Make A Delicious, Mouth-Watering Amish Green Tomato Pie Today

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• 📜 The Delicious History of Green Tomato Pie
• 💰 Dessert on a Budget
• 📋 Step-By-Step Green Tomato Pie
• 🥧 More Simple Amish Pies
• 🖨️ Full Recipe
•  

Tomatoes are a summer staple in Amish gardens and kitchens.  The ruby red delights find their way into sauces, salads, and even breads.  But what if you are just itching to eat those tomatoes even before they are ripe? Well, we've all heard of fried green tomatoes. Delicious!  Dipped in a little ranch and, wow, oh wow (anything fried and dipped in ranch qualifies for a wow, oh wow).  But what about green tomato pie?   That's not something I'm familiar with, so I wanted to try it. It definitely is one of the more unusual pie recipes I've collected over the years.

📜 The Delicious History of Green Tomato Pie

I got this green tomato pie recipe from an Amish settlement in Tennessee.   The first question I wondered when making this is: Why?  Why would anyone make a green tomato pie?  I mean, I guess, why not?  At first I thought it would be a savory pie, but, no, it is a dessert pie.  The 1 ½ cups of sugar in the recipe makes sure of that.  For the tapioca, I just used tapioca pie filling and that worked great, don't use, say, pearl tapioca.   The recipe is interesting to me because, true to Amish tradition, it is such a simple formulation. I don't think it'll replace apple pie anytime soon as a top dessert item, but green tomato pie is a perfect seasonal dessert.

There are different varieties of tomato pies common in Amish kitchens, like this savory version.

💰 Dessert on a Budget

This pie reminds me of some of the simple, from-scratch, threadbare cabinet pies that Amish bakers are so skilled at making.  Vinegar pie is one that just sounds awful, but it works. It's very good.  This green tomato pie is another one.  The tomatoes haven't ripened yet so they don't have their true flavor, so you use diced green tomatoes, smother them in sugar and tapioca and you get a creamy, interesting pie. 

I can tell you that I was super skeptical when I made the pie.  My girls thought it came out of the oven looking like "green slime", but once you chill it, put a dollop of whipped cream on top of it, and taste the unusual swirl of flavors, you really will like it, I think. I know I did.  I'd absolutely make it again. 

I made a homemade crust using our easy-in-the-pan crust recipe and, yeah, it was super simple and super tasty.  The top crust didn't work so well, kind of sank into the pie, but that is okay, it turned out fine.  Just make it the top crust thicker and put on top and you should be OK.

📋 Step-By-Step Green Tomato Pie

Later summer in the Midwest often means a bumper crop of green tomatoes.

Pick plump unripe tomatoes. You can slice them or dice them, dicing - smaller pieces - probably works best.

When you have your ingredients mixed in the bowl, you can add variations. It is a sweet pie anyway, so adding a teaspoon cinnamon, nutmeg, or cloves can all be welcome additions depending on your taste. Some lemon zest from a lemon peel would also be an interesting flavor addition. Some Amish cooks add raisins to this pie, but I am not a fan of that.

The pie, as you can see, when it goes into the oven isn't going to win any beauty contests. Although the green really makes it a unique color. For the top crust, mine was more of a partial crust because I was using leftovers from the pat-a-pan crust, but you can use a more formal "top crust" and just vent it. Either way works.

When it comes out of the oven with a golden brown crust it looks all green too and you're thinking "that is one strange looking pie", but it really tastes very good. Would I serve this to company? Absolutely. It's a "conversation piece" pie and very tasty.

Let the pie cool on a wire rack. Cover leftovers with aluminum foil or plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator.

🥧 More Simple Amish Pies

Vinegar Pie
Tears on My Pillow Pie
Milk Pie
Sugar Cream Pie

🖨️ Full Recipe