This recipe is special. The title is also a bit of a lie, but if you’ve ever tried to make vegan cheesecake, you’ll know that it’s a lengthy process that means you actually have to wait for your food. I am very, very bad at this, so I set out to make a healthy gluten, dairy and refined sugar free cheesecake. Simple.

This cake has three layers – the carby ‘biscuit’ base, the creamy cashew centre and the light and sweet goji topping.

The cashews need to soak to become the ‘cream-cheese’ in the centre, but unlike most recipes, here they only need to soak for 30 minutes, rather than overnight, which cuts down the waiting time significantly, which can only be a good thing 🙂 During this time you could read a little, stalk people on instagram or even make some nut-butter. So really it’s not time wasted.

This recipe can be altered to change the flavour. My favourite alternative is blackberry (see bottom photo) – it’s a gorgeous purple colour and has a rich summery taste. To do this, omit the banana and goji berries, and use 150g blackberries (or a fruit of your choice) instead.

Ingredients:

• 3 nakd bars (I use cashew cookie) OR 50g almonds, 50g oats
• 150g dates
• 200g cashews (quick soaked in boiling water)
• Almond/coconut/oat milk
• 50g goji berries (soaked)
• 1 banana
• Vanilla flavouring (I use Walden farms near zero coffee creamer, but vanilla essence or even vanilla protein powder works well. I would recommend Strippd vanilla pea/hemp protein powder)

Method:

• Remember to soak the cashew nuts and goji berries (separately) in boiling water. Set timer to 30 minutes. Then you can start on the base.
• Start by lining a round shallow cake tin with baking parchment
• Base – Blend together the 3 nakd bars/almonds and oats with 50g dates until the mixture is crumbly. It should resemble crumble mixture.
• Pour this into the cake tin and pack down (the base of a glass works well – separate base and glass with clingfilm if it sticks).
• Put in freezer.
  

  Biscuit base

• 1st layer – once the 30 minutes are up, drain the cashews.
• Place 120g soaked cashews, 75g dates and the vanilla flavouring/protein powder into the blender. Blend.
• Add milk as necessary – at the end of the blending process the consistency should be of hummus (yum).
• Spoon this out over the biscuit base. If it isn’t runny enough it’ll ruin the base, so make sure to add enough milk to the mixture!
• Stick this back in the freezer as you make the last layer

Creamy cashew 1st layer

• 2nd layer – blend together the remaining cashews (80g), dates (25g), the banana and soaked and drained goji berries until smooth.
• Spoon this last layer over the other 2 layers.
• Sprinkle on extra goji berries as optional decoration.
• Stick back in the freezer for at least 1h

Goji berry topping

This keeps best in the freezer, and becomes a little runny when left out for too long, as it heats up. Whilst it tastes good frozen, for a smoother, creamier texture, take it out of the freezer for at least 30 minutes before eating from frozen.

All done! You can do this the night before you want to eat it, or the morning of a dinner party. It tastes fantastic with fresh fruit and/or sorbet and is a great dessert to impress! Or just eat by yourself. Whatever works for you. 😉

The blackberry version of the cheesecake