GF, DF and Grain Free Scrumptious Pumpkin Pie Recipe

A very dear and gorgeous friend of mine whom I have known for oodles and oodles of years, once came over to my place for lunch.

There were a group of us sitting around chatting and eating a lunch that I had lovingly prepared.

We were having a great time, when my friend started talking about a cooking show he had seen recently. Apparently someone had served up vegetables for dessert, 'what kind of person serves up vegetables for dessert!' my friend exclaimed.

I laughed and I laughed.....you see, little did my friend know that I was about to serve up pumpkin pie for dessert; yes I am the kind of person that serves up vegetables for dessert.

We had a great laugh when dessert was served. Just so you know, my friend was very happy with his dessert vegetable - well at least that's what he told me...

So here is my famous pumpkin pie recipe. Free from dairy, gluten and grains.

Note: If you cannot tolerate dried fruit, simply replace the dates with 1/3 cup of honey.

Ingredients:

- 1 Cup diced pumpkin (any variety works)
- 3 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 5 medjool dates (seeds removed)
- 2 cups of Almond meal (make your own if you can) I have also made this with cashew meal and it was equally yummy.

Method:

- Preheat oven on 180 degrees.
- Steam diced pumpkin until tender then set aside.
- Place almond meal into a bowl, add one egg and mix until all combined.
- Take a round cake tin (I used one that was 25cm in diameter) and line with baking paper.
- Take your almond meal mix and push it into the base of the round cake tin, you want the almond meal mix to come up the sides about 1cm. If you use a smaller cake tin, just bring the mix further up the sides for a deeper filling. Try to keep the depth of the almond coating even.
- Place your cooked pumpkin into a blender, add 2 eggs, vanilla essence, cinnamon, nutmeg and medjool dates (or honey), and blend on high for about 1 minute until mixture is fully combined.
- Take blended mixture and poor onto the almond base in the cake tin. You want the mixture to come up to just under the edge of the almond base around the sides.
- Place cake tin in oven and bake for 30 minutes. Just keep an eye on it, 30 minutes does mine perfectly, however your oven may be different.
- You will know it is cooked because it will feel firm-ish to the touch and will not wobble.
- Once cooked, take out of cake tin and cool on a cooling rack.

Enjoy! x