Learn how to make a no cook healthy gluten-free vegan lemon custard aka pastry cream. Besides, it’s oil-free as well as low-fat and takes under 10 minutes to make.
What I love about this vegan custard recipe:
- It’s a no cook custard recipe.
- Takes under 10 minutes.
- It’s super easy to make.
- Perfect for batch-cooking.
- It has versatile usage.
It’s noteworthy that this vegan pastry cream is:
- Gluten-free
- Oil-free and low-fat
- Refined sugar free
- Candida diet friendly
- Low glycemic plant-based diet friendly
- Peanut-free and nut free
- Low sodium
- High-protein
Table of contents
How to Make Vegan Lemon Custard aka Pastry Cream
As you already might now, conventional custard is a combo of melted butter, egg yolk and sugar. Furthermore, some recipes may even include whipped cream and/or sour cream. Now, that’d be an unhealthy choice for most people, especially when combined with refined sugar.
The Ingredients
Very often a plant-based dairy-free custard is made with full fat coconut milk resulting in a high-fat pastry cream. In fact, I’ve made a crustless and flourless vegan custard cake with coconut milk in the past.
However, this time I opted for silken tofu that has a perfectly smooth texture but is much lower in fats.
The second important ingredient is cooked chickpeas that give both thickness and creaminess.
Since the consistency of silken tofu and chickpeas alone would be too dense, I’m adding some oat milk to make this lemony vegan custard smoother. However, any plant milks will do in this custard recipe i.e., almond milk, soymilk, hazelnut milk etc.
By the way, if you need a thicker cream, simply add less oat milk. Check the consistency from my tutorial video!
Then, for citrus flavour, we will use a slice of lemon. It’s noteworthy that both the rind and the flesh come into use.
Finally, we need to add something to sweeten this vegan pastry cream. I chose erythritol as a low glycemic and Candida diet friendly option. However, you may use any preferred option e.g., date sugar, coconut sugar, date paste, or maple syrup. Optionally you may add a pinch of turmeric for a beautiful yellow hue and some vanilla extract.
The Process
It’s safe to say that this vegan lemon custard recipe is as easy as it gets when it comes to the actual preparation.
The trickiest part is to remove the pith (the white part) from between the rind and the flesh of the lemon slice. Now, removing it can also be a personal preference, but the pith often tends to taste quite bitter. Therefore, leaving the lemon slice intact may influence the result.
Next, make sure you rinse and drain your cooked chickpeas thoroughly not to transfer any of the slimy water into your vegan lemon custard. Once you’ve dealt with the lemon pith and rinsed the chickpeas, it’s down to blending. Add all the ingredients into a blender or a beaker and process until you have a smooth pastry cream.
How to Store Vegan Custard aka Pastry Cream
Transfer the ready cream into an airtight jar or a container and store in the fridge for up to 7 days. For better keeping store in several smaller containers or jars. This way you don’t have to dispose the whole batch to air every time you open it.
How to Use This Vegan Lemon Custard Cream
When it comes to consuming this delicious cream there are several options:
- Eat it with vegan pound cake or pumpkin bread.
- Use it to layer delicious parfaits with crumbled vegan chocolate cookies.
- Or, as the name refers, use it as a pastry cream for cake fillings.
- Spread it on pancakes, muffins, waffles, or even on a slice of sourdough bread.
- Finally, it’s delicious as a topping on vegan desserts and porridge bowls.
I know that you most probably enjoy visuals, is that right? For that reason, you can watch how I make this vegan custard in the below video (along with my oil-free vegan pound cake with poppy seeds):
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How to Make Vegan Lemon Custard [Pastry Cream]
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 650 ml 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Learn how to make a no cook healthy gluten-free vegan lemon custard aka pastry cream. Besides, it’s oil-free as well as low-fat and takes under 10 minutes to make.
Ingredients
- 180g (6.3oz or ½ pack Mori-Nu) silken tofu
- 1 can (240g, 8.5oz) cooked unsalted chickpeas
- 1 slice of fresh lemon with rind (pith removed)
- 150g (5.3oz) unsweetened oat milk
- 4 tbsps. erythritol (date sugar for Plantricious version)
Instructions
- Start by rinsing and draining the chickpeas well.
- Then, cut a slice of lemon and remove any seeds and the pith (the white part between the rind and flesh) as much as you can.
- Now, add all the ingredients into a blender or a beaker and process until you have a smooth custard cream.
Notes
Feel free to use any plant-based milk instead of oat milk. For example, almond milk, soymilk, hazelnut milk etc.
If you need a thicker cream, feel free to add less plant-milk.
Regulate the amount of sweetener according to your taste i.e., add more or less of it.
You may use any sweetener you like e.g., xylitol, coconut sugar, date paste, maple syrup etc. In case you’re on Candida diet or are looking for a low glycemic option, choose erythritol or xylitol.
Optionally add a pinch of turmeric for beautiful yellow hue and some vanilla extract.
Nutritional info for 1/5 of the recipe with date sugar (roughly ½ cup): 152 kcal, 21.5g carbohydrates (56.6% of kcal), 2.7g fats (16% of kcal), 0.5g saturated fats, 6.8g protein (18% of kcal), 4.2g fibre, 9.5g sugars, and 18.7mg sodium.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Category: Desserts
- Method: Blender
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/5 of recipe
- Calories: 115 kcal
- Sugar: 2.9g
- Sodium: 18.7mg
- Fat: 2.5g
- Saturated Fat: 0.3g
- Carbohydrates: 13g
- Fiber: 4.2g
- Protein: 6.6g
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Thanks for the awesome recipe. Can you freeze the pastry cream? I made it to go with the pound cake and we have some left that I’d like to be able to use later.
Hi Mindy! I’m so happy that you like this recipe!
I wouldn’t recommend freezing it because of its high water content. It would crystallise and would not have the same consistency once defrosted. Store it in the fridge in a sealed container or jar for up to 7 days.