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- Makes one 9-inch pie
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This classic Southern dessert gets a plant-based twist with apple sauce and plant-based milk replacing all the dairy products used in traditional versions of the recipe. Our vegan sweet potato pie is packed full of warming spices, and the crust—made of oat and sunflower seed butter—makes it extra scrumptious. Top each slice with a dollop of Aquafaba Whipped Cream for a truly decadent experience. To make this recipe gluten-free be sure to use certified gluten-free oats.
Tip: To bake sweet potatoes, scrub potatoes. Preheat oven to 450°F. Use a fork to poke holes in sweet potatoes in several places. Bake on a foil-lined baking sheet 45 minutes or until tender when pierced with a fork. For an extra-creamy filling, puree all the filling ingredients together in a blender.
Ingredients
- 1½ cups rolled oats
- 4 tablespoons flaxseed meal
- 3 tablespoons sunflower seed butter
- 2 to 4 tablespoons unsweetened, unflavored plant-based milk
- 1½ lb. baked sweet potatoes (about 3 large)
- ¾ cup unsweetened applesauce
- ¾ cup unsweetened, unflavored plant-based milk
- ⅓ cup pure maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 recipe Aquafaba Whipped Cream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F. For crust, in a food processor combine oats, 3 tablespoons of the flaxseed meal, and the sunflower seed butter. Pulse until mixed. With food processor running, slowly add the 2 to 4 tablespoons milk until mixture starts to cling together and is slightly moistened. Press mixture onto the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch pie plate. Bake 5 to 8 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack.
- For filling, in a small bowl combine the remaining 1 tablespoons flaxseed meal with 2 tablespoons water. Peel sweet potatoes and place pulp in a large bowl; mash with a fork. (You should have about 1½ cups mashed sweet potato.) Add flaxseed mixture and the next seven ingredients (through salt). Whisk until combined. Spoon into crust.
- Bake 40 minutes or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack 30 minutes. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours or up to 24 hours before serving.
- Cut into slices. If desired, top with Aquafaba Whipped Cream and sprinkle with additional cinnamon.
Comments (21)
(4 from 8 votes)Crust was tasteless. Filling was not good either. A lot of work for a poor result.
Sweet potatoes or sweet enough you do not need maple syrup consider keeping the recipe clean and leaving the maple syrup out
M - I agree about the maple syrup! A good sweet potato needs no other sweetener (you can usually tell if you have a good sweet one by the appearance - if the color is too light or it's mealy looking, you likely have a sweet potato that wasn't sufficiently cured. The good ones also have a caramel like smell when they're roasted). Honestly, IMO, the crust is unnecessary too. Roasted sweet potato with a sprinkle of cinnamon does it for me. I would only bother with a crust for other people who have a mindset that a pie needs to look a certain way. But neatly cut slices of roasted sweet potato sprinkled with cinnamon, maybe garnished with some pecans, could certainly be attractive little nibbler as well. If you want to make them easier to pick up, I suppose you could set them on a little sweet cracker or cookie of some kind.
Love this recipe and Marks reply in the comment section. I'm sure this tastes delicious by the way. ️
Did anyone try it and have a taste opinion? I don’t see any comments about the taste.
We just tried it and it looked beautiful, however we didn't particularly like the taste.
There were instructions and pictures (a link) to make the sunflower seed butter in one version of this recipe but cannot find again! The "lumpy" crust look so good and I would really like to try it. Thanks for your assistance.
I was reading you answer regarding honey and bees being animals. Bees are insects belonging to the animal kingdom. Bees make the honey from the pollen and nectar of the plants (without the pollen and nectar of plants no honey). Mushrooms are not plants either, but I notice you use them in your WFPB recipes. Mushrooms are fungi and not plants. And if you do further research into mushrooms, you will find scientist believe mushrooms are closer to animals than plants. Maybe WFPB needs to rethink Honey usage. Honey just like Mushrooms are covered under "whole food." Both have health benefits, which is what it is all about.
It’s not that honey is an animal, it is, instead, an “animal”-produced substance that the bees, themselves have to have as food. The thought is similar to the vegan stance on cow’s milk, except that a cow’s milk is meant to nourish calves, not adult cows, but all bees, young, adult, and old ones, need honey to survive. I wondered the same thing as you about honey - lots of information on this on the internet and stated much more clearly than I can explain it.
I usually have tahini in my pantry, is it okay to use in place of the sunflower butter?
Eddy, I don't know if tahini would be an equivalent sub for sunflower butter, however, that sounds yummy and I think it would taste great! You should try it!
I was wondering about using Miyoko’s‘s butter instead of the sunflower butter?
Hi Eddy, I have made a crust very similar to this for an apple pie that was featured ~ it didn't call for and "fats" that I remember, however, I made it again with the addition of walnuts ~ like 1/2 cup, but less would work for sure. It was very delish!! I used this crust for another FOK recipe called "pumpkin squares" and I bet this sweet potato recipe also work well. Have fun and enjoy!
Is this pie baked at 375 just like the crust? Just asking because it seems a bit high. Preparing ingredients to make this pie right now. Thanks!
I'm baking this pie at 375 but after 60 minutes the middle is still like pudding. Any suggestions? I followed the recipe exactly.
Can anyone help with a question. Why is honey excluded from all recipes?
Hi Mario- honey is excluded from all vegan (plant based) recipes because it comes from bees and not plants. Whole-food plant based diets do not use any form of animal products.
Because honey is not vegan, duh
The aspect of animals that is important here is the fact that they have a central nervous system and can feel pain. There are, as you say, many similarities between mushrooms and animals, but this is not one of them. Hence, honey is excluded because it is a product produced by bees for bee consumption.
Could I sub pumpkin purée for the sweet potato?
Yes, those are generally able to be swapped out with similar results.