Name: Vegan Pumpkin Pie
Cook time: 20 minutes
Total time: 1¼ hous plus chilling
Yield: Makes one 9” pie; serves 8
Ingredients: 1 cup vegan butter, chilled and cut into ½" cubes; 2¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for surface; 1 tsp. Diamond Crystal or ½ tsp. plus ⅛ tsp. Morton kosher salt; 1 Tbsp. evaporated cane juice sugar; 2¼ cups drained soft silken tofu; 1 cup canned pumpkin purée (preferably organic); 1 cup plus 1 Tbsp. cold vegan cream cheese, cut into 1" chunks; 1¼ cups (250 g) evaporated cane juice sugar; ½ tsp. freshly grated nutmeg; ½ tsp. ground cinnamon; ½ tsp. ground cloves; 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

Vegan Pumpkin Pie being sliced and served.

Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Kaitlin Wayne

This vegan pumpkin pie recipe from naturopath Fernanda Capobianco is a surefire Thanksgiving dessert win. (Still, we’d like to remind you that you can make it any time of the year.) If you’re feeling very ambitious, you can turn a fresh pumpkin into homemade pumpkin purée; otherwise, unsweetened canned pure pumpkin works just fine. (Curious what to do with the rest of that can of pumpkin? We’ve got you covered.)

Rather than arrowroot, tapioca starch, or some other cornstarch substitute, Capobianco relies on silken tofu and vegan cream cheese to thicken the dairy-free pumpkin filling (read our guide to plant-based dairy for recommended brands). Her filling ingredients also include evaporated cane juice sugar, which may be sold as cane sugar or natural sugar in your local grocery store. Some brands of white sugar are refined using animal by-products, making them unfit for vegan baking. If you can’t find it, coconut sugar makes a flavorful substitute. And if you already have a jar of pumpkin pie spice on hand for your morning lattes, go ahead and sub 1½ tsp. of it for the individual spices listed below.

While most store-bought pie crusts are reliable, Capobianco’s vegan pie crust recipe is foolproof, even for novice bakers. If this is your first time baking an empty pie shell, follow our guide to blind baking. Or, to make this dessert gluten-free, skip the pie crust entirely and bake the pumpkin pie filling in ramekins greased with vegan butter and serve as individual pots de crème (note the bake time will be significantly reduced; start checking at 20 minutes). Don’t forget to let your pumpkin pie sit in the oven as it cools after baking for the best texture. Serve with a dollop of vegan whipped cream made from very cold, full-fat coconut milk and sweetened with vegan brown sugar or maple syrup; or draped with nutty cashew cream, enriched with the sweetener of your choice.

This recipe has been adapted for style from ‘The Vegan Divas Cookbook’ by Fernanda Capobianco. Buy the full book on Amazon.