Key Lime Pie Parfait (Vegan & Gluten Free)

Key Lime Pie Parfait (Vegan & Gluten Free)

Today we are making a vegan and gluten free Key Lime Pie Parfait! Traditional Key Lime Pie is an American pie flavour with a filling made of egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk and Key Limes. The crust can be a regular pie crust, graham cracker pie crust and sometimes can be crustless. For the topping, it can either have no topping, an egg white meringue or whipped cream.

These specific type of limes are apparently said to have originated in Florida (in the Florida Keys – Key West!), hence why they’re called Key Limes. These limes are described as “small but tart, not too acidic with a very distinct aroma.” Limes at the grocery store are usually Persian Limes – larger and tarter than key limes. You can read more about that here.

There are three layers to this delicious pie in a cup: It’s the perfect balance between sweet and tangy – a gluten-free graham crackers no bake crust, a key lime filling and vegan whipped cream topping. This is a high protein dessert that you can make in the blender and refrigerate for later. It uses silken tofu, which is a very soft tofu used commonly in Japanese desserts. It doesn’t have the same texture as the tofu you’d use in stir fry, which is firm or extra-firm. This type of tofu can hide in sweet recipes! It’s like a sour cream or mayo texture when blended.

Why You’ll Love This Vegan and Gluten Free Key Lime Pie Parfait

High Protein Dessert: The base of this no bake dessert is all silken tofu, which is the softest version of tofu available. Personally, I love using it in desserts because it’s so soft it turns to mush when I stir fry it with veggies! The whole recipe uses one block of silken tofu that has 16 grams of protein!

This reminds me of one of my favorite energy bars: The Larabar Key Lime Pie flavor! I love this company because they’re super transparent about the ingredients in their energy bars. All their products have only a handful of whole food ingredients, usually only four to six! This bar has dates, cashews, almonds, unsweetened coconut, lime juice concentrate and dried lime juice concentrate for a whole lot of lime flavor (this actually has probably the most ingredients I’ve seen in a Larabar – usually it’s just a mixture of various nuts and dates)!

One Piece of Equipment: This recipe requires just one piece of equipment: a blender or a food processor! It’s as easy as it can get. Then you have to refrigerate it and you’re all set! Not bad for a triple layered dessert, right?!

Substitutions: Flour

Graham Cracker Crumbs: Not all graham cracker crumbs are vegan (some contain honey). Check the ingredients (usually in the natural or gluten-free section of the grocery store) to find gluten free, vegan graham crackers.

You can also take vegan animal crackers and grind them to a coarse powder. There are companies that make animal crackers using arrowroot flour that I’ve found at the store, and since they’re designed to be gluten free they are usually also vegan and don’t use honey.

If your crackers are not very sweet, feel free to add some coconut sugar, xylitol, pure maple syrup or agave to add a bit of sweetness. You can play around with the proportions of the butter to crackers to sugar (if adding extra sugar to the crust) because it’s no bake. This makes it really easy to add more of one ingredient if it’s missing a little something, depending on what your crackers are made of.

Almond Flour: Using half graham cracker crumbs and half almond flour for the crust ingredients works great in this recipe as it is. If need be, you can replace all the almond flour with graham cracker crumbs, or vice versa.

Another option is to use almond meal (which doesn’t have as buttery a taste as almond flour does). You can also take another neutral nut, such as raw cashews or macadamia nuts, grind it into a powder and use it here. I prefer almond flour the best because of its buttery taste though!

Substitutions: Butter

Melted Butter: I used the brand Melt for the vegan butter. It comes as four butter sticks in a pack and works AMAZING is every butter replacement I’ve tried. You can try to substitute refined melted coconut oil (it shouldn’t be virgin/extra-virgin, otherwise it will have a strong coconut taste), vegan margarine or a nut butter such cashew butter or almond butter (they don’t have as distinct a taste as peanut butter does).

Substitutions: Filling

Silken Tofu: This is the base of the filling ingredients. I would not substitute anything here. Silken tofu is the softest type of tofu you can find at your local grocery store. If you can’t find it a generic grocery store, check out an Asian mart instead.

This type of tofu is made by steaming white soybeans, grinding them into a paste, then pressing them to get soy milk. This liquid is set to make a soft block of tofu!

Maple Syrup: Use pure 100% maple syrup, not the pancake-style syrup with additives. You can substitute this with any other liquid sweetener, except honey (honey isn’t vegan).

Cornstarch: This is used as a thickener. You can try to substitute rice flour instead, but I haven’t tried it. This is essential to thickening the key lime pie filling!

Vanilla Extract: I use an alcohol-free, Madagascar vanilla extract. It’s thicker than the alcohol-added versions of cheaper vanilla. I found it at a local grocery store and tried it out one day – it became my new favorite vanilla to use in recipes! I do not recommend to omit the vanilla.

You can substitute it with freshly scraped vanilla bean as well, but it will leave flecks of bean in the creamy filling, throwing off the color of a “key lime pie.”

Key Limes: Key limes are a little different than regular limes in terms of size and color. They are smaller and lean towards yellow rather than green. They also contain more seeds and have thinner skin. However, regular limes will work too. In terms of the tartness of the limes, key limes are less tart than a standard lime.

Substitutions: Topping

Vegan Whipped Cream: I use Gay Lea’s brand of whipped cream. It’s coconut based and you can taste some coconut in it, but it comes out of a can and whips perfectly. You can also find soy-based vegan whipped cream, but I haven’t been able to find any other vegan brand near my house. Also, I love pairing fruity desserts with coconut, so this works out well.

Key Lime Pie Parfait Notes

• If looking to make a raw “mousse” like pie from this recipe, triple or quadruple the crust recipe to pat it down as a thick crust in a small pie tray or tart pan. Then add the filling over top.
• To make an even creamier filling (and add more nutrition to it, or use up leftover avocados), you can try to blend in ripe avocados. I recommend only a quarter to a half of a medium avocado to begin with. This will make the color a beautiful light green and add more healthy fats and an extra creamy texture. It may have a bit of avocado after-taste, so be wary of this.

More Recipes (and Vegan Desserts!) You’ll Love

Chocolate Pecan Granola

Matcha Chocolate Bites

Key Lime Pie Bites

Orange Creamsicle Bites

Vegan Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Raw Key Lime Pie Cheesecake

Lemon Coconut Chia Pudding

If you make this Gluten Free, Vegan Key Lime Pie Parfait, then leave a comment and star rating! Don’t forget to tag your photos @peanut_palate on Instagram. Enjoy!