Vegan Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients

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Method

The ingredients section is split into 3 main parts, because that's pretty much how we make the pumpkin pie.

  1. Preheat oven to 180C.

  2. Line your pie dish with the pastry.

  3. Mix the pumpkin, sugar, golden syrup, cinnamon and ginger in a large bowl

  4. Make the cashew cream (see below) – add the cashews and water to a blender, and blend until completely smooth.

  5. Add the lemon juice to the cashew cream, blend for a second or two to whisk it in, then add to the pumpkin bowl and mix thoroughly.

  6. Whisk the aquafaba to stiff peaks. Add to the pumpkin mix and fold in.

  7. Pour the mixture into the pie dish. Put the pie in the oven and cook for 1 hour.

  8. Remove the pie and leave on the side until cool. Once cool enough, put in the fridge overnight to let it fully set.

Notes

The cashew cream is used to replace butter and egg yolk. It's fatty and slightly sweet, and gels together with an airy texture when cooked, perfect as a binding ingredient.

The aquafaba directly replaces egg whites in this recipe. It takes a little extra work than egg, but comes out about as good.

Cashew Cream

I prefer to make this at home because then I have complete control over the consistency. This is much thicker than cashew milk which you might buy at the shop (and contains less added stuff, if you care), and if you find that your pie ends up slightly too stiff or slightly too wet, you can easily adjust accordingly.

I recommend soaking the cashews before blending, just because it reduces the chance of creating a bitty cream, and is kinder to your blender. You could overnight soak them if you want, but usually I just cover them with boiled water and leave for about 30 minutes, then drain.

I cannot emphasise enough how important it is to make sure this ends up completely smooth. I let it blend for 5 – 10 minutes to make sure.

The lemon juice helps it to curdle and set. I'm not 100% certain if this is necessary, I haven't tried without yet.

Aquafaba

Literally “bean water”. This is the water that you get from cooking chickpeas, beans etc. and is also the water that those same items are stored in when tinned.

The easiest way to get access to this, therefore, is to just use a tin of “beans in water” – not flavoured water, or salted water or anything. Just water. I find that a 400g tin gives about 12tbsp as required in this recipe – I open just a slit with a can opener and pour to prevent any actual beans getting in.

Traditionally, chickpea aquafaba is the go-to for this sort of thing. It has slightly less taste than other beans, and is white like eggs so won't colour your recipe. Any aquafaba should be good, though, and I've had success with black bean aquafaba, too. Just expect a (very slightly) darker colour to the end result if you go that route.

For whipping, some people seem to say high speed, some say low. I'm not an aquafaba master, so I'm not sure. I tend to use my electric whisk at lowest setting, and it takes about 10 minutes to get to stiff peaks. I've done high speed before as well and it's not much quicker. Do what feels right – it's like whipping egg whites but it'll take longer and you need to use electric really.

Vegan pastry

Most pre-made frozen pastry is “accidentally vegan” already – oil is cheaper than butter, after all. If you want to make your own, though, the basic mix I use is:

Mix into breadcrumbs, add a splash of water and bring together into a dough ball. Rest in the fridge for at least an hour.