My son is allergic to pumpkin. He used to eat Thanksgiving dinner only so he could have pumpkin pie since I wouldn't let him eat the pie until he had something good to eat. Pumpkin hurts his eyes and makes him itchy when he smells it. If he eats it, his throat hurts. My mom wants me to make a sweet potato pie for him. We tried one and didn't like it. I don't want to waste money making a mock pumpkin pie that we dont like and won't eat. I could look one up on line but not all have reviews so I still wouldn't know if they were good. Do any of you have a recipe for mock pumpkin pie that's really good? My son has found a new fav and is okay with that instead. My mom is wanting me to do this for him. She is old and its not worth fighting with her. So here I am needing a good recipe for mock pumpkin pies.
He got hives when doing a project with an actual pumpkin in school. His arms were itchyand red for a long time! I used Libbys pumpkin to make pumpkin cupcakes and his throat hurt after he ate one. If Libby's or other canned pumpkin aren't really pumpkin, then that makes me even more leary about trying another kind of squash.
Sweet Potato pie. You can find it in a can just like pumpkin and make it exactly the same way!
good luck!
All of the sweet potato pies I've ever had tasted nearly identical to pumpkin pies. In fact, for our Thanksgiving lunch when I was in gradeschool, the school actually served sweet potato pie. For YEARS I thought I was getting pumpkin pie. Never knew a difference until I actually started reading the menu calendar. I suggest giving the sweet potato pie another chance and try this recipe. It has over 1000 reviews and has an average rating of nearly 5. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/sweet-potato-pie-i/detail.as...
Like Just M suggested I would find out exactly what the allergy is because I've heard that canned pumpkin (e.g. Libby's) is not true pumpkin but a different kind of squash. You may want to find out exactly what the allergy is because it may not be pumpkin as you know it.
ETA: I searched and found this:
It turns out that some canned pumpkin is actually squash. Some manufacturers make "pumpkin" puree from one or more kinds of winter squashes such as butternut, Hubbard, and Boston Marrow, which can be less stringy and richer in sweetness and color.
It is interesting to note the rather fuzzy distinction between pumpkins and squashes. There are three varieties of winter squashes: Cucurbita pepo, Cucurbita maxima, and Curcubita moschata. C. pepo includes the gourds we traditionally think of as pumpkins, such as the kind used for jack-o'-lanterns. Hubbard and Boston Marrow squashes fall into the C. maxima category, while C. moschata includes butternut squashes as well as the Dickinson pumpkins used by Libby's, the producer of most of the canned pumpkin in North America.
Can you take it in another direction? what if you were to make a sweet potato marble cheesecake with choc chips? look for recipies online. I think with cheesecake and choc chips as the foundation, it would be pretty hard not to like.
F. B.
Hi - I am another vote for an alternate sweet potato pie recipe. It's important to not just swap the sweet potato for pumpkin in a recipe. Sweet potato needs almost NO sugar added. Good luck to you! If you find something you can use that isn't sweet potato, let us know!
I would also wonder whether he has been tested. Is it pumpkin only or also other plants in the cucurbita (squashes).
If it is just pumpkin you can use pretty much any other winter squash. Butternut or Acorn are sold pretty much everywhere and very similar to pumpkin in taste and texture.
I would be careful though if he has not been tested. Many pumpkin products are made with "pumpkin spices" that give you the typical "pumpkin pie flavor". Pumpkin allergies are quite rare, allergies to components of pumpkin spice (cinnamon, kardamom and others) are relatively more frequent...
Good luck!
I don't have her recipe, but my grandma used to make sweet potato pies that tasted just like pumpkin pie. (She swore they tasted different but we could never tell.) I would think you could just swap the quantity of mashed sweet potato for the pumpkin in your recipe.
Use butternut winter squash instead! yummy!
If he's truly allergic to pumpkin, none of the squash family is going to work for him. On the other hand I'm wondering if it's the pumpkin or one of the spices you're using? A really good recipe for sweet potato pie should be almost indistinguishable from pumpkin. There's a recipe for one using fresh sweet potatoes on allrecipes.com that gets rave reviews. I'd try the sweet potato pie one more time before giving up on him.
Sweet potato pie tastes surprisingly a lot like pumpkin pie. Maybe you could make one of those instead.
I don't have a recipie to share for one but I'm sureyou can find a good one online.
As a person with many food allergies, it is not true that any food allergy can become a fatal allergy. Don't be concerned about that. You do want to be sure it's the pumpkin and not the spices to which he's allergic.
My family makes squash pie using hubbard or butternut squash or sweet potato. Cook it and smash it. We used the same recipe for the squash pie as we used for our pumpkin pies. We use the recipe on the pumpkin can label. So.....just use your recipe and sweet potatoes.
I did not know that squash could be in a can of pumpkin. The USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) has defined pumpkin in cans as being both pumpkin and squash. http://www.forbes.com/pictures/ejeg45iim/canned-pumpkin-2/
Because squash is in the same family as pumpkin I would make a sweet potato pie.
Here are the vegetables in the same family as pumpkin. If a person is allergic to one they may also be allergic to the others
Cucurbitaceae Food Family
Cucurbita Genus
winter squashes
summer squashes
Cucumis Genus
cucumbers
casaba melons
Crenshaw melons
honeydew melons
muskmelon
Citrullus Genus
watermelon
bitter apple .
Here's the web site. http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&db...
This is no doubt more info than you wanted. Because I have food allergies I've learned that it's good to have more info about foods.
I'm sorry I am not answering your question directly, but as a mother of a child with allergies, I just wanted to make sure that you've talked with your son's doctor about the allergy and have gotten an epi-pen, just in case. According to my son's allergist, any true food allergy can become a fatal allergy, so you'll want to be prepared (especially since you don't know all of the squashes he is allergic to).
did you get him tested for allergies?
i only ask because Cinnamon used to give my daughter those reaction when she was under 2 (she outgrew it) but its in pumpkin pies a lot.
does he not like apple pie, or coconut custard? how about J. cupcakes or something fun after?
ADDED
After BD's response I googled it
http://www.thekitchn.com/pumpkin-pie-filling-what-is-it-6...
she's right pumpkin pies are ussually made from squash. my dad was a baker in a huge bakery and they always used the filling because it took so much work for one pie with real pumpkins. so i'd definitely make sure he's allergic to pumpkin and not squash or cinnamon
