Cooking with Karina Video: Vegan Key Lime Pie Bites

Karina Arnold is a senior at the University of Oklahoma who’s passionate about healthy cooking. She provides creative, healthy recipes and tips on clean eating.

I once detested key lime pie. As a child, I hated any cake that wasn’t chocolate or vanilla. Young Karina believed carrot cake, pumpkin cake, fruit cake and zucchini bread were all just adults trying to sneak a serving of fruits and vegetables into little sugar-craving monsters. Now, I love the taste of a springy, moist sweet potato cake and crave cheesecake dripping in berry sauce. Key lime pie was a dessert plate my chubby child hands would indignantly shove away. Give me cookie, ice cream or classic birthday cake, or give me nothing.

Thankfully, I grew up and so did my taste buds. I still dream of creamy, dripping ice-cream cake during hot months; however, I will not say no to a slice of key lime pie. As a classic summer dessert, the loud green color is analogous to the tart lime taste. A crumply bottom interrupts a knife’s smooth slice through a zesty crème layer.

These Vegan Key Lime Pie Bites are a sweet, healthy and refreshing dessert for summer. (Photo: Dylan Aguilar) 

For this recipe, I looked to plant-based baker Ashley Melillo for inspiration. Making a whole pie is daunting, but these bites make the cooking and serving easy as pie. The recipe has no added sugars and uses simple ingredients. I know these Vegan Key Lime Pie Bites would have convinced kid Karina to give fruits and veggies another chance as ingredients in cakes.