Vegan Key Lime Pie

Key lime pie is one of my favorite warm-weather desserts. It’s light and sweet but also tart, so I can only binge on half a pie before my lips pucker (portion control!). The traditional recipe is an involved, multi-step affair that requires me to get up from my pool chair, separate eggs and make both a custard filling and – depending on which camp you’re in – either a touchy meringue or whipped cream topping. Creating an eggless vegan version means less work and more time for trashy magazine reading. Unfortunately, it also rules out sweet creamy condensed milk in the filling. Hoping to find a suitable substitute and avoid a belly flop, I held my breath and dove into recipe development.

My sloth-like summer self dearly wished to skip the pie crust-baking step, so I scoped out a premade graham cracker crust. Prepared crusts are the lazy baker’s equivalent of canned margaritas – too sweet, but they get the job done. Alas, graham crackers contain honey, so only embrace this effortless option if you’re not a strict vegan. Instead, I made an easy-breezy, oatmeal cookie-inspired vegan crust by pulsing chewy rolled oats, nutty quinoa flakes and sweet coconut in a food processor. A drizzle of melted vegan butter and pure maple syrup helped the crumb concoction stick together. The crust baked 10 minutes – just long enough to brown without heating the kitchen and melting the ice in my Lime-A-Rita.

For the filling, I needed freshly squeezed Key lime juice. Key limes look like little greenish-yellow golf balls – they’re smaller and rounder than their conventional cousins. Because they’re too tiny to juice with a hand reamer, I tossed eight whole Key limes into my gazillion-horse power juicer, which ground up the lime peels and made the juice so bitter that it was inedible. But when I cut them in quarters, the Key limes fit perfectly into my garlic press. With a few squeezes, the press extracted the maximum juice out of the lovely limes, and – bonus! – also strained the seeds and pulp. Just make sure your press is clean and garlic-free, or your pie will be pungent.

To make eggless custard for the pie filling, I started with a mixture of ripe bananas and vanilla coconut milk yogurt, then added naturally sweet agave and the tangy lime juice. The combination was a tropical-tasting treat, but too watery to stand up in a pie. Blending in a dollop of velvety vegan cream cheese made the filling as thick as pudding. At this point, you can toss your pie in the refrigerator and go play in the sprinkler. But if you want a pie that holds its shape when you slice it, cover the pie with plastic wrap and freeze overnight, then let it thaw at room temperature for an hour before serving.

Some plant-based readers avoid faux-food substitutes and would rather skip the vegan cream cheese. Since I’ve found success using a ripe avocado as the base for vegan chocolate mousse, I thought it could work its textural magic here. I blended avocado with the bananas, coconut milk yogurt, agave and lime juice. The result is a thick, limey filling with a serendipitous light green hue and zero avocado taste. The avocado-Key lime pie isn’t as milky-tasting as the cream cheese version, but plant-based purists won’t regret it.

Instead of making meringue topping from egg whites, I whipped coconut cream. Coconut cream is the layer of dense, slightly nutty milk that rises to the top of chilled coconut milk cans, and is also available in full cans all on its yummy own. The whipped coconut milk isn’t as chewy as an egg white meringue, but it has the fluffy, rich mouth feel and subtle sweetness of real whipped cream. And since the topping isn’t baked, it doesn’t weep or pull away from the edges like eggy meringues are prone to do.

Sometimes omnivores worry that vegan cooking is too complicated, but when it comes to Key lime pie, avoiding the eggs means less time in the kitchen and more time in the deep end of summer.

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Vegan Key Lime Pie

6 to 8 servings

1 cup rolled oats (not instant or quick-cooking)
¾ cup shredded unsweetened coconut
½ cup quinoa flakes
4 Tbsp. vegan butter, melted (such as Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks)
1 Tbsp. pure maple syrup
4 Tbsp. plain vegan cream cheese-style spread (such as Daiya) or 1 ripe avocado, peeled and pitted
2 ripe bananas
12 oz. vanilla cultured coconut milk yogurt (such as So Delicious Dairy Free)
½ cup Key lime juice
4 Tbsp. amber agave nectar, divided
1 14-oz. can coconut cream
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tsp. turbinado sugar
2 Key limes, quartered, for garnish

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-inch pie plate and set aside.
• For the crust: In a food processor, pulse the oats, coconut and quinoa flakes until the mixture is the texture of graham cracker crumbs. Add the melted vegan butter and maple syrup and process until well blended. Press the oat mixture into the bottom and up the sides of the pie plate. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, until the edges are brown and the crust smells like a cookie. Let cool completely.
• For the filling: Rinse the food processor bowl. Add the vegan cream cheese (or avocado) and bananas and pulse until only a few lumps remain. Add the coconut milk yogurt, Key lime juice and 2 tablespoons agave nectar and pulse until the mixture is creamy and no lumps remain. Adjust to taste with more lime juice or agave.
• Pour the filling into the crust. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 3 hours for a pudding-like pie. For a sturdier texture, freeze overnight, letting it thaw at room temperature 1 hour before serving.
• For the topping: Place the chilled coconut cream, vanilla extract and the remaining 2 tablespoons agave in the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat on high speed 3 to 5 minutes, until soft peaks form.
• Completely cover the pie with dollops of the topping. Garnish with turbinado sugar and Key lime wedges. Serve immediately.