Makes one 9 inch pie
This recipe first captured my heart in 2001. I had discovered Myra Kornfeld’s wonderful Voluptuous Vegan and was so happy to have a guide that used so many from-scratch vegan ingredients. This pie was actually my first ever attempt at a homemade vegan pumpkin pie and I haven’t strayed from it since. Why mess with perfection? It’s rich and creamy, and has got the perfect amount of autumn spices. Myra includes a nut topping in her original recipe, but I like mine unadulterated. Well, ok, maybe a little Rad Whip or other creamy topping, but that’s about it. The recipe is slightly modified from Voluptuous Vegan and appears in our pie book, Vegan Pie In The Sky.
Notes
Voluptuous Pumpkin Pie
Ingredients
- Single pastry crust fit into a 9 inch pie plate3 cups cooked pumpkin or other sweet winter squash
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
- 1/2 cup plain unsweetened soy milk (or your favorite non-dairy milk)
- 4 tsp canola oil
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- Pinch ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tsp agar powder
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F. In a blender, pulse together pumpkin, maple syrup, soy milk, canola oil, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, salt, cornstarch and agar powder until very smooth. Pour into the pie shell and bake for 60 to 65 minutes until the center looks semi-firm not liquidy. Check the edges of the crust after baking for 40 minutes; if the edges appear to be browning too rapidly carefully remove the pie and apply crust protectors to the edges to keep from getting too dark.
- Remove from oven and onto a cooling rack for 30 minutes, then chill for at least 4 hours before slicing. Serve with Rad Whip, vegan whipped topping or your favorite vegan vanilla ice cream. In the photo, we piped cream around the edges of the pie with a large decorating tip.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
YUM!!!! I am definitely making this next week!!!
There is a unit of measurement missing, but I am assuming that you mean 1/2 cup of soy milk. Yes?
Fixed before I finished my comment. Nevermind!!! 🙂
Could I use almond milk instead of soy?
Yes!
Have you tried freezing this?
Made this last year for Thankagiving. There were 4 other nonvegan pies there and this was the only one that was completely devoured in 20 mins by all. SO DELICIOUS!
Seconding Amy’s question: Could one use unsweetened almond milk instead of soy?
Yep!
When I made it I used almond milk instead of soy with excellent results
I can’t find any organic canola oil, and I understand non-organic is all GMO – would safflower oil work as well?
Sure!
Hi Isa! Do you know how agar flakes would substitute for agar powder?
They would have to be boiled first, so the recipe would be a bit different. I would just get the powder!
yes! this has been my go-to pumpkin pie recipe for all these years as well. I love it so much!
Do you have a recipe for the pastry pie crust? What store bought crust are vegan?
Here’s a great vegan pie crust recipe: https://fresh.theppk.com/2013/09/appleberry-pie-with-olive-oil-crust/
I was just searching for a great vegan pumpkin pie!
This looks amazing, I can’t wait to try it!
(Just googled agar flakes vs agar powder… “For every teaspoon of agar-agar powder, you should substitute a tablespoon of agar-agar flakes.” Not sure how well it will blend though…)
It won’t blend, just do the powder!
I buy agar powder at Whole Foods; it’s in the supplement section and you can buy just what you need (like a bulk spices set up).
Cool! I’ve never seen it there, your WF must be better.
I never thought to check the supplement section for agar powder at WF–I only saw the flakes in the seaweed section. I’ll have to look for it, because this pie needs to be eaten this Thanksgiving. I was so sad to miss out on pumpkin pie last year (it was my first Thanksgiving as a vegan).
How do you recommend cooking the pumpkin or squash? And is it 3 cups pureed or 3 cups of whole chunks?
The way I have always done it is to bake the pumpkin in the oven until it’s soft and separates easily from the skin. I think it’s 3 cups pureed, not whole chunks.
This sounds so perfect! Lovely idea!
How important is the Agar? I just went to Whole Foods, and they only had flakes. I bought that, but read in here it won’t work. Thanks! Also, where did you get the powder from?
Using agar powder is very important to give the pie the proper texture. I wouldn’t leave it out or use flakes instead.
I know this sounds horrible but is it ok to use canned pumpkins…
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Yeah, I was wondering the same thing. Is it ok to use canned pumpkin puree like in traditional pumpkin pies? That’s all I have access to 🙁
Yes, of course. I don’t think I said not to?
i used a hand held blender and it worked quite well- I had to order the agar powder online
Thank you, also would this work well with your almond crust?
Made this yesterday – realized about 20 minutes into the baking time that I had the oil when making the filling (it’s a family tradition to forget one ingredient when making pumpkin pie, but usually it’s the sweetener) – at that point the filling was warm but not set, so I just added the oil then and stirred it very gently in, so as not to tear the crust – the final product was perfect, so I guess that worked out fine (I am thinking it may also have been fine to just let it go without the oil). FWIW. I roasted my pumpkin before pureeing it, and let it drain for a while after pureeing it – it makes for a richer, more dense flavor.
What kind of pie crust did you use? Unfortunately there’s no Whole Foods in my area, but I have Wegman’s and my local co-op. Any suggestions?
I made my own. But most premade vegan pie crusts are pretty decent! I have yet to run into a dud. I think a graham cracker or any cookie crumb crust would work as well.
