sticky filling. It doesn't get better than that!
If you pick the pinkest of stems this recipe will remain a wonderful vibrant pink colour but it tastes just as delicious with the paler variety too.
How to make a Vegan Rhubarb and Ginger Pie
As well as being delicious, this pie is also incredibly easy to make.
Of course, should you choose, you can make it even easier by buying your own short crust pastry, but making it yourself gives a homely, rustic quality to the dish which I believe every pie should have!
How to make shortcrust pastry vegan
If you've not been here before you might not realise that most of my recipes are vegan! That's right, this pie is entirely plant based.
The filling itself doesn't require any substitutions to be made but the shortcrust pastry would ordinarily be made with butter, margarine or lard (and sometimes a mix of more than one!).
Regardless of the ingredients you are using, the method of making shortcrust pastry is the same.
You should always use your non-dairy butter straight from the fridge. If you’ve only been able to get soft, spreadable non-dairy butter then I recommend freezing it first - this will make it easier to rub together with the flour.
Once you come to bring the dough together be mindful not to overwork it as this is what makes it tough! You want to just bring it into a ball and then wrap it in cling film, place it in the fridge, and let it rest. This will make sure that the non-dairy butter firms up again.
Pastry usually gets a glaze before baking. In most non-vegan recipes this will be a beaten egg. The good news is soy milk works as a good egg wash substitute when making a pie.
For more information check out my big vegan baking guide.
How to make the rhubarb and ginger filling
The secret to having the fruit pie filling coated in a sticky sauce is also the same trick to getting nice crispy pastry.
All you need to do is toss the rhubarb and ginger with sugar and flour and this will suck out some of the moisture. It will then thicken and turn into a sauce as the pie cooks. Clever right?
Because the sugar and flour coating absorbs the moisture, the pastry doesn't. The result being tender fruit that has created it's own sauce, all underneath a crisp pie crust.
How to decorate your Rhubarb and Ginger Pie
Pies should be made with love – the first time I made this pie, it was decorated with hearts. The second time round I topped it with stars! Use the scraps of pastry leftover to add your own embellishments to the pastry lid for a pie that will not only taste amazing, but look amazing! Of course if you prefer the rustic look just crimp the edges and don't forget to make some cuts for steam!
If you make this pie at home pop a link or a pic of it in the comments below. I’d love to see how you choose to decorate your pie.
The recipe
Vegan Rhubarb and Ginger Pie
Equipment
- 1 9 in (23 cm) pie dish
Ingredients
- 150 g plain flour
- 50 g sugar
- 100 g non-dairy butter
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 tablespoon soy milk
- 3 tablespoon demerara sugar
For the filling
- 500 grams rhubarb cut into 2 inch pieces
- 3 tablespoon flour
- 150 grams caster sugar
- 1 teaspoon root ginger grated
Instructions
To make the pastry lid
- Sift the flour and sugar into a bowl.
- Cut the non-dairy butter into small cubes and add to the flour and sugar.
- Toss the non-dairy butter cubes in the flour and sugar then, with your finger tips, begin rubbing the flour, sugar and butter together until it resembles breadcrumbs.
- Add the water and stir together with your fingertips until the mixture comes together into a ball.
- Wrap in cling film, then chill for 30 minutes.
- Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until it's roughly 1.5 inches bigger than your pie dish and roughly . Trim it to a perfect circle if necessary (any off cuts can be used to decorate).
To make the pie filling
- Place the rhubarb into a bowl with the grated ginger.
- sprinkle over the caster sugar and flour and mix until the rhubarb is well coated.
- Leave this to one side until the flour and sugar has started to absorb some of the moisture.
- In the meantime, pre-heat your oven to 180 C / 350 F / gas mark 4.
To assemble the pie
- Spoon the rhubarb, ginger, sugar and flour mix into your pie tin.
- Lay the pie top over the fruit filling and crimp the edges.
- Use any leftover pastry to decorate.
- Make some 2 inch slits in the top of the pie lid to let out any steam.
- Brush the pastry top with soy milk and sprinkle with demerera sugar.
- Pace into the centre of the oven and bake for 30 minutes until the pastry is golden and crispy and the rhubarb tender.
Nutrition
Serve with...
I like to serve this pie with a simple vanilla ice cream or custard.
You can find my vegan vanilla custard recipe here.
More rhubarb recipes
Dessert recipes
For more perfect pie recipes check out the dessert recipe archive.
Jacqueline Meldrum says
I love rhubarb and your pie looks gorgeous!
Emmyw says
Thanks Jackie! The first time I made it I fresstyled different sized hearts 🙂 I love pastry!!!