No Bake Pumpkin Pie (Gluten Free & Dairy Free)

Skip the oven this holiday and make a No Bake Pumpkin Pie! This pumpkin pie has a graham crust and is gluten free and dairy free with a vegan option

Hey friends, Thanksgiving is this week, can you believe it?! The year really feels like it’s flying by, pretty soon it will be Christmas before we know it.

I had originally hoped to get this No Bake Pumpkin Pie recipe up before this week, but it took me a little while to get the recipe just right (8 tries then the final pie for photos). This was a recipe I was bent on making, and it had to be perfect (and it is!).

So I spent several days getting the recipe right (I was able to make half batches to save on ingredients at first). It took some time, but the result is worth it! If you’re trying to save on oven space and time on Thanksgiving, this is a great pie to make.

For the holidays, we usually make our Crustless Pumpkin Pie since it’s so easy, but my husband is not really a fan of the crustless pie since he loves eating the crust. So I decided to make a different version of pumpkin pie with the crust, but without the baking and oven time.

Because I had egg and dairy allergies, I still made this pie egg and dairy free even though my daughter can now have dairy (my son still can’t) and they can both have eggs. I try to make most of our recipes with ingredients that everyone in the family can have, so this one is completely allergy friendly.

This No Bake Pumpkin Pie is a chilled pie, which we love. If you prefer to have a warm or room temperature pie, then this recipe might not be for you. I’m not certain how this pie would hold up if it’s set out at room temperature for long periods, so if you decide to try setting it out to warm up, I can’t guarantee the results.

So far, I’ve only worked on this recipe as a fully chilled pie, but when I make this again, I’ll set out some pieces to see how they hold up at room temperature and report back.

Update: I set out a piece of this pie on the counter for a couple of hours, and it held it’s shape and texture great! Once this pie is set, you can serve it at room temp if you like (but it should be stored in the fridge anyway to keep it fresh).

No Bake Pumpkin Pie crust

For this recipe, I used the Mi-Del graham crust that’s gluten free and allergy friendly, but you can also use their gingersnap crust to add a bit more spice to this no bake pumpkin pie. I haven’t found their gingersnap cookie crust at my local stores, so I haven’t had the chance to try it in this recipe yet.

P.S. if you’re wondering why the end of the pumpkin pie slice is drooping a bit in some of the photos, the graham crust under that part of the pie decided to stay in the pan when I took it out. The Mi-Del cookie crusts are so yummy, but can be pretty crumbly, too.

You can try using a pre-baked traditional pie crust in this recipe, but I haven’t tried it out myself, so I’m not sure if it the crust would stay flaky with this type of filling (I can’t guarantee the results if you try this type of crust).

Making this pumpkin pie vegan

I use gelatin in this recipe, but we also have a vegan option for this using agar powder. I experimented with both pies while I was making this recipe (so I actually made this recipe probably 8-10 times before perfecting it).

This pie made with agar powder turns out great, but I don’t like the taste of the agar version as well as the version made with gelatin. I think the agar powder has a slight aftertaste I’m not a fan of.

If you use agar to make the vegan version, the steps are the same, but the filling typically thickens faster in the saucepan as you’re heating it, so you probably won’t need to heat it quite as long as the gelatin version.

Since this pumpkin pie has creaminess from the coconut milk and thickness from the pumpkin puree and arrowroot starch, you don’t have to worry about this pie having any kind of jello texture from the gelatin or agar. The texture and taste is just like a traditional pumpkin pie!