Nutty Vegan Pumpkin Pie

I might have mentioned this before, but I love halloween. I also love pumpkins because they’re so halloweeny! In the UK shops only sell pumpkins for the couple of weeks before halloween and it’s very unusual to find pumpkin in a tin. I was so excited when I discovered a couple of shops in Edinburgh that sell tinned pumpkin! It must be because there are a lot of Americans living here. Anyway, I am hopefully going to be making the most of pumpkin season and this is my first dish – a classic pumpkin pie! I made the crust using the Oh She Glows pecan crust recipe and I topped the pie with toasted almonds to make it extra nutty. I’ve also used honey for this recipe. If you don’t eat honey, it can be easily exchanged for maple syrup. I know honey isn’t technically vegan but I’ve been eating it anyway and I’m not sure if I should be. Is the honey making process problematic? I will look into it, but if you have any info on honey do let me know!

You will need:
1 tbsp vegan margarine
6 tbsp honey
A pinch of salt
3 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp ginger
3 tbsp ground flax
2 tbsp sugar
600g pecans
150g porridge oats (switch for gf oats if you’d like a gluten free pie!)
1 tin pumpkin puree
1/2 tin coconut milk
2 tsp arrowroot
A handful of almonds

For the pecan crust:  Blend the oats until they are floury. Then blend the pecans together until they start to release their oils. In my blender I had to keep spooning out the blended pecans so that the blades would reach the rest of the nuts. In a food processer I imagine this would be easier. Then mix the pecans with the sugar, blended oats, flax, salt, margarine, 3 tbsps of honey and 2 tsp of cinnamon. Press the mixture into the bottom and sides of your dish to form the crust, and bake for 10 minutes at 180 degrees C.

For the filling: Mix together the pumpkin puree, coconut milk, 3 tbsps of honey, 1 tsp of cinnamon, allspice, ginger and arrowroot. Spoon this mixture into the pie crust and bake for 45 minutes at 180 degrees C. 25 minutes after the pie has been in the oven, sprinkle the top with almonds and pop it back in. Leave it to cool for a little while in the fridge before eating so that the filling is firm!

Living by myself means that I get to eat the whole pie by myself. Yum! It might not be very good for me but I am definitely excited about it. I think I might make pumpkin french toast next weekend for brunch, and I have so many more pumpkin recipes saved on my pinterest! Do you love pumpkin pie as much as I do?