Vegan Purple Sweet Potato Pie

Name: Vegan Purple Sweet Potato Pie
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 75 min
Total time: 100 min
Ingredients: 2 Cups Oat Flour; 1/3 Cup Pecans; 1/3 Cup Maple or Date Syrup; 1/2 Teaspoon Salt; 2-3 Tablespoons Water; 2 Pounds Purple Sweet Potatoes (peeled & sliced or roughly chopped); 2 Tablespoons Ground Flax + 3 Tablespoons Water; 2/3 Cup Maple or Date Syrup; 1/2 Cup Nut Butter; 1/3 Cup Applesauce; 1 Teaspoon Cinnamon; 1 Teaspoon Nutmeg; 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract; 1/2 Teaspoon Salt

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Vegan Purple Sweet Potato Pie is a colorful twist on the classic sweet potato pie. This plant-based pie is gluten-free and dairy-free, yet still rich and decadent. A delicious vegan Thanksgiving dessert.

I love purple. I mean, I made the color of this blog purple. My childhood bedroom is purple. I'm obsessed with purple cauliflower. And purple sweet potatoes are my favorite!

So, naturally, when I was brainstorming Thanksgiving desserts, I immediately gravitated towards something purple.

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Why I love this Vegan Purple Sweet Potato Pie
Ingredient Notes & Substitutions
How to make Vegan Purple Sweet Potato Pie
Expert Tips & FAQ
Recipe Prayer
Related Recipes
Tried this recipe?
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And, I mean, who else is tired of pumpkin pie every Thanksgiving? (Unless it's pumpkin spice latte pie, of course!)

Purple Sweet Potato Pie is like the fun cousin of regular sweet potato pie. Purple sweet potatoes are more dense than regular orange sweet potatoes, so this pie ends up being rich and thick and decadent.

It's also incredibly beautiful to look at.

Why I love this Vegan Purple Sweet Potato Pie

Dietary needs - this pie is completely plant-based, oil-free, gluten-free, and refined sugar-free. It's made from whole foods, for a dessert you can feel good about eating.
Perfect holiday dessert - sweet potato pie is a classic Thanksgiving dessert, and you spice it up by using purple sweet potatoes instead of the traditional orange-fleshed potatoes
Make ahead - this pie is a great dish to prep ahead of time. You'll want to serve the pie cold anyways, so it's easy to make a day or two before Thanksgiving and save oven time for other dishes
It's purple - I know, I already mentioned this. But seriously, this pie is so beautiful.

Ingredient Notes & Substitutions

Crust Ingredients

While the crust isn't the star of the show, we still want to bake a tasty crust that is strong and will hold in a dense sweet potato filling.

Oat Flour: Oat flour makes a great pie crust, it has a neutral flavor, but is strong and not crumbly. While I usually use homemade oat flour in my recipes, for pie crust I recommend using store-bought oat flour because the consistency is more fine
Pecans: Pecans add nuttiness and a bit of fat that makes the crust rich and flavorful. You can also use another nut like almonds.
Maple or Date Syrup: I find that adding sweetness to a vegan pie crust really creates flavor. You can use either maple syrup or date syrup, depending on your preferences. Date syrup will create a darker crust and make this pie completely fruit-sweetened. Maple syrup is sweeter than date syrup and will create a lighter colored crust.
Salt
Water: A bit of extra moisture brings the crust together and makes it workable.

Vegan Purple Sweet Potato Pie Crust Ingredients

Filling Ingredients

Purple Sweet Potatoes: you can find purple sweet potatoes at Whole Foods or other health food stores.
Flax Egg: A blend of flax and water, a flax egg replaces a 'real' egg and helps bind the pie together.
Maple or Date Syrup: Either syrup will work. Again, maple syrup is sweeter than date syrup, but date syrup will make this entire pie fruit-sweetened.
Nut Butter: a nut butter like cashew butter or almond butter adds a source of fat in this pie, which creates a deeper flavor
Applesauce: Applesauce adds extra sweetness and helps lighten up the texture of the pie. Be sure to buy unsweetened applesauce to avoid refined sugars
Spices: cinnamon & nutmeg
Vanilla Extract
Salt

How to make Vegan Purple Sweet Potato Pie

Step 1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Step 2. Steam the sweet potato until fork-tender.

Step 3. Meanwhile, add the oat flour, pecans, maple or date syrup, salt, and water to a food processor. Blend until the mixture comes together to form a crust dough.

Step 4. Press the crust mixture into the bottom and sides of a 9" deep dish pie plate (I used this pie dish).

Step 5. Blend the steamed sweet potato, flax egg, maple syrup, applesauce, cinnamon, and nutmeg in the food processor until smooth.

Step 6. Pour the mixture into the pie plate and bake for 65-75 minutes. Avoid opening the oven while the pie bakes. If you have a kitchen thermometer, check for an internal temperature of 160°-180°F.

Step 7. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly. Enjoy warm or refrigerate and eat cold. Enjoy!

Expert Tips & FAQ

What are purple sweet potatoes?

Purple sweet potatoes are a type of sweet potato with a purple flesh and skin. Some sweet potatoes (like Japanese sweet potatoes) have a purple skin with white flesh. But purple sweet potatoes have that gorgeous purple flesh.

There are a few varieties of purple sweet potato. The most common is Stokes. These potatoes are mildly sweet and moist, with a vibrant purple interior and are ideal for using in pies.

Choose the right pie dish.

‍Pie pan sizes are so confusing. There are a lot of different shapes and sizes. This pie works in an 9" deep dish pie pan.

To see if your pie plate will work, measure across the top from edge to edge. Then measure the height by placing your ruler on the outside of the dish. A standard pie dish will be 1" to 1.5" deep, whereas a deep dish is closer to 2" deep.

The pie dish I used for this recipe is considered a deep dish when you bring the crust all the way up the sides. I like this pie dish because if you want a regular-depth pie, like this recipe, you can use the same dish and only bring the crust up to the lower rim.

Make ahead of time.

This recipe is great to make a day or two before you'd like to serve it. The entire pie can be baked and refrigerated until you're ready to serve.

Storage

Store this Purple Sweet Potato Pie in the fridge for up to a week.

You can also freeze this pie if you have leftovers. Remove the pie from the dish and wrap tightly in plastic wrap before placing in another container.

Recipe Prayer

Thank you God for healthy desserts that allow us to enjoy delicious flavor while also nourishing our bodies. Amen.

More vegan Thanksgiving desserts:

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