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 dont 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 moms. 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 ones 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 cups almond flour
cup melted butter
1 tsp salt
The filling:
1 cups of pumpkin puree*
3 eggs
1 cup coconut milk
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 doesnt interest you, you can just buy a can of pumpkin puree (just make sure youre buying plain old pumpkin, not pre-spiced pumpkin pie filling.
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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!
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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…
+1
Hmm, this looks devine!
I am just wondering what I could use instead of the the spice as they do not sell it here in The Netherlands.
Love your blog!
I use a combination of cinnamon, allspice, and cloves, you can also add a bit of ginger.
Yum!!!!!!! I can’t wait for Thanksgiving to try this out. Hmmmm, maybe I won’t even wait, this looks like a good anytime dessert! Thanks for the recipe, I’m glad to have found your blog.
Megan – no need to wait! I think it is a pretty healthy treat. I just got a pumpkin with in my last CSA box… hmm….
Glad you are enjoying the blog!
This recipe is amazing. Crust holds up very well once refirgerated.
I am making it again right now, but have decided to forgo the crust and use custard dishes this time.
That is a great idea!
I was talking with a friend and just thought about pumpkin pie and thought, I’m sure this could be done Paleo…ta-da…you’ve done it. This looks amazing and I can’t wait to try it. Been Paleo for 12 days now and hoping to stay as close Paleo as possible. It’s been a little rough getting past the sugar cravings, but am learning a lot reading blogs and seeing many things can be done Paleo and am enjoying it so far. Thanks for the blog and for this recipe!
The first time I made it I followed the recipe and thought it was a bit salty. The butter I used in the crust was salted butter which may have made the difference. The second pie I skipped the salt in the crust and only used 1/4 tsp salt in the pie filling. Hmmmm … that was the ticket for me.
Great filling, the crust was way too salty for me and I used unsalted butter and half the salt stated…next time I will leave out the salt completly orjust a pinch. I just scraped the pumpkin filling off and tho it was not pretty, it was yummy! Thanks for a great primal recipe otherwise!
This… is GREAT! I’ve made two in the last few weeks. On the second one I cut the honey in half, only 1/4 cup. I don’t miss the sweetness, tastes more like a pumpkin pie than a pumpkin/sugar pie. And as mentioned above, I’ll probably cut back on the salt too.
With half the honey, here’s the nutrition info, for a 1/8 slice:
276 Calories (70% from fat)
21.5g fat
303mg sodium
17g carbs
4g protein
A nicely reasonable carb count…
Just found your web site recently. Thanks for this recipe, I tried it last night and it came out great!
Thanks for the recipes. I baked this pie today. The crust is a wee bit salty (as mentioned), but has a good texture…and the filling is yummy.
I’m looking forward to trying your lovely-looking banana strawberry pie!
Primal Stuffing:
Cooked ground beef
raisins (optional) just a few
walnuts
Cook the ground beef and drain. Mix in walnuts and optional raisins. Stuff the turkey. Tastes amazing!!
Too much salt!!!! I made this last night. I’m thinking ‘that’s a lot of salt- ONE TEASPOON in the pumpkin mix, and ONE TEASPOON in the crust- (for a cup and a half of nuts!), but OK, I’ll reserve judgment.’ Well, judgment: too salty! Otherwise, behind all the salt I could tell it could be tasty. I’ll make it again, with LESS SALT.
I love pumpkin pie! Before I quite sugar and grain, I would buy a bunch of pies and eat out the centers. I could eat two pie centers at a time!
I just made this Primal Pumpkin Pie. I left off the crust (I never ate that part anyway!), used cream rather than coconut milk, and left out the arrowroot starch.
It’s good! It’s not as good as a great sugar filled pie, but it’s a lot better than a crapy sugar filled pie. Thanks 🙂
I really think the crust needs browned first. But I really like the flavor of the filling. Wow.
Wayyyyyyy too salty!! 1/4 tsp of salt for each component of the recipe would be plenty. That said, the pumpkin filler is delish.
Precooked the crust.. 🙂 YUUUUUUMMMMMMYYYY