I always have used this crust for any pie or cheesecake. And I always use your Gwam crackers recipe. I love this great pumpkin cheesecake, but the crust is so good even for a simple pumpkin pie
I made this and it’s yummy! I only had agar flakes, so I ground them up with the spice-grinder-blade from my Magic Bullet for about 5 minutes (taking breaks so the Magic Bullet wouldn’t burn out). I don’t sense any agar bits – the pie is super smooth – so it must have worked. Also, I forgot to add the oil. The pie is a little soft/liquidy, but it’s still good. (I don’t know if it’s soft because it’s under cooked, because of the agar, or because I missed the oil.) Topped with coconut-whipped-cream, it’s pumpkin-pie-licious!
(I used a store-bought vegan crust from Whole Foods.)
I’m glad you ended up with something decent, however, it was certainly liquid because of the agar. I really hope that people will use the agar powder, or at least the directions I gave for the flakes, in order to get perfect pies. I did a LOT of experimenting with grinding agar flakes when working on the pie book, and no matter how well I blended, it never came out well. There must be some difference with the commercially available powder.
Will agave work?
sorry, I meant as a sweetener of course.
Thanks, Isa…once again. Do you ever feel like you’re going to trip on the superheroine cape you wear? It’s Super Isa to the rescue!!!!!!!!!!!! I know what I’m having for T-day!!!!
Im goin to suuuuuuuuue you for making me fat haha…. However can one NOT eat this, stuff the diet man. Lets be fat n happy haha. This looks AMAZING Yum yum nom nom…. PLEASE come to England…. We neeed a good vegan chef.
Regarding the Agar powder; my Whole Foods also only has flakes but most Asian speciatly places have it so if you have one near you check with them. That was where I found mine and it was cheap! =)
Is there anything I could sub for agar? Can’t find this in my little Midwestern town (used to buy it when I lived in the big city!). And it’s too late to get it shipped in time for T-giving. Would xanthan gum or possibly chia seeds do? Or do I just need to use a different vegan pumpkin pie recipe? (I’m aware of some, but this one looks so good!)
I would just use a different recipe 🙁
PS to my previous comment – would psyllium husk sub for agar? I still have some of that left over from my big-city days!
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Could I use kudzu instead of agar for the thickening agent? Not sure if I can get my hands on agar powder before Wednesday pie baking — this sounds delicious, so I’d love to try it with what I have on hand! Thanks!
Agar isn’t for thickening, it’s for gelling. So no, not really 🙁
Hi, wowzers, lot’s of hoopla about the agar powder 🙂
Do you think anything disastrous would happen if I spread some salted caramel sauce between the crust and the filling?
If it’s a sauce that works elsewhere in a baked pie, probably not. But some caramels harden way too much after baking for that long, so make sure it’s tried and true or has great reviews.
[…] have bizarre ingredients in them that dissuade me from ever trying them. Because of that, this Voluptuous Pumpkin Pie from Post Punk Kitchen definitely caught my eye! How amazing does that look? And check out the ingredient list: we have […]
I’m excited to try this for my egg-allergic son who has never had pumpkin pie!
Could I substitute honey or something else for maple syrup? I live outside of the US where maple syrup is about as exotic (and expensive) as caviar.
Vegan Pie In the Sky question—I’m planning on making the Chocolate Mousse Tart to bring to Thanksgiving dinner and need to make it with a gluten-free crust. My plan was to use the gluten free version of the press-in almond crust (p.52). The Chocolate Mousse Tart requires no baking. How long and what temp do I bake the gluten free crust before filling with the mousse?
Would it work to add cocoa powder to the crust recipe to “chocolate it up” a bit (if so, how much)?
Many thanks!
15 minutes sounds about right. And a few tbls chocolate would be great.
I’ve just found your recipe after an exhaustive search for dairy and soy free alternatives. It looks delicious and the raves are encouraging. Any recommendations for baking in ramekins instead of a crust? (We deal with a lot of allergies!)
Thanks Isa! This is a great recipe, and I like this approach for the agar – it simplifies things by removing the boiling step that many recipes go through. I’d recommend clarifying that the spices and agar be combined first before adding to the processor – I add them through the chute while the processor is going so that everything blends easily. Otherwise powder may go everywhere and take longer to get incorporated. This worked great with my graham cracker crust too!
Thank you so much! You must be up to your eyeballs in your own meal prep plus helping all of us. I really appreciate it! This pie is going to rock the house!!!
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I know a lot of people have already asked about the agar, and you are probably tired of the same question! But I am not able to get (or hunt down) agar powder before tomorrow. We have agar flakes already and all the other ingredients. Any chance there is a way to use the agar flakes and you might be able to suggest how to go about it? Thanks! And happy Thanksgiving!
I only had the flakes and since I live over an hour from the nearest place to get the powder I just used them. I let them soak in the soy milk while I rolled out the crust and got everything ready. We had thanksgiving early and the pie turned out great! Tasted amazing and the consistency was correct. Maybe I just got really lucky? But it did work fine for me.
hi! it’s kudzu girl, again! could i use arrowroot powder? I managed to get to Whole Foods, but they only had the agar flakes — dang!
Unbelievably, this question isn’t about agar! It’s about the squash. I used kabocha and 3 cups is too much apparently as the mix was so stiff. I kept adding more milk and maple syrup to make it thinner, adjusting the spices, agar and cornstarch as I go. It’s still too stiff but I don’t want to keep adding more liquid to it. I’m about to put it in the oven, we’ll see what happens!
Hey Isa! Is there anything I can replace the agar powder with? This is a pumpkin pie emergency! </3
I made this tonight. Wow, it looks fabulous, and smells divine. Waiting for it to cool…eternity…