Vegan Strawberry Cheesecake

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Are you looking for a light and airy dessert for warm summer nights? A sweet seduction that is not too filling? I just say – vegan strawberry cheesecake! This vegan version of the classic cheesecake will completely convince not only you but also your guests. The cheesecake is lactose-free, naturally sweetened, and super easy to prepare!

Vegan Cheesecake with Strawberries

What is typical for a cheesecake?
Cheesecake is in its original version a baked cake with a curd cream cheese filling and a short pastry base. Of course, there are countless variations and also in raw vegetable form, the cheesecake is very popular, especially in the vegan scene. You can find a tangy raw vegan cheesecake with lemon here.
Cheesecake with a biscuit base is also very popular, for example with oreo, butter, or digestive biscuits. These are then simply crumbled and mixed with margarine to form a crispy cheesecake base.

When it comes to the filling, the possibilities are endless, from classic New York style, to exotic with passion fruit and mango, or chocolate and peanut butter, there are no limits to your preferences.
For this recipe, you can, of course, use other fruits than strawberries.

Vegan Strawberry Cheesecake

You may not believe me now, but I never tried cheesecake before I switched to a vegan diet. When I went vegan and started looking for sweet recipes, I found amazing cheesecake creations everywhere. First, I ate my way through raw vegan cheesecakes. Recently I saw a lot of baked cheesecakes popping up on social media and since my mouth is watering every time I see one, I wanted to share a baked version with you here.

And since the color of the cheesecake is so beautiful with strawberries and these are fortunately still in season, I thought a vegan strawberry cheesecake would fit wonderfully.

How to make a vegan cheesecake

A cheesecake, as already written, consists of two parts. The crispy base and the creamy curd cream cheese filling.
To veganize the former is very easy. A shortcrust pastry consists classically of three ingredients, namely butter, sugar, and flour. You can easily replace the butter with vegan butter or margarine. And that`s the whole circus!

The curd cream cheese filling can be easily prepared in a vegan style as well. As the name cheesecake already suggests, many of these cakes have cream cheese mixed in. In case of the vegan filling there are several ways to get to Rome.

You have to ask yourself two essential questions. Firstly, what ingredients can you use to replace the curd and cream cheese? Second, what do you use to bind the filling, since eggs are out of the question?

As a cream cheese substitute you can simply use vegan cream cheese or leave out the cream cheese completely. This strawberry cheesecake is without cream cheese.

As curd alternatives there are the following:

• vegan curd
• plant-based, whippable cream
• coconut milk, coconut cream or plant-based cream
• plant-based yoghurt
• soaked & pureed cashews with the above alternatives (especially for raw vegan cheesecakes)

You can use the following vegan alternatives to bind the filling:

• starch
• vegan pudding powder
• agar agar (especially for no Bake fillings, i.e. fillings that are not baked)

To prevent the surface of the cheesecake from burning and browning too much, I recommend you cover the cake while baking it. You can simply put a reusable parchment foil over it.

Less Waste tips for vegan strawberry cheesecake

Here a few Less Waste tips for this vegan strawberry cheesecake:

• Dry ingredients such as flour, coconut blossom sugar, and starch can be found unpacked in bulk stores. Or otherwise, simply buy them in bulk.
• Fresh ingredients such as strawberries and lemons can be found unpacked at the weekly market.
• The lemon peel can be zested and dried. Then you have a grated lemon peel for further baking experiments. You can also soak it in vinegar to make your own detergent or put it in your dishwasher as a rinse aid substitute.
• You can buy xylitol unpacked or in bulk in certain pharmacies.
• You can buy coconut milk in bulk. Simply freeze the remaining milk into cubes and put them in a container as soon as they are frozen. This way you have coconut milk for other dishes (it goes bad relatively quickly, hence the tip).
• You can easily make your own soy yogurt at home.

Alternatives to the products used

If you don`t like one of the products used or if you don`t tolerate it, then you`ll find here alternative suggestions that you could use instead of that very product.

You can change the types of flour and sugar used according to your taste. Just note that certain other types of sugar can sweeten more or less. It is therefore best to always test briefly whether the sweetness is suitable for your taste.

You can also exchange the coconut oil for vegan butter or margarine. I do not recommend any liquid oil, because the cake still hardens in the fridge after baking. This only works with fats that harden again at cooler temperatures.

Instead of the strawberries you can use any other fruits.

If you don`t like or tolerate soy yogurt, you are welcome to use coconut, almond, oat, or cashew yogurt. That should work just as well. You could replace the coconut milk with a vegetable oat or soya cuisine. The important thing is that it thickens slightly when heated. That’s why homemade oat cream would possibly also work well.

Instead of potato starch, you can also use corn starch. Alternatively, you could probably use guar gum or tapioca starch. I have not personally tried it, so the quantities may vary.

Please note in general that these are tips that I`ve not tried out myself, but can simply recommend to you based on my experience. Once you change an ingredient, it is always possible that the quantities may vary and the result may be different from the recipe I wrote.

Meal Prep Tips

This vegan strawberry cheesecake is great for Meal Prep. Yes, Meal Prep is even recommendable in this sense. Therefore I advise you to prepare the strawberry cheesecake the day before. The cake gets its best consistency when it`s allowed to set overnight or at least for 3-4 hours in the fridge.

You can easily prepare the cake base in advance and then store it airtightly packed in the refrigerator. Before you put it into the cake tin, let it stand at room temperature for at least 30 minutes. This will soften the dough and make it less hard.

You can also prepare the filling per se in advance and keep it well sealed and cooled in a container. However, I would only stir in the starch just before baking.

Why you should definitely try this vegan strawberry cheesecake:

It`s:

• vegan
• lactose-free
• naturally sweetened
• without refined sugar
• without white flour
• prepared only from natural ingredients
• nice and summery
• easily prepared
• a pleasure for young and old
• suitable for Meal Prep

More delicious summer desserts:

• vegan cherry almond ice cream
• vegan no-bake lemon cheesecake
• chocolate banana boats
• berry galette
• vegan cherry pie

If you are trying this vegan strawberry cheesecake, I would love your feedback here in the comments. If you share your creation of this recipe on Instagram, please don’t forget to link @velvetandvinegar and use the hashtag #velvetandvinegar. So my community and I won’t miss your contribution.

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