Healthy Pumpkin Pie

Don’t get left out this holiday season, make yourself a truly healthy pumpkin pie and share it with your friends and family.  I think you all are going to love it!!

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First, I have to tell you that I love pumpkin pie.  It’s delicious!  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 us, and now I can add to my list of “likes”, it’s healthy!!  Yup, we have here a recipe for a truly healthy pumpkin pie that I honestly believe everyone will enjoy!

The recipe is 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 do go very well with the pumpkin pie, and we also have a recipe for apple pie (coming soon) that tastes delicious with the walnut version.

Pie Crust
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Healthy Pecan Pie Crust
Ingredients
  • 1¼ cups rolled oats
  • ½ cup pecan halves (2 ounces)
  • ½ teaspoon cinnamon
  • 5 Medjool dates (2½ ounces), chopped
  • 1½ tablespoons non-dairy milk
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375
  2. Put oats, pecans, and cinnamon in a food processor and blend until ground almost into a flour It takes about about 40 seconds.
  3. Add chopped dates and blend for about a minute, until it begins to clump
  4. Add the non-dairy milk until it balls up, almost like dough
  5. You can either roll the dough on parchment paper, about ⅛th inch thick, and then transfer to the pie pan and 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.
  6. Cover the pan with foil, and make for 10 minutes
  7. Remove from oven and the crust is ready to fill!

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.
Pumpkin Pie Filling
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Serves: 8
Healthy Pumpkin Pie Filling
Ingredients
  • 8 Medjool dates (4 ounces), pitted and chopped
  • ¾ cup non-dairy milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ¼ cup rolled oats, ground into flour
  • 1½ teaspoon cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • ⅛ teaspoon ground clove
  • 1 can (15 ounces) cooked pumpkin - not "pumpkin pie mix"
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  2. Place the dates, the non-dairy milk, and the vanilla extract into a blender. Let sit for 10 minutes.
  3. In a medium-large mixing bowl, add the oat flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove and mix with a fork. Add the pumpkin.
  4. Blend the dates, non-dairy milk and vanilla on high speed until smooth. Add this to the bowl of pumpkin and spices and blend until smooth, using an electric beater
  5. Put the mixture into the pre-baked pie crust and smooth out evenly
  6. Cover the edges of the pie crust with foil, to prevent it from burning. You can re-use the foil that was used to cover the pie crust.
  7. Cook for 20 minutes at 350, then remove the foil and cook for another 10 minutes until the edges start to brown
  8. 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.

These are the ingredients, almost enough for 3 pies.  Would probably just need a few more dates.

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Here’s my slice!!  It’s delicious!!

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