Raw Vegan Cheesecake

I've tried making raw vegan desserts before with limited amounts of success so I have stayed away for a while.  Just recently though, I found this wonderful website with this even more wonderful recipe on it for raw vegan cheesecake and decided to give it a go.  

No cooking (that's the raw bit) no cheese or dairy (that's the vegan bit), just a whole lot of nuts, fruit and blending.  Here is my version, go to the original website for the beautiful version as well as for the full details of the ingredients, amounts and how good for you this is.


First thing is to get the ingredients and equipment all ready.  A blender, the higher power the better, a springform tin, measuring devices (this recipe is in cups, half-cups etc) and two big bags of stuff from Holland and Barrett.

this recipe is supposed to be healthy - I certainly lost pounds!

In actual fact, I spent almost £50 in Holland and Barrett but the good news is that I actually have enough ingredients to make about twenty of these cheesecakes.

The biggest expenditure was the coconut oil, £15 for a bottle.  Next time I will look out for the buy one get one free sales that this shop often has.



After sorting everything out and getting my cup measurement, err measurers out (I wanted to follow the recipe as closely as possible and measure everything accurately rather than the usual adaptations that I make along the way), the first thing to do was to make the base.  This is a mixture of dates (mmm), almonds, lemon juice and a bit of salt.  Into the whiz whiz and pulse to a sticky crumb mixture.




I think the next time I make this (and I have a whole lot of spare ingredients) I will bulk this layer up a bit and blend it a bit finer.  The crust that this made was a little bit thin and flaky.  It looks a lot thicker than it actually was in the pictures.

rapid soak cashews

Once you have the crust to the desired consistency, you just press it into the bottom of the tin, the same way you would for a normal cheesecake.


I put the tin in the freezer after doing this layer as I thought it would help to set the next layer.  The next two layers only took about fifteen minutes to make so I'm not sure that putting it in the freezer was so helpful.  Oh, well!



The middle and top layers are made up largely of pre-soaked cashew nuts as well as some coconut oil and sweetner.  The top layer is simply the middle layer with some raspberries thrown in.


Now, when I say pre-soaked cashew nuts, the original recipe states they should be soaked for at least five hours and preferably overnight.  Mine were soaked for about ten minutes.  The key here seems to be to get a smooth consistency (nobody likes a lumpy cheesecake).


My blender was being a bit funny but I added a bit of water to the mixture and it blended up nice and smooth.


You pour on the middle layer, spread it out, throw some raspberries into the blender, blend in and then pour on the top layer.  I put the cheesecake in the freezer overnight and then put it in the fridge when I got home from work this evening.  It seems to be going down quite well.

going, going

A success!