One of my favorite treats during the summer is this vegan lemon pie! There are few things I associate more with summer than a chilled lemon dessert. This particular pie is unique as the base of the filling comes from chickpeas instead of cashews. This obviously makes the pie more affordable to make! Athanasia thought I was crazy to use chickpeas for a dessert at first but once she tried it she had no complaints! Here is how I made it:
Recipe fills a 24 cm or 9.5″ pan and serves 8-10
Ingredients for pie filling:
- 1 cup (200 grams or 7 oz) of dried chickpeas which is equal to 2 1/2 cups or 480 grams/17 oz of boiled or canned chickpeas/garbanzo beans
- 3/4 cup (177 ml) of lemon juice
- 3/4 cup (177 ml) of agave syrup
- 3/4 cup (177 ml) of coconut oil
- 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla powder
- 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
- 2 ripe bananas
Instructions for the pie filling:
- If you are using dry chickpeas instead of canned ones: soak the chickpeas in water for an hour or two before boiling.
- Boil the chickpeas for 30 minutes. Strain the excess water from the chickpeas.
- Add all the ingredients including the boiled or canned chickpeas into a blender of food processor.
- Blend or process until filling is completely smooth.
- Empty pie filling into bowl and set aside while you make the crust.
Ingredients for the crust (recipe from here) :
- 1 1/2 cup of buckwheat flakes
- 1 1/2 cup of unsweetened coconut shreds
- 1 1/2 cup of medjool dates without the pits (about 14 dates or 150 grams without the pits)
Instructions for the crust:
- Blend the buckwheat flakes with the coconut shreds in a blender until combined.
- Add the dates and blend until mixed – it should look like cookie dough!
- Place on the pan and flatten with your palms.
- Bake in preheated oven at 150° C or 302° F for 5 minutes.
- Remove crust from oven and allow it to cool a bit.
- Add pie filling on top of crust.
- Refrigerate pie for a few hours before serving.
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We post all of our recipes in English and Greek since we live in Greece. As a result, when you subscribe to our blog you get an e-mail in English and one in Greek for each post we publish. No need to use Google translate for English since we already have the English translation posted, however, Google Translate is a good option if somebody were looking for another language besides English or Greek. I know it’s frustrating to get an e-mail in Greek if you only want English but most of our subscribers just delete the e-mail that has the language they do not want since they also receive an e-mail in the language they are looking for.
Agreed! I just delete things like that when it’s not spam, which your things NEVER would be! : )
Can’t wait to make this pie – waiting for a special occasion to do it.
We hope you like it!
That’s a fantastic idea Jake!!! Congratulations 🙂 I know somebody who is obsessed with lemon pies and he will surely appreciate this recipe!!! 🙂
Thank you very much! I hope he likes the recipe as much as we do!
This looks fantastic and I can’t wait to try it! However I’m wondering if you have any tips on switching the bananas to something else?
Hi Jenny! Thank you very much for your kind words! We have not made this pie any other way so we do not currently have any suggestions to replace the bananas in the recipe. Is there a specific reason why you are looking to replace the bananas (flavor, allergy, etc.)? This might help us to figure out a solution.
Mostly because of the flavor! I have for some time now tried to enjoy the taste of bananas. Mostly because it’s an ingredient in so many vegan/dealicious recipes but it’s not going too well (obviousley…), so any tip would be helpful! Thanks a lot!!
Ok, no problem! The banana is primarily used as a thickener in this recipe and does not lend it’s flavor to the pie. So, in theory it should be able to be replaced (although we have not tested this theory). The first thought I had was to use extra firm or maybe even silken tofu as a banana replacement in this recipe. I would start by adding about 200 grams or 7 ounces of tofu as that is about how many grams 2 bananas are. I hope this helps!
Thanks for the tip! Gonna try it asap 🙂
You’re welcome!
Hey there, I made this pie but it didnt turn out as well as i had hoped. I substituted maple syrup for agave because i have a friend with a pancreas problem who cant tolerate agave. If I’m using canned garbanzos, i don’t boil then, right? I also weighed 480 grams without liquid. Could that be why mine turned out too liquidy?
Hello Alexandra, I am not sure why it turned out so liquidy for you. You are correct that you do not want to boil the garbanzo beans if they are canned. In our experience maple syrup is a little bit runnier than agave in texture. Every time we have made this recipe we have used dried chickpeas which we have boiled and then drained the excess liquid from. Maybe canned chickpeas absorb more liquid than dried chickpeas? The coconut oil should have at least solidified your filling in the refrigerator but ours was thick before refrigerating it the 5 times we made it before posting the recipe.
Has anyone else out there tried this recipe using canned chickpeas with or without success?
I’ve tried maple syrup and it was too watery as well. No problem with the consistency with the agave. I froze the pie with the maple and then dethawed it and that helped solidify it a bit more, but the syrup still wept from it a bit.
I’ve made it with and without cooking the crust, both are good. Is there a health reason to cook the crust?
Also, occasionally my results have been too tart – can you recommend a tasty creamy garnish too cool the tartness?
I’ve made this recipe at least half a dozen times as we’ve had a huge lemon harvest this year. They work really nicely in mini springforms and just pop out to make a lovely gift.