Sweet Potato Pecan Pie- vegan, gluten free, refined sugar free, dairy free

After you taste this Sweet Potato Pecan Pie, you’re going to wonder why we ever use refined sugar to sweeten our baked goods. The Japanese Sweet Potatoes and just a few dates make this pecan pie sweet and delicious.

When I brought this to Thanksgiving with my family last year, my uncle who LOVES pecan pie and hates sweet potatoes said it was the BEST pecan pie he’d ever had. I told him after that it contained sweet potatoes and he couldn’t believe it.

You and your whole family are going to love this recipe. The only added sugar comes from maple syrup for the maple cinnamon pecan topping. If you want to make it completely added sugar free, you can simply omit the maple syrup from the topping! When I gave this to my baby, I removed the maple cinnamon pecans because they’re chokable and because they have added sugar! Everyone else was able to enjoy them!

One of the best parts of this pie is that you can likely (under normal, non-COVID-19 circumstances) find most of the ingredients zero waste (that is, without packaging!).

SWEET POTATO PECAN PIE

Ingredients:

Crust

• 1 cup of almonds

• 1 cup of buckwheat flour or oat flour

• 1 tablespoon almond butter (or date syrup if you want it sweeter)

• 4 tablespoons of coconut oil, plus extra to coat pie pan

• 2 teaspoons of cinnamon

• 7 medjool dates

Sweet Potato Pecan Filling

• 1.5 cups mashed Japanese sweet potatoes (from ~ 1 medium Japanese sweet potato)

• 1 ¼ cup full fat coconut milk (canned)

• 1 cup pecans

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 4 medjool dates

• 4 tsp arrowroot powder

Maple Cinnamon Pecan Topping

• 1.5 cup pecans

• 1.5 tbsp maple syrup

• 1 tsp cinnamon

Directions

1. First, wash the sweet potato and poke a few holes in it with a fork. Bake it in a 400F oven for 50-60 minutes until soft. Remove from the oven and let cool so that you can remove the skin without burning your fingers!

2. While the sweet potato is baking, make the crust. Place the almonds in a food processor and process until they form a coarse flour. Add all the other crust ingredients into the processor and blend until a sticky mixture forms.

3. Spread a layer of coconut oil on the pie dish and then cover the dish with the crust. Bake for about 10-12 minutes in a 350F oven.

4. Now it’s time to make the filling. Add all the filling ingredients into the food processor and process until smooth and thick.

5. Pour this filling into the pie dish with the pre-baked pie crust and bake the pie for another 20 minutes in the 350F oven.

6. While the pie is baking, combine all the ingredients for the maple cinnamon pecan topping in a baking sheet and make sure that the pecans are evenly coated with the maple syrup and cinnamon. When there’s 10 minutes left on the timer for the pie in the oven, add this baking sheet to the oven with the pie and bake the maple cinnamon pecans for 10 minutes.

7. Remove the pie and the topping from the oven. Carefully transfer the maple pecans to the top of the pie. The maple pecans will be very hot! Press them down a bit so that they stick.

8. Let the pie cool completely before cutting. To cool, first, leave it on the counter and then once it’s cooled down a bit, you can place it in the refrigerator to speed up the cooling process.

9. You can serve the pie cold or heat it up!

Notes:

I use almonds and almond butter as the base of the pie crust, but if you want it extra pecan-y, you can absolutely use pecans and pecan butter instead.