Don’t get left out this holiday season, make yourself a truly healthy pumpkin pie and share it with your friends and family. They will love it!!
First, I have to tell you that I absolutely love pumpkin pie! I like that it’s a little spicy, not too sweet, and has a nice firm texture. However, since I don’t consider traditional pumpkin pie a healthy food, I haven’t had it in years, and then a friend shared this recipe with me… And just like that, it’s back!
Yup, we have here a recipe for a truly healthy, absolutely delicious, pumpkin pie!
The recipe is originally from Cathy Fisher at Straight Up Food. Make sure to check out her web site, she has tons of delicious healthy recipes to choose from. http://www.straightupfood.com/blog/2013/11/22/pumpkin-pie/
First, the crust. This crust works very well with pecans or walnuts. The Pecans go very well with the pumpkin pie, and we also have a recipe for a Healthy Human Apple Pie that tastes delicious with a walnut version.
- 1¼ cup Rolled Oats
- ½ cup Pecans
- ½ tsp Cinnamon
- 5 Medjool Dates
- 1½ Tbsp plant milk (soy, hemp, almond, oat, etc...)
- Preheat oven to 375
- Put oats, pecans, and cinnamon in a food processor and blend until ground almost into a flour It takes about about 40 seconds.
- Add chopped dates and blend for about a minute, until it begins to clump
- Add the plant milk until it balls up, almost like dough
- You can either roll the dough on parchment paper, about ⅛th inch thick, and then transfer to the pie pan and gently push into the corners. OR, if you have a glass or heavy metal pie pan you can place the ball of dough in the pan and just push it into shape with your hands. It gets a little sticky, so kitchen gloves may be helpful if you go this way.
- Cover the pan with foil, and bake for 10 minutes
- Remove from oven and the crust is ready to fill!
And then, the filling. I modified the recipe slightly, increasing the spices a bit because I really like my pumpkin pie to have some bite. If you do not, you can just reduce the nutmeg and cloves a little, and that will calm it right down.
- 8 Medjool dates (4 ounces), pitted and chopped
- ¾ cup plant milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ cup rolled oats, ground into flour
- 1½ tsp cinnamon
- ¾ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground clove
- 1 can (15 ounces) cooked pumpkin - NOT "pumpkin pie mix" or "pumpkin pie filling"
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Place the dates, the plant milk, and the vanilla extract into a blender and let sit for 10 minutes.
- In a large mixing bowl, add the oat flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove and mix with a fork and then add the pumpkin.
- Blend the dates, non-dairy milk and vanilla on high speed until smooth.
- Add the blended mixture to the bowl of pumpkin and spices and combine until smooth, using a whisk or an electric beater
- Put the mixture into the pre-baked pie crust and smooth out evenly
- Cover the edges of the pie crust with foil, to prevent the crust from burning. (You can re-use the foil that was used to cover the pie crust)
- Bake the pie for 20 minutes at 350, then remove the foil and cook for another 10 minutes until the edges start to brown
- Remove and cool before serving
This pie really works best when made at least a day ahead of time. The filling continues to set as it cools, and I believe the oats soak up the remaining moisture and it fully firms over night. That’s not to say you can’t eat it straight out of the oven, just realize that the filling will be soft, and whatever leftovers there are will firm up over night.
Enjoy!!
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