Make this southern style vegan pecan pie recipe for dessert, with gooey pecan filling and no corn syrup or refined sugar. You’ll never miss the eggs!
The best vegan pecan pie
Some recipes turn out perfectly on the first try.
Then there are other recipes, like my Vegan Brownies or this Thanksgiving classic vegan pecan pie, that need a little bit more work.
When you are making up a recipe completely from scratch, all bets are off the table, and my first healthy pecan pie experiment burned to a crisp.
The second trial was so awful even my dad would not touch it, and he will eat anything.
Happily, this story ends well and the third time was the charm.
This is without a doubt the richest, gooiest, and best plant based pecan pie I have ever tried. I hope your family loves it too!
Trending recipe: Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Dairy free and healthy pecan pie
Since I already mentioned ingredients the pie does not contain, let’s talk about all of the good things it does include.
Pecans are packed with nutrition and over 19 vitamins and minerals, including magnesium, iron, and calcium.
They are also high in heart healthy unsaturated fats and fiber.
In place of eggs, I chose to use flax eggs. Superfood flax seeds offer a healthy dose of Omega-3s and have been shown to reduce cholesterol and inflammation.
And I replaced the unhealthy corn syrup of traditional pecan pie with another nutritional powerhouse: blackstrap molasses.
Try topping the pie with Keto Ice Cream or my favorite Coconut Ice Cream.
It is also fantastic liberally topped with Coconut Whipped Cream.
Recipe ingredients
The pie calls for pecans, molasses, liquid sweetener, dairy free butter, ground flax, pure vanilla extract, salt, and optional bourbon.
Pecans – You need a heaping one cup of chopped pecans.
I usually use raw pecans since they are often less expensive. If you prefer, you may use roasted pecans instead.
Or swap out some of the pecans for an equal amount of walnuts or cashews.
Molasses – This ingredient gives the pie its classic thick texture and adds the rich flavors of caramel and gingerbread.
If you can find blackstrap molasses, I highly recommend it because it is a natural sweetener that is actually healthy, with over 20% of the RDA for both calcium and iron in just one tablespoon of molasses!
However, original molasses will also work in the vegan pie recipe.
Liquid sweetener – Since molasses is only slightly sweet, you need a second sweetener to ensure the results are not bitter tasting.
Pure maple syrup is my go to choice here. Agave is another great option.
While honey is often interchangeable in recipes that call for maple syrup, it is not considered a vegan ingredient and therefore should not be used if you will be serving the pie to strict vegan guests.
Vegan butter – You can either buy a plant based butter like Earth Balance or choose a neutral nut butter like almond butter, nut free pumpkin seed butter, or pecan butter.
The butter or nut butter adds richness and depth of flavor to the pecan pie filling.
Margarine or shortening work if they are all you can find. For healthier baking, I try to avoid any margarines with hydrogenated oils.
Chocolate chips – The ingredients note that you can add chocolate chips to the pie if your heart desires, and I like using mini chocolate chips because you get more chocolate in every bite.
However, I actually did not add any chocolate chips to the pie this time, because I already have an actual Healthy Chocolate Pecan Pie recipe on the blog.
Vegan pecan pie recipe video
Above – watch the video of how to make vegan pecan pie.
Plant based pie crust
Feel free to use any nine inch store bought or homemade pie crust recipe you want, especially if you need a gluten free pecan pie crust.
Directly below is my personal favorite vegan pie crust, which I prepared for the base of the pecan pie in the photos.
Easy Vegan Pie Crust
- 1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour or white flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil or melted coconut oil
- 1/3 cup cold water, or more as needed
Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl, then stir in all remaining ingredients to form a dough. If the dough is too dry, very slowly add more water or oil. Or if the dough is too sticky, add a tablespoon more flour at a time. Press firmly into a pie pan.
Optionally, preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and prebake the pie crust for ten minutes. Or if you are in a rush, you can skip this step and simply bake the crust along with the filling.
