Where’s the Pumpkin? Pie (AKA Raw Pumpkin Pie)

I love this pie.  I usually make it once or twice per year.  It is rich and creamy and spicy and raw – meaning, you do not have to cook it.  It is gluten-free and dairy-free and delicious and does not have pumpkin as an ingredient.  Rather, it gets its colour from carrots.

You do need special equipment for this one.  A juicer to juice the carrots, a food processor – for the almond crust, a large chef’s knife to cut open the young coconut, and a Vita-Mix or high powered blender to blend the filling. 

If you do not have the equipment, try to borrow it from friends and family and then share the pie with them!

Joanne Levesque RHN, Pure Med Office Manager and Holistic Nutritionist

Serves 12 to 16

Crust

2 cups almonds

3 mejool dates, pits removed

2 tablespoons maple syrup

¼ cup coconut oil

Large pinch of sea salt

Place almonds in food processor and process until it is mealy looking. 

Add the remaining ingredients to the food processor and process until all ingredients are well blended.  Place contents of food processor onto a nine inch pie plate.  Using your hands, press the crust into the plate creating a nice edge.  Refrigerate the crust while making the filling.

Filling

1 cup raw cashews, soaked for 4 hours

1 cup young coconut meat (found at Farmboy or Asian Markets), see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPvhxeg_PUA to learn how to properly open a young coconut

2 cups fresh carrot juice

¾ cup coconut oil

6 mejool dates, pits removed

½ cup maple syrup

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons ground ginger

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

½ teaspoon sea salt

Place all ingredients in the Vita-Mix and blend on high until the mixture is smooth and creamy.  Pour filling into pie crust and refrigerate for eight hours or overnight.  This pie is very rich so it can serve a lot of people.

Thai-spiced Pumpkin Soup & Spicy Pumpkin Seeds

This delicious seasonal soup from 101Cookbooks.com is simple but unique. You can buy Thai curry paste at any Asian specialty store. Keep in mind that Thai curry pastes have differing strengths. Start with a teaspoon and then build from there until the soup has a level of spiciness and flavor that works for your palette. Top with toasted pumpkin seeds.

1 medium pumpkin or 2 small pumpkins 

3 tablespoons butter, coconut or olive oil
fine grain sea salt

1 14-ounce can coconut milk
1 teaspoon (or more) red Thai curry paste
water

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and place the oven racks in the middle. Carefully cut each pumpkin or squash into halves or quarters leaving the skin on. Scrape the stringy pulp and seeds from the middle of the pumpkin. Slather the remaining flesh of the pumpkin or squash with oil, sprinkle generously with salt, place on a baking sheet skin sides down, and place in the oven. Roast for about an hour or until it is tender throughout.

When the pumpkin or squash is cool enough to handle scrap the flesh off the skin and scoop into a large pot over medium high heat. Add the coconut milk and curry paste and bring to a simmer. Remove from the heat and puree with a hand blender, you should have a very thick base at this point. Now add water a cup at a time pureeing between additions until the soup is the consistency you prefer - a low sodium vegetable stock would work instead of water as well. Bring up to a simmer again, and add more curry paste if you like.

Spicy Pumpkin Seeds

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon fine grained sea salt
1 cup fresh pumpkin seeds

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Rinse pulp off pumpkin seeds. In a medium-sized bowl mix together the pumpkin seeds, salt, and cayenne and toss well. Place seeds in a single layer across a baking sheet. Bake for about 12 minutes or until seeds are golden. Sprinkle with a bit more cayenne pepper.