Today.  Today I became a chef.  4 years ago I started cooking for real, 3 years ago I became vegan, 6 months ago I became a food blogger, and today… today I finally became a chef.  I consider myself a good cook, even maybe a great cook.  I love almost everything I make.  But today it was different.  This *week* it’s been different.  I made this tart on Tuesday evening, and it was good, but nothing amazing.  Before even finishing dinner I was contemplating what I would do to it to make it sing.  (Sing?  Think I’ve been watching too much Top Chef maybe??  :) )  By the next morning I had moved on to making it an entirely different dish, different flavors, same basic techniques.  By today I could. not. stop. thinking. about. it.  My plans for the evening were cancelled, and there were so many wonderful things with which I wanted to fill that sudden gift of free time.  But all I wanted to do, all I possibly *could* do was get in the kitchen and turn my vision into reality.  I have made up dishes on the spur of the moment before, I’ve even blogged about them.  But this was the first time that I truly had a vision, a creation that I thought about, considered, and put together into something amazing.  I am finally able to take a dish and “make it my own,” as the American Idol judges would say.  For the first time in my life I feel like all I need is an idea, no recipe necessary.  And that, I think, makes me finally have graduated to being able to consider myself a true chef.

olive oil

One small onion, diced

One sweet potato (I used the kind with purple skin and white insides)

One T fresh ginger, diced

2 T coconut oil

3/4 fresh pineapple, cubed

1 small red bell pepper, seeded and cubed

sea salt

6 cloves garlic, peeled

2-4 T curry paste, depending on your spice level preference

1 t sea salt

1 t garam masala

1 T lemon juice

1 T rice vinegar

1/4 C nutritional yeast
3 T tomato paste

1 T brown sugar

1 C frozen spinach, thawed enough to stir into mixture

1 1/2 C flour

1/2 C crisco

4-6 T cold water

1. Cut sweet potato in half, microwave for 6 minutes to soften.

2. Preheat oven to 450.

3. Heat olive oil in skillet.  Once hot, add onions to pan and saute over medium to medium low heat.  Cube half of the sweet potato and add to the skillet.  Add the diced ginger and saute until onions are soft and translucent and sweet potato is soft, approximately 10 minutes.  Add the coconut oil and heat until melted and mixed in.  Remove from heat.

4. While things are sautéing, cube other half of the sweet potato, and add to a baking dish with the cubed pineapple and red pepper.  Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with a small amount of sea salt.  Place the garlic in the pan as well, off to the side if possible.  Bake for 10-15 minutes, making sure to keep an eye that nothing burns.

5. Place the mixture from the skillet in a food processor.  Add the roasted garlic from the pan in the oven.  Add all other ingredients from curry paste to brown sugar, and blend until smooth.

6. Place the mixture from the food processor in a large bowl.  Add all of the roasted ingredients from the oven, and the spinach, and stir until well combined.

8. In another large bowl, cut the crisco into the flour until an even crumble consistency.  Add water as needed, slowly, until reaching a dough consistency.  Pat into a 9″ pie pan.

9. Fill the crust with the sweet potato mixture and smooth out so the height is even all the way around.

10. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until filling starts to brown.

Enjoy!!