You may also like this Vegan Cornbread
How to make vegan pecan pie
If using a homemade crust or the recipe below, prepare it ahead of time, and set aside.
Whisk all pecan pie ingredients together except the garnish, and refrigerate for at least thirty minutes. This step can be done the night before if you want to let it sit overnight.
As long as your flax is good, the mixture should be noticeably thicker when you remove it from the fridge after sitting.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Pour the filling into either a store bought pie crust or prepared pie crust. Arrange the extra pecans on top as desired.
Place on the oven’s center rack, and bake for thirty five minutes. Without opening the oven door even a crack, let the pie sit in the turned off oven for an additional ten minutes before removing from the oven and letting it cool.
Slice and enjoy.
Once cool, store leftover vegan pecan pie in an airtight container or covered with aluminum foil in the refrigerator for up to around five days.
Vegan Pecan Pie
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup chopped pecans
- 3/4 cup pure maple syrup or agave
- 2 tbsp molasses or additional pure maple syrup
- 3 tbsp almond butter or vegan butter
- 1/4 cup ground flaxmeal whisked with 1/3 cup water
- 2 tbsp bourbon (optional)
- 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (optional)
- 1 handful whole pecan halves for garnish
- 1 9 inch pie crust or use the vegan pie crust recipe included above in this post
Instructions
- To make vegan pecan pie, first whisk all ingredients except the whole pecan halves, and refrigerate at least 30 minutes. During this time, the filling will gel thanks to the flaxmeal. As long as your flax is good, the mixture will be noticeably thicker when time is up. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Pour filling into your crust. Arrange the halved pecans over top as desired. Bake on the center rack for 35 minutes, then do not open the oven door but let sit in the now-turned-off oven for an additional 10 minutes to slowly cool down.View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
More Vegan Pie Recipes
I made this for Christmas Eve dinner (which we really do around lunchtime so it’s really lunch) and it was great! I did cheat and use store bought (not vegan) ice cream to serve with it, but otherwise it was all vegan!
Thank you so much for this recipe. I brought the pie to a Christmas party and it was a huge hit! People loved the fact that it was vegan and more than one person remarked that they were surprised because it “didn’t taste vegan” LOL. I always think it’s so funny that people are surprised when vegan desserts taste good. 🙂 🙂
Thanks for helping me to show my family and friends that just because I choose to eat vegan doesn’t mean I am deprived at all!
I have mine setting in the fridge now, it is not thickening up very much, should I add more flax and let sit longer? I don’t want to ruin the pie =( Its for my boyfriends birthday tonight and pecan pie is his favorite and he hasn’t had one in almost 2 years since going vegan. I want to wow him with something delicious!
Hi! Sorry I just saw this, yes it definitely needs to be thick when it comes out of the fridge. Did you end up adding more flax?
Jason
Hi!
Mine is not thickening enough either. Any suggestions? If I add more flax seed do I need to whisk it in water first or just add directly to mixture?
Made this tonight since my vegan daughter is home visiting for the holidays. I have to say I was quite impressed with the results. I used maple syrup along with the molasses as the recipe calls for, but used a vegan margarine spread instead of nut butter. (I didn’t have any nut butter other than crunchy peanut butter on hand and I didn’t want peanut-pecan pic.). I also did my standard trick of doubling the number of pecans in the recipe—I’ve never found a pecan pie recipe with enough nuts in it. I left the mixture to rest for about 40 minutes in the fridge and it was noticeably thicker when I got it out, but still runny. Since I didn’t prebake my pie crust at all, I did preheat the oven up to 425 before putting the pie in. I turned the heat down to 350 as soon as I put the pie in. The texture came out perfect after the pie was completely cooled.
But what I really liked best about this pie is that it was NOT icky-sweet the way so many pecan pies are. And that fact was appreciated by everybody in the family. And because of that, this recipe will likely become my go-to recipe for pecan pie even when my vegan daughter is not around!
Made this tonight, everyone loved it! Pecan and key lime are my favorite pies (and the ONLY pies I like), so I was excited that you posted this. I wish I had gotten some bourbon for it and I will next time!
