Creamy Gluten Free and Vegan Key Lime Pie

A slice of key lime pie with whipped cream on a plate, with the rest of the key lime pie in the background.

Creamy Gluten Free and Vegan Key Lime Pie

This creamy and perfectly sweet and tart key lime pie is perfect for warm weather months and it's not hard to make. We made our version of this classic recipe dairy free and gluten free, and it doesn't use tofu or cashews.

Vegan, gluten free, peanut free

Course Desserts

Cuisine American

Keyword gluten free key lime pie, vegan key lime pie

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 15

Chill time 6

Total Time 6 25

Servings servings

Calories 395kcal

Author Sarah Jane Parker

Ingredients

1 MiDel graham crust (unless you choose to make your own crust)
1 cup full fat canned coconut milk (I use the Thai Kitchen coconut milk)
1 cup dairy free milk, such as oat milk or almond milk
⅓ cup + 1 Tablespoon unbleached cane sugar (I used Zulka)
⅓ cup + 1 Tablespoon fresh lime juice (I recommend regular limes, aka Persian limes*)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 dash salt
zest of 1 Persian lime
natural green food color (I used Simple Truth natural food coloring)
¼ cup cornstarch
4.5 ounces (1/2 container) So Delicious Cocowhip coconut whipped cream** (you can use the whole container of Cocowhip if you want a fluffier key lime pie)

Homemade cookie crust

18 gluten free vanilla sandwich cookies if you're not gluten free, you can use regular vanilla Oreos here
2 Tablespoons coconut oil
2 Tablespoons melted dairy free butter

Instructions

Gluten free vanilla cookie crust

If you choose to make your own crust, add the 18 sandwich cookies into a food processor and process until it is crumbs.
Add the melted coconut oil and melted dairy free butter, and process/pulse a few more times to mix.
Press the cookie crumb mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch pie pan and set it in the fridge to chill while you prepare the filling.

Key lime pie filling

In a small saucepan, combine the coconut milk, dairy free milk, sugar, lime juice, lime zest, vanilla, salt, and natural green food coloring (if using), and whisk until combined.
Bring to a simmer over medium-low heat.
Scoop out about ¼ to ⅓ cup of the simmering liquid into a small bowl and whisk the cornstarch into the small bowl to create a cornstarch slurry.
Pour the corn starch-milk slurry back into the saucepan, whisking constantly. It will start to thicken immediately. Continue to cook and stir with a whisk constantly for about another minute until it is thickened and it is mixed well and there are no lumps (this makes a lime pudding).
Remove the lime pudding from the heat, and cool in the pan for about 15 minutes, whisking occasionally as it cools.
Scoop the pudding into a shallow bowl and cover with plastic wrap and lay the wrap directly on the surface of the pudding (this prevents the thickened "pudding skin" on top that can create lumps when you mix it again).
Chill the lime pudding in the fridge for about 30-45 minutes. It doesn't have to cool completely, we just need it to cool enough to mix with the Cocowhip.
Once the pudding has cooled a bit, uncover it and fold in the container of Cocowhip with a spatula until well mixed.
Pour this into the prepared or pre-made gluten free crust.
Chill for 6 hours or overnight. Slice and serve with dairy free whipped cream and sprinkles of fresh lime zest.

Video

Notes

*Persian limes are the limes you typically find in the grocery store and are larger than key limes. This pie is a "key lime" pie but we used regular limes since each version I made with key limes ended up more bitter than the pie made with regular/Persian limes. So for the best flavor, I recommend using regular limes instead of key limes.

**So Delicious Cocowhip is a dairy free whipped topping made with coconut oil. You can use whipped cream made from the Silk heavy whipping cream but it won't be as sweet or as airy. I don't recommend using the dairy free Reddi-wip since it deflates pretty quickly and won't add the air bubbles you need to make your mousse airy.

Nutrition