Healthy Key Lime Pie with Avocado (Paleo, gluten-free)

A slice of avocado key lime pie on a blue-swirled plate with a fork.

4.43 from 7 votes

Healthy Key Lime Pie with Avocado (Paleo, gluten-free)

This easy Healthy Key Lime Pie with Avocado is a cool, creamy treat! It's made with just a few whole food ingredients, has a no-bake filling and the crust can either be baked or not. Plus it's gluten-free, dairy-free, refined sugar-free, egg-free, Paleo and can be made vegan.

Prep Time40

Cook Time18

chilling time4

Total Time4 58

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: slices

Calories: 427kcal

Author: Don Baiocchi

Ingredients

For the crust:

1 cup almonds
1 cup pitted dates
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon optional
1 teaspoon ground ginger optional
2 tablespoons coconut oil melted and cooled

For the filling:

1 large ripe avocado halved, pitted and peeled
¾ cup coconut cream (see notes)
¾ cup honey
½ cup key lime juice
⅓ cup coconut oil melted and cooled

For the topping:

½ cup coconut cream (see notes)
1 tablespoon honey
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

For the crust:

If baking the crust, heat the oven to 350°.
Pulse the almonds in a food processor until the texture of coarse sand (about 8-10 one-second pulses).
Then, with the machine running, drop in 1-2 pitted dates at a time down the tube. When they're all blended in, turn off the machine.
Add the salt and, if using, the cinnamon and ginger. Pulse a few times to blend.
Drizzle in the melted and cooled coconut oil and pulse a few more times to make sure it's all blended. If you squeeze the mixture with your hand, it should stick together like a paste.
Pour the crust into a deep pie dish and use you hands or the bottom of a glass or measuring cup to pat it into an even layer along the bottom and the sides. Don't go all the way up the sides - leave a bit of room at the top or the sides will be too thin. The crust might seem a bit crumbly but just keep gently pressing it against the pan.
If not baking the crust, set the crust aside while you make the filling.
If baking, put the dish in the heated oven for 15-18 minutes, until darker around the edges. Let cool completely. The crust might puff up a bit as it bakes but will settle back down as it cools.

For the filling:

Wash and dry the food processor bowl, lid and blade.
Add the avocado flesh, coconut cream, honey, key lime juice and melted and cooled coconut oil to the cleaned food processor. Blend until smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl if necessary. This can take anywhere from 3-5 minutes, depending on how ripe your avocado is. If the mixture looks a bit curdled or lumpy for a while, that's fine. Just keep blending until it's totally smooth. It should be thick yet pourable, almost like pudding.
Pour the filling into the cooled (if baked) crust and smooth the top with a spatula. Cover with foil and chill for at least 4 hours or up to 48 hours.

For the topping:

Add the coconut cream to a large bowl and use a hand mixer to whip until it's puffier and you see soft peaks when you lift the beaters out of the cream. Add the honey and vanilla and whip just a little longer to blend.
Gently spread the whipped coconut cream on top of the pie, slice and serve!
(For the photos in this post, I also grated a lime over the pie.)

Notes

For the coconut cream, chill a can of full-fat unsweetened coconut milk for 24 hours, then scoop out the thick cream that rises to the top.

You'll probably need 2 cans of coconut milk for this pie - 1 for the filling and 1 for the topping.

Substitutions

You can use fresh key lime juice, but I rarely have access to fresh key limes so I'm not sure how many you would need.

You can use melted ghee in the crust instead of coconut oil (but then it won't be totally dairy-free).

To make this vegan, you can use agave nectar instead of honey.

Make ahead

For best results, the pie, with or without the topping, can be refrigerated for up to 2 days.

After 2 days, it's still good but the crust will begin to soften.

Freezer instructions

Wrap individual slices in plastic wrap and place in an airtight, freezer-safe container. Freeze for up to 1 month.

Thaw overnight in the fridge.

Nutrition