These Gluten-Free Vegan No-Bake Pecan Pie Truffles are an easy and healthy recipe made with only 4 clean, real food ingredients. It's a plant-based dessert that tastes like pecan pie and is ready to enjoy in about 5 minutes!
Here's Why This Recipe Works
My top 3 favorite reasons:
- Portion Control - These bite-size truffles are a simple but perfect replacement for a slice of traditional pecan pie!
- Can Be Prepared In Under 10 Minutes - Simply add all the ingredients to a food processor and after processing, roll into a ball shape!
- Made With Clean Real, Food Ingredients - Nutrient-dense and healthy ingredients such as Medjool dates, pecans, vanilla bean powder, and Himalayan pink salt.
You can feel good about making my healthy, plant-based recipe because it's raw, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, oil-free, has no refined sugar, lectin-free, paleo-friendly, and Medical Medium compliant.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are These Healthier Than Eating Pecan Pie?
In my opinion, yes!
Traditional pecan pie not only has a white flour + butter + shortening crust but is made with other unhealthy ingredients with empty calories.
Here's the ingredient list for a typical homemade version and another for a highly processed, store-bought pecan pie:
- S.A.D. (Standard American Diet) Pecan Pie Typical Ingredients: 3 eggs, 1 cup white sugar, 1 cup corn syrup, butter, 1 cup white flour, shortening
- S.A.D. (Standard American Diet) Marie Callendar's Southern Pecan Pie Ingredients: Filling: Corn Syrup, Eggs, Pecan, Water, Margarine (Soybeans Oil Liquid, and Soybeans Oil Partially Hydrogenated, Water, Salt, Vegetables Mono and Diglycerides, Soy Lecithin, Sodium Benzoate [Preservative], Citric Acid, Flavors Artificial Butter, Beta Carotene, Vitamin A Palmitate, Calcium Disodium EDTA, added to protect flavor), Food Starch Modified, Flavors Artificial, Salt, Caramel Color, Crust: Wheat Flour Enriched (Flour, Niacin Vitamin B3, Iron Reduced, Thiamine Mononitrate Vitamin B1, Riboflavin Vitamin B2, Folic Acid Vitamin B9), Vegetables Shortening (Soybeans Oil Partially Hydrogenated, May Contain: Soybeans Oil Partially Hydrogenated, and/or Cottonseed Oil), Water, Dough Conditioners (Dextrose, Wheat Starch, Salt, Baking Soda, Calcium Propionate, Vegetables Shortening [Soybeans Oil Partially Hydrogenated, May Contain: Soybean Oils Partially Hydrogenated, and/or Cottonseed Oil], Sodium Bisulfite), Dextrose, Salt
The store-bought version contains GMO ingredients (soy lecithin, soybean oil, cottonseed oil, corn syrup), refined salt, margarine?!, and several preservatives.
In addition, the homemade version is heavy on dairy, white flour, and white sugar.
Karielyn's Expert Tips + Ingredient Substitutions
Here are some of my expert tips to make this recipe perfectly:
Medjool Dates: You will need (1) cup of pitted Medjool dates for this recipe. Typically, this is about 10 large dates, but the number can vary depending on the size of the dates you use.
Pecans: You can use either whole pecans or pecan pieces - they will get chopped into tiny pieces in the food processor.
Vanilla Bean Powder: I like to use this in raw desserts since vanilla extract can leave an alcohol flavor that doesn't get baked out as it does in baked desserts. However, you can use organic pure vanilla extract or alcohol-free vanilla extract in the same amount.
Himalayan Pink Salt: This is my salt of preference, however, it can always be substituted with sea salt.
Serving Size: This recipe will make approximately 8 small truffles. Nutritional information is for (1) truffle which is (1) serving.
Want More Healthy Plant-Based Truffle Recipes?
Check out these:
- Cacao Nib Superfood Truffles
- Pumpkin Truffles
- Crunchy Raw Protein Balls
- or my CLEAN DESSERTS Cookbook with 72 plant-based no-bake dessert recipes made with clean, real food ingredients just like this one that you will love!
Did You Make This Recipe?
I'd love to hear about it! Please give it a rating and leave a comment below...it would make my day! 🙂
Gluten-Free Vegan No-Bake Pecan Pie Truffles
Ingredients
- 1 cup organic Medjool dates (pitted)
- 1 cup organic pecans
- ½ teaspoon organic ground vanilla bean powder
- 1 pinch Himalayan pink salt
Instructions
- Prepare a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, then set aside.
- Add all ingredients to a food processor and process until it becomes a crumbly, sticky texture.
- Take out about a tablespoon at a time and squeeze the mixture tightly with your fist to compact it tightly, then use your fingertips to shape in into a ball shape.
- Place the balls onto the prepared cookie sheet and transfer to the refrigerator to firm for approximately 10-15 minutes.
- Store in an air-tight BPA-free container in the refrigerator.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition Information
Copyright Notice
The instructions, notes, and photographs for this recipe by Karielyn Tillman of The Healthy Family and Home™ website are copyrighted material. This copyrighted work is protected and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 International License and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) and cannot be legally used without my written permission.
Jeff H. says
Your recipes look amazing. What if I don't have a food processor? What alternative would you suggest?
Karielyn says
Hi there Jeff! Thank you very much!! For this recipe, the food processor is used to help chop the pecans into small pieces and to turn the dates into a paste-like consistency which is what holds the truffles together.
If you don't have a food processor, you could chop the pecans up by hand/manually into tiny, tiny pieces and maybe use date paste instead of whole dates. If you can't find date paste, maybe maple syrup or raw coconut nectar would work...you would just need a sticky, liquid sweetener that will hold them together.
Thanks for the question and I hope you enjoy the recipe 🙂