This creamy and luscious healthy sweet potato pie with notes of cinnamon, clove, ginger, and nutmeg will be the star of your Thanksgiving feast!
Planning Thanksgiving can be overwhelming sometimes, especially if it’s your first time making a plant-based Thanksgiving dinner, but it doesn’t have to be. In our house, Thanksgiving is a mesh of cultures we make typical American dishes, but I like to throw in some Mexican-inspired favorites like this Chorizo Chestnut Stuffing and these Acorn Squash Stuffed with Quinoa topped with Pipian.
Sweet Potato Pie VS Pumpkin Pie
You can’t have Thanksgiving without pie, and it seems that everyone’s favorite is pumpkin pie, but what about healthy sweet potato pie! Sweet potato pie is famous in the south but not so much in the rest of the country, but what’s the difference?? In theory they are practically the same, except one is made with pumpkin and one is made with sweet potato. Personally, I love sweet potato pie. Most pumpkin pie is made with canned pumpkin, but sweet potato pie is made with fresh sweet potatoes. To me sweet potato pie is lighter and creamier than pumpkin pie, but just as delicious.
History of Sweet Potato Pie
While researching this I went into a deep Google rabbit hole, so I’ll try to be brief. Sweet potatoes were brought to Europe and West Africa by Spanish traders from Peru. Apparently, West Africans did not take to sweet potatoes right away, but the Europeans did. It became all the rage in Europe, even showing up at England’s royal tables as a dessert or tart.
Wealthy American households in colonial times followed the trends in Europe and so did the big plantations in the South. That’s how sweet potato pie got to America, it grew in popularity specifically in the south because sweet potatoes were easier to grow than edible pumpkins. As we know the food at the plantation house was made by the African American slaves, thus how this pie enters into African American culture.
The Recipe: Tips and Notes
- Make sure to tent the crust with foil while baking so it doesn’t dry out.
- You can use any other nut butter in this recipe.
- I cooked my sweet potatoes in the microwave, but you can also bake them or cook them in the pressure cooker.
Healthy Sweet Potato Pie
Pin Recipe Print RecipeIngredients
Crust
- 3 oz. Almond butter (1/3 cup)
- 1 oz Apple sauce (2 tbsp.)
- 4 oz All-purpose flour (1 cup)
- 2 oz Whole wheat flour (½ cup)
- 1/2 tsp. Salt
- 1/2 tbsp. Sugar
- 4 tbsp. Water, ice cold
Filling
- 2 cups Sweet Potato puree
- 8 oz Silken tofu (1 cup)
- 1/2 cup Soy milk, unsweetened
- 1/2 cup Coconut sugar or brown sugar
- ½ cup Maple syrup
- 3 tbsp. Corn starch
- 1/4 tsp. Ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp. Ground Cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp. Ground clove
- 1/4 tsp Ground ginger
- 1 tsp. Vanilla extract
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine the apple sauce and almond butter. Spread this mixture on a paper plate or similar container, and place in the freezer until it hardens. In a large bowl, combine the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, salt, and sugar. Mix to combine.
- Add the frozen almond butter to the flour mixture, and using a pastry cutter or your hands cut the almond butter into the flour, until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Slowly add the water, and using a spatula work it into the flour mixture. Knead the dough briefly until it comes together and forms into a ball. Place in the fridge for 30 min.
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- In the blender, place the sweet potato puree, tofu, soy milk, coconut sugar, maple syrup, cornstarch, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, ginger, vanilla, and process until smooth. Set aside.
- On a lightly floured surface roll out the pie dough to form a 12 inch circle ¼ inch thick. Place the rolled out dough in the pie pan carefully and smooth it out. With a small knife, trim the extra overhang of the crust. Crimp the edges with a fork or flute the edges with your fingers,
- Pour in the sweet potato mixture and using a spatula smooth it out to make it as even as possible. Tent the edges of the pie with foil to prevent excess browning.
- Bake for 35 – 40 minutes or until the center of the pie is almost set. Remove from the oven and let cool completely for at least 3 hours. Store pie in refrigerator.
Notes
Nutrition
Although dorastable.com attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates.
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