• Home
• Recipes
• Vegan
• Vegan lemon meringue pie

Vegan lemon meringue pie

Published: December 7, 2021 at 12:56 PM

Save recipe

Serves 8

A little effort

Total time: 1 hr and 15 mins

plus cooling and chilling

A star rating of 5 out of 5.1 ratingRate

loading...

Get 5 months for £5 when you subscribe today

A few swaps turns classic lemon meringue pie into an impressive vegan dessert everyone can enjoy

Vegan

Print

Ad

Skip to ingredients

Alternatives

Complete the dish

Loading...

Try Tom Adams' impressive lemon meringue pie, then check out our vegan lemon drizzle cake, vegan lemon sheet cake, vegan cheesecake, vegan blueberry muffins and vegan scones.

This recipe uses agar agar as a plant-based gelatine substitute and aquafaba as an egg substitute. Read our guides on what is agar agar and what is aquafaba for all the info you need on where to buy these ingredients.

Ingredients

• 250g 
plain flour

  plus extra for dusting

• 150g vegan butter

  plus extra for the tin

• 2 tbsp icing sugar

For the lemon filling

• 3 tbsp cornflour

• 60ml (we used soy milk) plant-based milk

• 4 lemons

  juiced to make 160ml juice and 2 zested

• 240ml soy cream

• 200g caster sugar

• 1½ tsp agar agar powder

• 1 drop (optional) yellow gel food colouring

For the meringue

• 300ml (the liquid from 2 x 400g tins chickpeas) aquafaba
• ½ tsp cream of tartar
• 250g caster sugar
• 2 tsp agar agar powder

Ad

Method

• step 1

  Tip the flour and butter into a mixing bowl and mash together with a cold metal whisk until it's the consistency of breadcrumbs – you can use your hands, but your body heat might start to melt the butter. Add the sugar, ½ tsp of salt and 2-3 tbsp of ice-cold water, gradually adding enough water to bind the mixture. Knead until you have a smooth ball of dough, then wrap and chill for 20 minutes. Butter a 25cm tart tin and dust with flour, shaking off the excess.

• step 2

  Roll the pastry out on a floured worksurface until about 3mm thick. It can be useful to place baking paper over the pastry as you roll it to stop it sticking or tearing. Roll the pastry around the rolling pin and drape over the prepared tin. Delicately push the pastry into the edge of the tin, then trim the excess. Prick holes in the bottom of the pastry with a fork and chill for another 20 minutes. Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4.

• step 3

  Line the case with a scrunched-up piece of non-stick baking paper and baking beans, uncooked pulses or rice. Bake for 20 minutes, then remove the beans and paper and bake for 25 minutes more until golden. Cool while you make the pie filling and meringue.

• step 4

  To make the filling, mix the cornflour and milk together in a bowl. Heat the rest of the ingredients together in a pan over a low heat until warm and combined, then add the cornflour mixture. Turn the heat to medium-high and cook, whisking often until the mixture is thick and bubbles slowly – it's essential for the lemon curd to reach boiling point to activate the agar agar. Remove from the heat and pour the filling into the cooled pie crust. Cool for 2 hours at room temperature.

• step 5

  To make the meringue, heat the aquafaba in a pan over a low heat for 15 minutes until reduced to 150ml. It can be useful to weigh the liquid after 12 minutes to see how far you have to go. Cool for at least 1 hour.

• step 6

  Pour the cooled aquafaba into the bowl of a stand mixer with the cream of tartar. Mix at medium-low speed for 10-15 minutes until soft peaks form. Meanwhile, bring the caster sugar, agar agar and 80ml water to the boil in a small pan, resisting the urge to stir it. When the mixture reaches 121C on a sugar thermometer, remove from the heat and slowly pour it down the inside of the stand mixer bowl into the aquafaba meringue.

• step 7

  Mix for a couple of minutes more until the meringue is glossy and thick. Spoon it over the pie filling and leave to cool for 20 minutes. Softly brown the meringue with a kitchen blowtorch or flash it under a hot grill. Chill briefly, then serve.

Hear Tom guide us through the recipe step-by-step in episode 4 of the olive magazine vegan podcast, series 2.

Find more of Tom’s recipes at projectveganbaking.com and follow him on Instagram @projectveganbaking.

Ad

Comments, questions and tips

Rate this recipe

What is your star rating out of 5?1 star out of 52 stars out of 53 stars out of 54 stars out of 55 stars out of 5

Choose the type of message you'd like to post

Choose the type of message you'd like to post

CommentQuestionTip

Overall rating

A star rating of 5 out of 5.1 rating

Ad

Ad

Loading...

Ad

Loading...

Want to see this content?

This page contains olivemagazine content provided by Google reCAPTCHA. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as Google reCAPTCHA may use cookies and other technologies. To view this content, choose 'Accept and continue' to allow Google reCAPTCHA and its required purposes.

Accept and continue