Vegan Cheesecake Recipe TO DIE FOR

This past week, I’ve been in Southern CA and ate out at a ton of Vegetarian and Vegan restaurants. When I was an omnivore, I never ordered dessert. But now, I’ve sort of allowed myself to try new vegan sweet treats after my meals. I mean, this is a new world I food I’m entering, so why not!? (For those of you just joining the Blogilates community…I am a 2 month old lacto-ovo vegetarian.)

Vegan desserts aren’t automatically low cal and “healthy”. We still need to make our choices. But my knees get weak when I hear cheesecake. I love cheesecake. And if I were living in Food Heaven I’d eat cheesecake everyday. That and fried ice cream. Unfortunately, we do not live in Food Heaven, but fortunately, there are substitutions!

So after eating the vegan cheesecake at Sipz in San Diego and the raw vegan cheesecake at Cru in Silverlake, I was inspired to make my own. I mean, I can’t be spending $8 everytime for dessert!!! Plus, I need to know what’s in it!!!

I decided on a Tofu-based “cheesecake” and a raw vegan-inspired crust. I was surprised at how easy it was to make. Here were my ingredients:

THE “CHEESE”:

– 14 oz of medium firm tofu (1 block)

– 8 oz Tofutti Cream Cheese (whole container)

– 2/3 cup raw sugar

– 1/4-1/2 cup lemon juice

-2 TBSP cornstarch

THE CRUST:

– 1 1/2 cups walnuts

– 1/2 cup dates pitted

THE STRAWBERRY DRIZZLE SAUCE (optional):

– 1/2 cup strawberries (I used frozen)

– 2 TBSP strawberry jam

– 1/2 TBSP of water

DIRECTIONS:

1. Place the dates and walnuts in a food processor and chop up until crumbly.

2. Spray the bottom of your pan with some PAM cooking spray. Then place the date and walnut mixture on top. Using your hands, press the crumbs down so it forms a thick and dense layer. It’s easier to press if your fingers are slightly wet.

3. In a blender, mix the tofu, Tofutti cream cheese, sugar, corn starch, and lemon juice for about 30 sec or until smooth.

4. Pour this tofu mixture on top of crust.

5. Bake for 35-40 min at 350F.

6. Chill in fridge for about 1 hr.

7. Meanwhile, microwave your strawberry, strawberry jam, and water mixture for about 1 min. Mix up and let cool.

8. Cut up your cheesecake into 8 servings and drizzle the strawberry sauce on top.

9. Serve and IMPRESS!!!! Eat too.

TASTE:

This was my first time EVER making vegan cheesecake and I was IMPRESSSEEEDD!!!! I couldn’t believe it. Neither could the family I was serving this to. You need to try this. Plus it’s so easy. You may just die and go to Food Heaven. It tasted so good and so creamy. I also liked that I didn’t have to use graham crackers in the crust, so that made me extremely happy.

NUTRITION FACTS:

The one thing I was a little disappointed about was the calorie count. Sigh. I will need to tweak this a bit and use Stevia instead of sugar. It may also help to change my nuts to almonds instead of walnuts. We’ll see, there will be a cheesecake evolution.

Cheesecake without crust (1 serving) – whole recipe makes 8 servings:

173.7 cals, 8.5g fat, 24.7g carbs, 16.8g sugar, 7.4g protein

Crust only (1 serving) – whole recipe makes 8 servings:

181.4 cals, 15g fat, 11.4g carbs, 7.6g sugar, 3.7g protein