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  • Prep-time: / Ready In:
  • Makes 1 (9-inch) pie
  • Serving size: ⅛ of recipe
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This vegan chocolate pie recipe gets its silky-smooth texture from an unexpected ingredient: steamed acorn squash. To save time, you can substitute canned pumpkin for the acorn squash; the filling won’t be as smooth, but it will still taste delicious.

By Darshana Thacker Wendel,

Ingredients

  • 1¼ cups regular rolled oats
  • ¼ cup cashews
  • ¼ cup sorghum flour
  • Sea salt, to taste
  • ½ cup pure maple syrup
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla
  • 6 cups 1-inch pieces peeled acorn squash (1 pound) or two 15-ounce cans pumpkin
  • 1½ cups Date Paste
  • ¼ cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder
  • ¼ cup unsweetened plant-based milk, such as almond, soy, coconut, or rice
  • 1½ teaspoon vanilla
  • ½ cup chopped pecans

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350°F. Line bottom of a 9-inch pie plate with parchment paper. In a food processor combine oats, cashews, flour, and salt. Cover and process until finely ground. Add maple syrup and the 1 tbsp vanilla. Cover and pulse until mixture starts to come together.
  • Press about half of the mixture onto the bottom of the prepared pie plate, using moistened or floured fingers if too sticky to handle. Press the remaining mixture up sides, building up edge slightly. Prick crust in a few places with a fork. Bake 20 to 30 minutes or until light brown. Cool on a wire rack.
  • For filling, place squash, if using, in a steamer basket in a large deep skillet. Add water to skillet to just below basket. Bring to boiling. Steam, covered, 15 minutes or until very tender. Remove squash; cool.
  • Wash food processor and blade. In a food processor combine squash or pumpkin, Date Paste, cocoa powder, milk, and the 1½ tsp vanilla. Cover and process until smooth.
  • Spread filling in baked crust. Chill at least 1 hour before serving. Sprinkle with pecans.
Nutritional Information:

Per serving (⅛ of recipe): 322 calories, 5.3 g carbohydrates, 5.3 g protein, 8.2 g total fat, 1 g saturated fat, 0 g cholesterol, 43 mg sodium, 6.6 g fiber, 31 g sugar

Note: Nutritional information is provided as an estimate only.

Comments (13)

(4 from 7 votes)

Recipe Rating

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Jill

Does this actually need 16 cups of acorn squash or am I reading that wrong?

Jill

Oh I see, when I look at the recipe through Pinterest it says 16 cups for some reason. But now I see it’s 6 cups!

Marah

This recipe is great with butternut squash and dark chocolate. Does not taste good with pumpkin and/or regular chocolate - in fact it’s horrible using those ingredients!!! Crust recipe needs to be better.

Angie Jennings

I have missed chocolate pudding! This recipe was delish! For the crust I had almond pulp left over so I mixed almond pulp with one cup of nut butter and added dark chocolate chunks. More of a cookie crust with the chocolate pudding it was delicious! Adding to the list for Thanksgiving!

Sarah Ribagorda

Absolutely terrible recipe…sorry:(

Lea

How long before the meal can this be made? Best way to store it?

Wendy

I used acorn squash, and subbed honey for the date paste. It was delicious! It was difficult to shape the crust, which came out too hard for my liking, so next time I will serve this as a pudding. Loved it!

Beani

Does anyone know what to use in place of sorghum flour? I have whole wheat, oat, and spelt fours.

J Saemenes

This was really bad, but we made it with canned pumpkin. Maybe the squash would make it better. We also doubled the recipe to make 2 pies and maybe that affected them in some way.

Monica Barrington

Gross. Terrible “chocolate” pie. The crust tastes really good but the filling has a very strong taste of pumpkin and it’s bland tasting. The date paste didn’t sweetened it enough. Total waste.

Melinda

Any substitute for the cashews (white beans? - Esselstyn pt.)

Steven, FOK Support

Hi Melinda, while the recipe hasn't been tested as such, you could try white beans or tofu/silken tofu.

VB

This is quite satisfying for a chocolate craving. Lower fat recipe since filling is made from squash. We froze pie wedges for future savorings. Next time though will make a no-bake press-in crust as opposed to a baked crust as ours came out somewhat hard. (We did use dates in crust instead of all that maple syrup so perhaps that is why). Prefer dates due to higher nutritional density compared to maple syrup). A very good recipe! Thank you.

About the Author

Headshot of Darshana Thacker

About the Author

Darshana Thacker Wendel

Darshana Thacker Wendel is a whole-food, plant-based chef and former culinary projects manager for Forks Over Knives. A graduate of the Natural Gourmet Institute, she is the author of Forks Over Knives: Flavor! She created the recipes for Forks Over Knives Family and was a lead recipe contributor to the New York Times bestseller The Forks Over Knives Plan. Her recipes have been published in The Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease Cookbook, Forks Over Knives—The Cookbook, Forks Over Knives: The Plant-Based Way to Health, and LA Yoga magazine online. Visit DarshanasKitchen.com and follow her on Instagram for more.
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