Roasted Eggplant "Meat" Hand Pies

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I tend to go through phases when it comes to food. I would go on a two week doughnut binge or KFC or Taco Bell. But never a salad binge (I wonder why). So I guess this is my pie binge. I made these meatless hand pies with some Gimme Lean Sausage, roasted eggplant, and roasted jalapeno peppers (home grown!). I guess you can also call them empanadas, but "hand pies" has a nice ring to it.

You'll need:

• 1 pound equivalent of ground meat product
• 1 medium eggplant
• 2 jalapeno peppers
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon harisa
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 portion vegan pie crust, recipe below

To make vegan pie crust, you'll need:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, chilled
• 3/4 cups vegan butter spread (Earth Balance is the choice for me), cubed and chilled
• 1 tablespoon (plus more if necessary) cold water
• 1 pinch of salt

To begin, mix all purpose flour, chilled vegan butter spread and a pinch of salt until the mixture has a wet sand consistency. You can use food processor and pulse a few times or you can use your hands and break up the butter spread into finer granules. Mix in water. The dough should barely come together. If not, add a little more ice water, one tablespoon at a time, until the dough comes together. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and chill.

Place eggplant and jalapeno peppers on top of open flame to char the skin. Turn occasionally so the skin is charred evenly on all sides. If you don't use a gas stove, try broiling in the oven for 3 to 5 minutes a side. Set aside to cool. Once they are cooled, rough chop eggplant into medium cubes and mince jalapeno peppers. In a medium pot, heat up tablespoon of olive oil. Stir in garlic and minced jalapeno pepper. Saute until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add ground meat product. For Gimme Lean, you need to cook it like ground meat, i.e., break into smaller chunks with a spatula and brown. With other mock meat products, you may not have to. Saute until browned. De-glaze the pot with red wine vinegar. Stir in eggplant, harisa and tomato paste. Cook on low heat until eggplant is soft, about 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Divide chilled dough into 8 equal pieces. Shape a piece into a ball then roll out into a disc 1/4 inch in thickness. Add 1/4 cup of eggplant mixture to one side of the disc. Fold over and crimp edges with a fork. Work with one piece of dough at a time. Chill the other pieces when you're not working with them. If you plan to bake the pies immediately, return assembled pies into the fridge while you make other pies. You can also freeze these pies at this time. Either way, they need to stay cool before baking.

Pre-heat to 400 degrees. Place these pies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Spray the top with canola oil spray so they will brown. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. If the pies were previously frozen, bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and let pies cool for 10 minutes before serving.