diff --git a/recipes/settings.py b/recipes/settings.py
index 1c56f5dfe..8f04a4d5c 100644
--- a/recipes/settings.py
+++ b/recipes/settings.py
@@ -175,7 +175,7 @@ WSGI_APPLICATION = 'recipes.wsgi.application'
 DATABASES = {
     'default': {
         'ENGINE': os.getenv('DB_ENGINE') if os.getenv('DB_ENGINE') else 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
-        'OPTIONS': os.getenv('DB_OPTIONS') if os.getenv('DB_OPTIONS') else [],
+        'OPTIONS': ast.literal_eval(os.getenv('DB_OPTIONS')) if os.getenv('DB_OPTIONS') else {},
         'HOST': os.getenv('POSTGRES_HOST'),
         'PORT': os.getenv('POSTGRES_PORT'),
         'USER': os.getenv('POSTGRES_USER'),