The Best Creamy Vegan Cheesecake Recipe (No-Bake!)
A delicious no-bake cheesecake made with a cashew cream cheesecake filling. This Mixed Berry Vegan Cheesecake recipe is super easy, healthy, gluten-free, oil-free, and refined sugar-free.
Servings: 10 -12 servings
Ingredients
Crust
- 3/4 cup medjool dates pitted
- 1 cup raw cashews
- 1 cup almonds or 1 cup rolled oats
Cheesecake Filling
- 2 cups raw cashews soaked for 2-3 hours, or overnight
- ½ cup full-fat canned coconut milk
- ¼ cup maple syrup or ¼ cup pitted soft medjool dates (if using dates, you may like to soak them beforehand to soften)
- 3 tsp lemon juice
- 3 tsp vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
- ½ cup mixed berries of choice
Instructions
- Prepare cashews by soaking for at least 3 hours, orovernight. Leave out on the counter in a cool dry place. Strain and rinse before using.
- Prep a 9”x5” loaf pan with parchment paper.
- To create crust layer, combine cashews, dates and almonds in a food processor, pulsing until ingredients break down and form a dough-like consistency. Transfer to the bottom of your pan and press down, to form an even crust.
- Next, add soaked cashews, lemon juice, vanilla, maple syrup or dates, coconut milk and salt to a high speed blender. Blend until completely smooth, scraping down sides to make sure everything is blended evenly. Mixture should be smooth and pourable, like a pancake batter.
- Pour half of the blended mixture over top of the crust layer. Tap the loaf pan on a hard surface to remove air bubbles, and flatten out the surface. Chill in freezer for at least 15 minutes.
- With the remaining blended mixture, add berries of choice and blend again. You’ll get a beautiful berry colour and flavour. Pour this mixture over top of the first 2 layers, and swirl with a toothpick or knife if desired.
- Freeze for about 3 hours, or until fully firm, ideally overnight. For best results, allow to thaw for about 5 minutes before slicing into squares.
Notes
Secrets to Success
- For best results, it's important that you soak your cashews for an adequate amount of time! Also, make sure you're using a high-speed blender that can blend your cashews down smoothly. This is important for texture in your final "cheesecake" result!
- Using raw cashews is the way to go when making this recipe, but feel free to sub out the other nuts (for example, nuts used in the crust) for a different nut if preferred.
- To make removing your cheesecake from the pan easier, I'd recommend lining it with parchment paper. Before slicing, give your raw vegan berry cheesecake a few minutes to soften, too--it'll make your life easier. Trust me!
- If you want to save some work and nuts, you can also use your favorite bar in place of the crust mixture. I experimented using GoMacro bars (the sunny uplift flavor works well with the flavors), and it's definitely a time saver!
- Because we’re using a high-powered blender, there’s no need for a hand mixer or stand mixer in this recipe. Additionally, because we’re not baking, there’s no need for a springform pan!
- I make my crust from a mix of nuts and dates, but if you want to make a vegan graham cracker crust, you can. Simply place the graham crackers in a food processor and pulse them into a fine crumb. Then mix with melted vegan butter and press into your pan. You may want to bake this for 15 minutes to set.