A unique delicious way to enjoy pumpkin pie spice without any pumpkin at all. This gluten-free vegan pumpkin pie custard is perfect for Fall. Think pumpkin pie meets pudding or custard with a pecan cookie crumble.
Every year for Thanksgiving I make Matthew Kenney's Raw Vegan Pumpkin Pie. From soaking to dehydrating It takes a whopping 24 hours to make. But I love the whole process and it's so worth it because it's a unique twist on the traditional pumpkin pie, plus it's healthy, rich, and decadent. Personally, ending a filling Thanksgiving meal with a healthy dessert just feels so much better all around.
Thanksgiving at my house has always been a healthy day. When I was a kid we ate salmon instead of turkey, and loads of vegetables and salad. But there was always a focus on Fall flavors, seasonal vegetables, and unique gourmet dishes. My plant-based Thanksgiving doesn't involve turkey so every other dish gets so much attention to detail.
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Pumpkin Pie Custard Ingredients
For this pumpkin pie custard you will need
Instead of a pie this year, I'm sharing with you my recreation of the pumpkin pie recipe served individually in separate serving glasses.
Pumpkin Pie Crumble Ingredients
For this pumpkin pecan crumbles you will need
See recipe card for quantities.
Instructions
To make this custard filling you will need to blend all of the ingredients above in a Vitamix. Blend until creamy and smooth.
To make the crust you will pulse everything together in a food processor. Make sure the coconut oil is liquid, not solid.
Start by pulsing the pecans. After pulsing the pecans into a "meal" add the dates, sea salt, and warmed coconut oil. Pulse that together until you have an even mixture.
You will want to transfer the pecan mixture to the dehydrator trays.
The pecan mixture will dehydrate in an air fryer on dehydrator mode. Not fry mode. Or you can use a real dehydrator.
Finally you will want to layer the pecan cookie crumble and the custard.
Hint: If you make this in the morning, it will referigerate all day. Or make it the night before and refrigerate overnight.
The recipe originally calls for the nuts to be soaked overnight or for at least 5 hours. This is because following a raw vegan diet usually means lots of germinating.
Fun Facts! What is germination?
Soaking and rinsing seeds and nuts removes enzyme inhibitors and the seed begins to germinate. In this process, all of the resting nutrition in the seed starts to break down into its simplest components. Proteins break down into separate amino acids, complex starches break down into simpler carbohydrates. Meanwhile, the plant starts to multiply in its nutrient content to get ready to become a tree or full-sized plant. This results in a fiber-rich food packed with vitamins and minerals as well as protein and sometimes even essential fatty acids.
This is why we call it raw LIVING food. It's not just that there is no heating (above 115 degrees) involved, but there is actually life being made and that energy gets absorbed by you and ups your energy lifeforce.
Vegan Pumpkin Pie Custard Substitutions & Variations
- Pie - You can make a pie with these same ingredients. You will just need a pie pan and the pecan cookie dough will become the crust. Press the dough into a pie pan and dehydrate the entire pie crust. Then add your "custard" as the pie filling. Refrigerate the entire pie overnight.
- Pudding - You can eat the custard as pudding and skip the pecan date cookie part of the recipe. It's a healthy Fall treat!
- Lemon Meringue Custard - The base of this custard recipe can be used to make any flavor you'd like. Think lemon meringue or chocolate pudding. Instead of carrot juice swap lemon juice or vegan home chocolate syrup. And don't use the pumpkin pie spices. Use cinnamon or vanilla intead.
Equipment
For this recipe you will need a dehydrator, food processor and high speed blender.
If you don't have a Vitamix, be sure to soak the cashews for at least an hour before blending. A Vitamix can turn an unsoaked cashew or other nut into a creamy mixture but a regular blender doesn't have this power and you will end up with chunky custard.
If you have a deluxe Air Fryer, with the dehyration feature, you will want to use that for the pecan date cookie crumble. I always encourage everybody to purchase an air fryer with a dehydrator feature, you can use it for so many healthy recipes. Otherwise, you will need a separate dehydrator for this recipe.
Storage
The vegan pumpin pie custard will keep for 5 days when covered in the refrigerator. You can also freeze the left overs.
Top tip
For this recipe you will want to think ahead. Start prepping the day before you plan on serving it. You will need to dehydrate overnight or all day and the custart needs a few hours or overnight to firm up.
Pumpkin Pie Custard with Date Pecan Cookie Crumbles
Equipment
- Dehydrator
- Food processor
- Vitamix
Ingredients
Date Pecan Cookie Crumbles
- 2 ¼ cup Raw pecans
- 1 tablespoon Coconut oil melted
- 5-6 Dates soaked
- ¼ teaspoon Sea salt
Pumpkin Pie Custard
- ½ cup Raw cashews soaked
- ½ cup Maple syrup
- ½ cup Coconut oil melted
- ⅓ cup Raw freshly pressed carrot juice
- ¼ teaspoon Sea salt
- ½ Vanilla bean scraped, paste only
- 1 ½ teaspoon Cinnamon or Pumpkin pie spice
- 1 ½ teaspoon Nutmeg
Instructions
Date Pecan Cookie Crumbles
- Place pecans in the food processor, pulse into small crumbs. Add dates, coconut oil, and sea salt and pulse again. Not for too long just until dates are mashed in.
- Put pecan cookie dough mixture into the dehydrator. You don't need to worry about form, just crumble it all in. Dehydrate overnight or for 10 hours. If not using all the crumble, store extra in containers in the freezer.
Pumpkin Pie Custard
- Blend all ingredients, except thyme, in Vitamix. Blend until smooth, no chunks.
- Assemble glass cups or jars: starting with cookie crumbles layer pecan cookies and then custard and thyme. Do that 2x. Chill in the refrigerator overnight or for 6 hours.
Rachelle Schwartz
Just checking on timing for the dehydrator?
Also Thyme? Is that meant to be nutmeg?
Juli Novotny
Sorry. Dehydration time is 10 hours. I edited my recipe card. Thanks for noticing. Fresh Thyme goes into the custard (pie filling). But you could also do nutmeg, that sounds delicious. Thanks for comment 🙂