A blog about the Primal Blueprint diet and lifestyle
Primal Pumpkin Pie
I have mixed feelings about eating primal on Thanksgiving. On the one hand, so many delicious foods can be prepared in a primal way that there is truly no need to feel deprived. After all, the turkey and the vegetables present no problems, gravy can be thickened with arrowroot, and even a tasty batch of quick rolls can be whipped up using almond flour.
On the other hand, this tends to be the only day of the year that I eat one of my favorite non-primal foods – stuffing. When I was around middle-school age I used to actually make Stove Top Stuffing as an after school snack. Although the microwave prep was easy and fastest (important if you wanted to catch those first few minutes of Oprah) I would prepare it on the stove top (as God obviously intended) and exactly according to package directions. Those soft bits of rehydrated bread intermingled with the tang of margarine, artificial chicken flavoring and enough sodium for a week were worthy of nothing less than my perfect preparation.
I don’t like Stove Top Stuffing much anymore. Or rather, I much prefer stuffing when the ingredient list is easily distinguishable from that of my shampoo. This year I am bringing the stuffing to mom’s. I plan to prepare it using one of my other favorite non-primal foods – French bread.
However, I am also bringing pumpkin pies and I could not resist coming up with a primal pumpkin pie recipe. I made a test pie yesterday and I have to say it exceeded expectations. Dave thinks it tastes better than ‘regular’ pumpkin pie. At the very least, this is definitely one of those primal adaptations where nobody is going to notice anything weird or different about it. It just tastes like good pumpkin pie.
So for all my primal cyberfriends out there who are making more nutritionally sound choices than I am this Thursday – this one’s for you!
This pie is gluten-free, grain-free, dairy-free, and refined-sugar-free.
I adapted this recipe from one at 101 cookbooks. Enjoy!
The crust:
1 ½ cups almond flour
¼ cup melted butter
1 tsp salt
The filling:
1 ½ cups of pumpkin puree*
3 eggs
1 cup coconut milk
½ cup honey
1 tablespoon arrowroot starch
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon salt
Prepare the crust: Combine melted butter, almond flour and salt in a bowl and mix well. Transfer to a 9 inch pie plate and press evenly into the bottom and sides of the plate.
Prepare the filling: Combine all filling ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
Gently pour the filling into the crust and bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes or until the center of the pie ‘sets’ (is no longer liquidy). Be sure to check on the pie about half way through. If the crust starts to get too dark, attach strips of aluminum foil to the perimeter, covering the crust, to keep it from getting burnt.
* Halve 2 small pie pumpkins, remove the seeds, and slice them into large wedges. Rub the wedges with a little oil and roast on a baking sheet in a 400 degree oven for about an hour. At that point you can scoop out the soft flesh from the skin and puree in a blender and food processor. If this doesn’t interest you, you can just buy a can of pumpkin puree (just make sure you’re buying plain old pumpkin, not pre-spiced pumpkin pie filling).
This blog is about how I cook, how I eat, how I exercise, how I have fun, and my general approach to health and wellness.
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AAAHHHH!!! Where were you on this one about 12 hours ago?
I added too much fat (coconut oil) and tried to bake the crust without the filling in it. If course it burnt because everywhere said 450. I really should have known better.
I managed to salvage it by adding coconut flakes, an egg and tuning down the heat, but it’ll be nothing to look at!
On a positive note, the filling is delicious. I used a Peanut Squash, Cinnamon, Pumpkin pie spice and Vanilla. Really yummy!
Mmmm… yummy! I made one for Thanksgiving this year too (our Canadian Thanksgiving was last month). I used raw cream instead of coconut milk and then didn’t have to use any arrowroot. Your crust looks way better than my pathetic one.
Happy Thanksgiving!
On this Thanksgiving Day, I want to say thanks for your blog and all the effort you put into it. I’ve tried several of your recipes and have enjoyed them all. I hope you can keep it going.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and Dave and the kids……………
This recipe looks amazing and cannot wait to try it. I love your blog and hope you stay with it. The pictures are amazing as well, very beautiful.
WOW!!
That pie sounds decadent.
Great recipe and cool blog!
WOW! That looks delicious. I never knew pumpkin would be that colour in pie form.
Pumpkin pie is one of my weaknesses come the holidays. I could have used this recipe over the Xmas holidays
On another note, one of the readers on my blog (Health Habits) is having trouble wrapping her brain around integrating Paleo eating into her student lifestyle.
She knows what she should do…she just doesn’t “think” she can do it.
One of her big stumbling blocks is lunch. I suggested she check out my fave Paleo food bloggers (yourself included)
During our discussion, I realized that she had raised a great question:
How does she “brown bag” her lunch “Paleo style”
What a perfect idea for a blog post.
And that is why I am contacting some of my favorite Paleo food bloggers to ask them that question:
How do you “brown bag” your lunch “Paleo style”?
If you are interested in participating, email me your ideas and I will include them in the article – with full credit going to you.
For your reference, I did a similar post last year on how to get fit and save money – http://www.healthhabits.ca/2009/03/26/how-to-get-fit-and-save-money/
I made my pie quite similar: I used a mixture of hazelnut meal, almond meal & a little coconut flour, butter & an egg. I also used a little sugar & vanilla. I think the crust might make a great shortbread on its own. I haven’t used arrowroot yet, I am curious about it…
Yum. This really looks good. I’m gonna make it in a couple of weeks for guests. Thanks.
You just saved my next thanksgiving!!!
Shelley, I just discovered your blog & I love it. I really hope all is well with you & you begin blogging again soon. You have been an encouragement to me in these first weeks of staring my new Paleo lifestyle. Keep up the good work!