Healthy Hippie Lazy Pumpkin pie is a dessert you can feel 100% good about putting inside your body. It’s a bowl of pumpkin-spiced kabocha purée topped with an airy dollop of whipped coconut cream, crunchy nugs of slow roasted granola, and seductive flecks of Celtic sea salt. That’s it. It’s a beautiful, naked, sexy dessert, and it’s a lot easier than making a pie.
One of the most amazing things about this recipe is that it tastes very sweet, despite the fact that there’s no sugar in it. Kabocha pumpkin is naturally sweet, and becomes sweeter still when simmered with pumpkin pie spice – a blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and allspice. It’s an easy thing to throw together and bring to a holiday gathering so you don’t feel left out, sipping from a sad teacup, watching everyone else gleefully consume a glutenized, sugar-soaked dessert while a single tear trickles down your cheek. Now you get to have dessert too. And I wager that “our dessert” might taste even better than what the normals are having. Offer them a taste and watch their eyes roll into the backs of their heads while they beg you for more. This recipe makes enough to feed a hippie commune, so there’s plenty to share. Or, hoard it all for yourself. Use the leftovers to make “Lazy Pumpkin Pies” all Thanksgiving weekend long. Add it to pumpkin pie waffles, stir it into breakfast porridges, or bring the fixings to work and make yourself a fun afternoon snack. The purée freezes well if you want to save it for later, and the granola stays fresh and crispy in the fridge for about a month.
This dessert offers wonderful nutritional benefits. Kabocha pumpkin is an excellent source of beta carotene, which supports white blood cells, immunity, hair, skin, and vision. Kabocha is also a good source of iron, vitamin C, and some B vitamins. The skin is particularly nutrient dense and high in fiber, and while most Kabocha dishes call for the skin to be discarded, in true hippie fashion, my recipe uses ALL of it. The kabocha purée is enriched with coconut butter and and topped with whipped coconut cream, both of which are considered good fats, rich in medium chain triglycerides which are used by your body to produce energy, and may improve brain function and help to lower cholesterol. The slow roasted granola is whole grain and gluten free, and gets its clumpy texture from chia seeds, a great source of antioxidants and omega-3s. As you kick back and enjoy this dessert, rest content in the knowledge that what you’re eating is actually good for you, a truly guilt-free dessert, full of nutrition, good fats, peace, and love.
RECIPE NOTES
FOR THE KABOCHA purée
Use whatever plant-based milk you like except coconut milk. Coconut milk will make the purée taste too rich. Because this recipe yields so much purée, you may need to start it off in your food processor and finish it off with a hand mixer in a large bowl to ensure even distribution.
FOR THE GRANOLA
This granola has a super crispy texture thanks to the long roasting time and the addition of chia eggs, which make great clumps. The ¼ cup (59 mL) of yacon syrup is optional for those who might want a sweeter flavor. Yacon syrup is very low in fructose and has a glycemic index of 1. It’s derived from the roots of the yacon plant and is the healthiest, natural option for a sweetener that I know of. But it’s quite expensive. I usually make this granola without any sweetener and it’s still very nice. It has a lovely, toasted, almost nutty flavor, and when paired with something else that is naturally sweet, like a piece of fruit, yogurt, or in this case, the kabocha pumpkin purée, all the elements come together and make the granola taste sweeter than it actually is.
FOR THE WHIPPED CREAM
I use the coconut whipped cream recipe from Minimalist Baker so head over there for that. Make sure to chill your container of coconut cream in the fridge overnight – it needs time to solidify in order to whip up properly.
RECIPE: KABOCHA PUMPKIN Purée
Makes 10-12 servings
Cook time: 60 minutes
Active time: 25 minutes
INGREDIENTS
2 cups (474 mL) water
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
5 lbs (2270 g) kabocha pumpkin, cut into approximately 1.5 inch/4cm chunks
½ tsp pink salt
4 tbsp coconut butter
¾ cup (177 mL) unsweetened soy milk
Flakey Celtic sea salt, to taste
INSTRUCTIONS
Give the top of the pumpkin a few wacks with a sturdy cleaver, just enough to leave a few cracks in the skin so that steam can escape. Slip it into a 400F (200C) oven for 20-25 minutes to soften up. Now it’s easy to cut without a chainsaw, but be sure to give it a few minutes to cool off before you do so to avoid steam burns. Remove the seeds and stringy bits and cut into approximately 1.5 inch/4cm chunks – it doesn’t need to be that precise.
Place the water, pumpkin pie spice, and chopped kabocha into a large stockpot, cover with lid, and simmer over medium high heat for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, and let sit, covered, for 15 more minutes.
Add pink salt, coconut butter, soy milk, and cooked kabocha to your food processor and purée until very smooth. If necessary, transfer contents to a large bowl and finish with a hand mixer to ensure even distribution.
Transfer to a storage container and chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours prior to serving. When ready to serve, place a hearty scoop into a small bowl, sprinkle the granola on top (recipe follows), and finish with a dollop of coconut whipped cream (recipe follows) and a very generous scattering of flakey sea salt.
Leftover purée will keep in the fridge for 3 days.
RECIPE: SLOW ROASTED GRANOLA
Makes 4.75 cups
Cook time: 1 hour, 45 minutes
Active time: 15 minutes
INGREDIENTS
3 chia eggs/ a.k.a. 3 tbsp ground chia seeds plus 9 tbsp water
4.5 cups (1066 mL) gluten free rolled oats
4 tbsp pumpkin seeds
3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp (177 mL plus 2 tbsp) coconut oil, melted
3/4 teaspoon pink salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ cup (59 mL) yacon syrup (optional)
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat oven to 325F (165C)
Make the chia eggs by placing chia seeds into a clean coffee or spice grinder and blitz until powdered. Don’t blitz for too long or you will have the beginnings of a butter instead of a powder. Pour into a small bowl, add 9 tbsp water, stir to combine, and leave to set for at least 10 minutes.
Place oats and pumpkin seeds in a large bowl and stir to combine.
Add coconut oil, cinnamon, and pink salt to a small saucepan and warm over low heat until melted. Once melted, add yacon syrup and stir with a fork to emulsify. Pour mixture, along with chia eggs, over the oat and pumpkin seed mixture and work with your hands until combined.
Line 2 large baking trays with parchment and pour the mixture on top. Bake at 325F (165C) for approximately 1.5 hours, stirring every 30 minutes, until golden brown. Bake for longer than 1.5 hours to achieve golden color and crisp texture depending on your oven. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before storing in an airtight container in the fridge. Storing it in the fridge makes it extra crunchy.
Try something different this holiday season and watch what happens when you spike the Thanksgiving dinner playlist with a little Skinny Puppy.
