Homemade Simple Vegan Cheesecake Recipes
This vegan strawberry cheesecake (Rainbow Nourishments) is a stunning summer dessert, and a great way to use up leftover strawberries, if you went overboard at the pick-your-own farm! Strawberries are one of the so-called ‘dirty dozen’ that are often sprayed with pesticides, so splurge on organic!
Before cooking, read up on food safety for people and pets.
How about this for a healthy cake? It contains 4 whole cups of fresh strawberries! The only fruits to have their seeds on the outside, strawberries (related to roses) are packed with goodness.
This cheesecake uses coconut cream to replace the dairy, cornstarch and a tiny amount of coconut oil (no taste) to set the filling. The only taste is strawberries, strawberries, strawberries!
You can use any crumbled cookies for the base. We like Rhythm 108 (they have no palm oil). This Swiss brand offers many flavours including salted caramel and coconut crunch.
Despite not being a local food, cheesecake (invented in New York) is very popular in England. Look around the web, there are oodles of plant-based alternatives. Simple ones (like this) use vegan cream cheese (found in any supermarket).
The more advanced and ‘natural’ vegan cheesecakes are mostly based around soaked cashew nuts, for the same buttery flavour. They are simple to make (as long as you remember the soak the nuts a few hours before making the recipe!)
No-Bake Vegan Blueberry Cheesecake
Ideal for summer (and to reduce oven bills), No-Bake Blueberry Cheesecake (Running on Real Food) starts with a homemade cinnamon-pecan crust (sweetened with maple syrup) then the filling is made from soaked cashews and coconut cream. Freeze to set, then thaw for 30 minutes at room temperature (or an hour or two in the fridge).
Avoid blueberries for choking hazards, kidney disorders and recent surgery (also check medication).
If you have a nut allergy, swap cashews for silken tofu or extra coconut cream with oats. Cashews and blueberries are expensive, but the other ingredients (oats!) are not. If you can’t find fresh blueberries, PACK’d sells organic frozen berries in paper packaging.
Why Eat Blueberries?
The question is more, why not? These sweet juicy berries are packed with nutrition. In season from late June to early September, only rinse them just before eating (the ‘silvery bloom’ is what protects them). Once bought, they’ll keep in the fridge for a few days. So eat them up quickly!
Vegan Lemon Cheesecake (just 6 ingredients)
This 6-ingredient lemon cheesecake (Ela Vegan) is decorated with fresh strawberries. The granola crust is made with coconut butter, and sweetened with maple syrup.
Bin citrus scraps/rinds, as acids could harm compost creatures.
Vegan Pumpkin Cheesecake Recipe
Baked Vegan Pumpkin Cheesecake (Rainbow Nourishments) uses ready-made ginger cookies (Mr Organic and Rhythm 108 are both free from palm oil) for the crust, and tops with a caramel pecan glaze.
This is a baked vegan cheesecake that is really easy to make, using warm spices and vegan cream cheese. If you can’t find canned pumpkin puree (and don’t want to make from scratch) you can use cooked sweet potato (also make ‘pumpkin pie spice’ by blending sweet spices (cinnamon, ginger etc).
Choose Small Pumpkins for Best Flavour
Pumpkins are a tasty winter squash, the small ones are better (you can also roast and eat the seeds, which are high in zinc). The word is from German for ‘pepon’ which means ‘large melon’. They taste a bit like sweet potato, so spices help to bring out the flavour.
Pumpkins are a huge food waste issue, due to Halloween. These large (edible though tasteless) pumpkins are bred, leaving around 22 million to rot on landfills each year. Generating methane gas, instead of feeding hungry people.
How to Prepare a Fresh Pumpkin
Although canned pumpkin puree is good for desserts and baking, it’s best to use fresh pumpkin for savoury dishes. It’s pretty easy to prepare, as long as you have a good serrated knife to slice the pumpkin. Chop flesh into wedges, toss in oil and spices, and bake in the oven for around 30 to 40 minutes.
Scoop out the (rinsed) seeds, boil in salted water for 10 minutes, then roast with oil and spices in the oven for 10 minutes.
Some recipes online for pumpkin use Specoloos biscuits, but they are made with palm oil. You can make your own speculoos cookies with brown sugar, spices, sea salt and vegan butter (Flora has no palm oil).
