This recipe is designed with my Lyme community in focus. Many suffering with Lyme disease experience a wide variety of food allergies, some of which can be identified on GI map testing, others which are not so easily identified. Our sensitive group often experience gluten intolerance, dairy intolerance, egg allergies and difficulty with nightshade vegetables.
Our vegan recipe DOES contain a gluten crust recipe, which can be substituted for a gluten free crust for those who have true celiac issues. In my experience working with Lyme clients, the issue of gluten intolerance often has to do with the bromination of the flour. When flour is made ready to be stored on the shelf, bromine is added. This process keeps the flour from spoiling, but adds a toxicant/preservative and one that displaced iodine, adding to the ongoing health epidemic of thyroid dysfunction among other health issues.
IF you use a complete flour, one that is milled freshly from the wheat berries, you will have a complete source of nutrition including protein, fiber, zinc, magnesium, iron and the highest source of vitamin E available. Organic wheat berries are an excellent source of pesticide and toxin-free flour. If you do suffer from true celiac, even freshly milled wheat flour should be avoided. If the issue is gluten intolerance, you will likely be very excited to discover that you can indeed enjoy bread every once and a while.
This recipe is a hit in our house! Rich, smooth, and full of all the yummy fall spices! This is a recipe that is perfect for the holidays!
***Warning, this one is truly MADE FROM SCRATCH.
Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 50 mins
Equipment
1 9 inch pie form
Ingredients
For the vegan pie crust:
1 1/4 cups freshly milled SOFT WHEAT flour
1/2 cup vegan butter (avoid soy based butters)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
4 tablespoons ice cold water
1 teaspoon cinnamon*
*some folks with Lyme disease cannot tolerate cinnamon, consider omitting this if you are unsure of your reaction to it
For the vegan pumpkin pie filling:
2 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
(Roast 2-3 pumpkins. Cut pumpkins in half, scoop out the seeds and place face down on baking sheet. Cook at 350 degree for 45 minutes. Allow to cool and then peel the skin from the pumpkins and puree the pumpkin with hand immersion blender or food processor)
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup full fat canned coconut milk
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cloves cardamom*
1/3 cup arrowroot powder
*Lymies, avoid the cloves. Substitute cardamom
Instructions
- Start by making the vegan pie crust. In a mixing bowl, combine flour, salt, sugar, and cinnamon.
- Transfer the flour mixture to a food processor. Cut the vegan butter into cubes and add them to the flour one at a time. Pulse several times. Don’t overmix. The mixture should have pea-sized clumps of butter throughout.
- Now, add the ice water. Pulse again until the dough begins to come together. Again, make sure not to overmix. You are ready to remove the dough when it forms a nice ball while the food processor spins.
- Take the dough out of the food processor and form it into a ball. You could drizzle the dough with a bit more ice cold water if needed. But be careful and don’t use too much water. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
- In the meantime, make the filling. In a food processor, combine the pumpkin puree with the maple syrup, brown sugar, vanilla extract, salt, coconut milk, ground cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and arrowroot powder. Process all of it together until smooth. (Yes, it’s that easy)
- Generously grease a 9-inch pie plate with vegan butter. Roll the dough out to 12 inches in diameter. Then carefully transfer it to your pie plate and gently fit it in. Trim any excess dough. If you want you could also decorate the edges or make some fancy leaf thingies for the center.
- Pour the filling into your crust. There is no need to pre-bake the crust first. Spread it out until it’s smooth.
- Preheat your oven to 350 °F. Bake the vegan pumpkin pie for 50 minutes. If the crust becomes too brown, you can cover the pie with aluminium foil, but try to avoid it. Aluminum does transfer to the crust during the baking. For chemical sensitive folks like our Lyme community, this is acutally a pretty big deal.
- Let the pumpkin pie cool down completely on the counter. Then transfer it to the fridge overnight. This step is really important and gives the pumpkin pie enough time to firm up.
Notes
- I used a homemade pie crust, but you can use store bought crust. The brand I recommend for my sensitive folks is Kinnikinnick. This brand is gluten free and low in preservatives that cause issues for our chemical sensitive community.
- I also used fresh pumpkin to make my filling for this recipe. Using canned pumpkin saves you a lot of time, but the chemicals found in the cans can cause issues!
- Make sure that the vegan butter you use for the vegan pie crust is REALLY cold and straight from the fridge. Also, the water should be ICE COLD. This is very important for the texture of the crust.