If you thought you wouldn’t ever eat custard again after going on an egg-free diet, you’ll love my easy Pumpkin Custard recipe! This no bake custard is a quick and easy paleo vegan dessert. To make it you simply throw the ingredients in a high-powered blender, transfer to adorable mason jars, and then refrigerate.
Dairy-free Pumpkin Custard is the perfect paleo vegan dessert recipe for Thanksgiving. Because it’s so easy to make, it’s also fantastic last minute dessert recipe for Thanksgiving. I usually make my Thanksgiving desserts a day ahead of time, but this recipe is so easy that I whip it up right before we sit down to Thanksgiving dinner, and then pull it out of the refrigerator when it’s time for dessert.
We’re on a major pumpkin kick right now. Last weekend, my husband took the boys and their friend Josh to get pumpkins for Halloween. When they returned the three little ones spent hours in the back yard carving their jack-o-lanterns.
Pumpkin Custard
Ingredients
- ½ cup cashews, raw
- 1 tablespoon agar flakes
- 1 pinch celtic sea salt
- 1¼ cups water, boiling
- 1½ cups roasted pumpkin
- ¼ cup agave nectar or honey, plus a little more if you want it sweeter
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1-2 teaspoons ground ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 pinch ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon lemon zest
Instructions
- Place cashews, agar, and salt in a vitamix and process to a fine powder
- Pour boiling water into vitamix and process on high speed
- Add pumpkin, honey, and vanilla and process until smooth
- Blend in cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and lemon zest
- Pour custard into ramekins or ½ cup mason jars
- Refrigerate 30-60 minutes, until set
- Serve
I’ve been creating loads of paleo vegan dessert recipes lately. Have you seen my Paleo Vegan Desserts Recipes page? Along those lines, I was determined to make this a vegan custard since so many of my readers are either vegan, or on an egg-free diet. Making a custard without eggs is not all that easy since eggs are traditionally the main ingredient in custard.
For this recipe, I would not recommend substituting canned pumpkin for the roasted pumpkin. Canned pumpkin is very wet, so this Pumpkin Custard recipe will be substantially altered by using such a watery ingredient. If you do decide to use canned pumpkin you will need to make several adjustments to compensate. I hope you’ll leave a comment if you do experiment with this recipe and use canned pumpkin.
Here are some of my other easy paleo vegan dessert recipes for you!
Victoria Olson says
Instructions should read, “First, buy a Vitamix”.
Carolyn says
It works fine with a blender. I do not have a vitamix or analog thereof, but the food processor or blender both worked fine. I’ve made this four times already.
MeGo says
Update to my post of 12 days ago… I’ve been making this a lot! I love it so much! I’m using acorn squash instead of pumpkin. I actually think it would be ideal made with kabocha squash, in fact, as that has such a rich velvet quality when cooked.
Also, I’ve been sprinkling smashed (dry roasted and salted) pistachio nuts on top before serving and the flavor mix is fantastic. I imagine raw pistachios would also be good.
Thanks again for this recipe, Elana. You rock!
Alene says
Your vita mix recipes look fantastic. Do you have a suggestion on a cashew substitute to make your ice cream recipes nut free?
Thanks!
Cassie McGurk says
While I was reading the recipe I thought it would be great with Kombucha squash instead of pumpkin. Kombucha (also called Japanese pumpkin) tastes like a much sweeter version of regular pumpkin, so you could make it with less added sweetener.
MeGo says
I made this today and it was exquisite! Wow! I didn’t have a lemon handy to make zest so I used a little bit of bottled organic lemon juice. It worked out fine. Thank you!
Shawnie says
Can I use unflavored gelatin instead of Agar flakes in this recipe?
Sarah says
Just made these yesterday! My first recipe to make off of this site. It wasn’t the consistency of custard so I had to have an open mind. But I still loved it and couldn’t stop eating it. My 4 year old son was also begging for more!
Laura says
This is fantastic!!!! I was roasting pumpkin for a pumpkin dish that I’m making for Thanksgiving, and I had enough to make this, too. It was so unbelievably easy and so delicious. Thank you for this! I never thought that I would eat a good custard again after going dairy-free.
AmyGrace says
When I cook with canned pumpkin instead of roast, I find I have to dry it out using layers of paper towel. It is a time consuming process, but possible.
Carolyn says
Just reduce the liquid to 1/2 cup!
Amber says
Elana,
This recipe looks amazing. If we wanted to do a non-vegan version with eggs what would you suggest?