Why would honey be an ingredient in a vegan recipe??? Honey is not vegan ?
Honey is only one option. To make it vegan, just use the maple syrup or agave.
Thank you so much for your recipes! Is there a way to make this one with eggs (but still no dairy)? Would I just take out the flax and the water?
Unfortunately there’s just no way to know unless you try, but be sure to report back if you do!
Made this last year and I am making it again this year!!! If you don’t like the taste of molasses let it sit overnight, the molasses taste will disappear. Goimg to store when I get off work.
Hi! I made this as a practice recipe a few weeks ago, and it turned out well. Do you think I could use corn syrup instead of the agave? I’m not especially concerned with it being healthy haha.
I am pretty sure that would work, possibly even better!
Jason
I’ve been looking for any recipes for my 16 yr old daughter, who has been a vegan for several years now. When we tried this recipe we were hoping that it wouldn’t fail. And it turned out wonderful!!!! My daughter absolutely loved it. She said it tastes so much better than any she’s had in the past. So our thanks to you, we plan on looking through your recipes and trying more..thank you!!
I just made this pie for Thanksgiving and it looked beautiful! But tasted quite bad Maybe I’m just not used to molasses? Any ideas? No one else liked it either
Hi! You can sub maple syrup for the molasses!
Agave, Honey, and Maple syrup are packed full of fructose just like corn syrup. While it may be delicious, this is not helping at all in stopping fructose in the diet.
I doubled the recipe. I made 2 pie crusts with 1 1/2 C gluten free flour and 1/2 C almond flour (both from trader joes) and I prebaked the crusts for 10 min at 400.. I used flaxmeal, water instead of bourbon, and earth balance soy free margarine (not nut butter). Into one pie, I stirred pulverized chocolate chips. The other remained unadulterated. They baked at 350 in glass pie dishes for about 38 minutes and then remained in the oven for another 12 minutes or so. My husband gingerly carried the blazing hot pies out to the back of his car as we had to transport them to a Thanksgiving dinner right away. The pies remained on the counter for a couple-few more hours as we dined. When we cut into them, the were both Perfect! Oh my goddess they were the best pecan pies I have ever ever had, and that says a lot …. I grew up under a pecan tree in Texas.
I was so very happy with this recipe. What a wonderful surprise! Thank you, Katie!
I was wondering if I could get your gluten free pie crust recipe in detail. Would love to make this pie but we don’t eat gluten and so I would love to find my own crust I could make at home. Thanks
This pie came out so perfect. Thank you so much.
I have one question, my friend wants me to make it for her and she loves sweet stuff, is it possible to add sugar to make little sweeter?
Thank you
I don’t see why not!
Jason
Made this Gluten Free for Thanksgiving/Husband’s Birthday Pie. It turned out perfectly.
He says this recipe is a keeper. I loved how easy it was. Thank You.
I believe the type of molasses makes a big difference in the flavor so proceed with caution. I also see someone subbed starch for the flaxmeal so if yours doesn’t firm up before baking that might be an option
Reading through the comments I saw that it turned out kind of soupy for some people so I became kind of paranoid… I just cut a slice and its nice and solid so ill write down exactly what I did.
heaping 1 cup chopped pecans (pretty roughly chopped)
2 tbsp blackstrap molasses
3/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/3 cup water + 1tbsp water
2 tbsp almond butter
1/4 cup flaxmeal + 1tbs
1 tps vanilla bean paste
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (I would add more chocolate next time I think it needs it since the molasses is pretty overpowering)
optional pecans for garnish
I used a premade crust and baked it for 10 mins at 350
The mixture was looking pretty soupy after sitting at room temp for 30 mins so i put it in the fridge for an additional 20 mins and added the extra tbs of flax. It did thicken up a little but i was paranoid it was still too wet but baked it anyways
I let it cool at room temp for a few hours and it seemed like it was still too loose, but after letting it cool down over night in the fridge the consistency is prefect.