Thinking about a vegan/gluten free Thanksgiving side dish

Hello again. Here we are – a week away from Thanksgiving. Since I have several friends with dietary restrictions, I thought it would be useful to include a vegan and gluten free side dish. It seems that nowadays there are more food allergies than ever before. I truly do not remember worrying about all the food restrictions as a child. Mom just made a huge dinner and everyone ate and enjoyed.

For those that will be with family and friends for a homemade Thanksgiving, just enjoy! Treasure the memories. And for those that will be away or eating out.. enjoy that time too!

Hoping there are lots of leftovers to enjoy for the days after.

And those braving the crowds and shopping on Black Friday… have fun! Most important, be safe.. Don’t bring a big pocketbook… a license and a credit card with suffice in most stores.

Ok.. back to the recipe – the leading step-by-step cooking app SideChef, featured in the Top 10 apps in the Food & Drinks category, sent this recipe for a vegan and gluten-free sweet potato pie by SideChef blogger Jenessa’s Dinners. The dish can certainly be enjoyed be all.

Vegan and Gluten Free Sweet Potato Pie

1 hour 10 minutes

Yield: 12 cupcake-sized pies

Ingredients

10 ounces whole pecans
3 ounces sliced almonds
3 ounce. chopped walnuts
10-12 pitted dates
1/8 cup real maple syrup
2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large sweet potatoes
3/4 cup light coconut milk
2 tablespoons corn starch
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoons ground nutmeg
pinch of ground cloves

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Skin and cut the large sweet potatoes (2) into large pieces for cooking. Add them to a large pot of water and bring to a boil to cook for about 15 minutes, or until very soft. Melt the coconut oil. Place the chopped walnuts, whole pecans, and sliced almonds in a food processor until they are finely chopped. Add the pitted dates and pulse until the nuts just begin to hold together.

By hand, stir the real maple syrup, melted coconut oil, cinnamon, and salt.

Press about 2 heaping tablespoons of the crust mixture into each place in the cupcake pan, pressing it up along the sides until the crust is even and about 1/8 inch thick, but err on the side of thicker.

Bake the crusts for 10 minutes in the oven, and then allow to cool a little, while you prepare the filling.

For the filling, drain and mash the sweet potatoes, mixing them with the light coconut milk, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, ground nutmeg, salt, and ground cloves.

Save some of the boiling water to mix with the cornstarch until it dissolves. Over medium heat, add the potato mixture back into the emptied pot along with the dissolved cornstarch and brown sugar. Cook until the sugar is melted and everything is combined.

Fill each cup of nut crust with sweet potato, and return to the oven to bake for another 15 minutes. The filling will remain soft.

Let the pies cool completely in the pan before attempting to remove them. I also chilled the pies in the freezer a bit, but don’t let them get too cold, or the crust just cracks.

Enjoy!

Cooking with Beth

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