I've been feeling like blueberry cheesecake for some time now, but somehow brownies and other marshmallow desserts kept derailing me... But at last my cake materialize in the form of a really delicious gluten-free vegan blueberry cheesecake tart, which was surprisingly super easy to make and super awesome to eat. Enjoy it!
Note: For a paleo version use a paleo yogurt (like this recipe, for example), and for a refined sugar-free version, use an unsweetened yogurt.
PrintGluten-Free Vegan Blueberry Cheesecake Tart
- Prep Time: 40 mins
- Cook Time: 4 hours
- Total Time: 4 hours 40 mins
- Yield: 7″ tart (double for a larger tart)
Ingredients
Crust Ingredients:
- 1 cup almonds
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp liquid sweetener of your choice (I used maple syrup)
Cheesecake Filling Ingredients:
- 1 cup cashews, pre-soaked (for at least an hour or overnight) and strained
- 1 cup non-dairy yogurt of your choice (I used a vanilla coconut yogurt. For paleo, this use this recipe or something similar)
- ¼ cup coconut oil, liquified or softened
- ¼ cup liquid sweetener of your choice (I used maple syrup. Note: use less sweetener if your yogurt is sweetened)
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Blueberry Topping Ingredients:
- 2 cups blueberries (I used frozen wild blueberries)
- ¼ cup liquid sweetener of your choice (I used maple syrup)
- juice of 1 lemon
- 2 tbsp agar agar flakes (help the mixture to become a bit more gel-like. You can skip if you don’t mind a runnier blueberry topping)
Instructions
- Process all crust ingredients together in a blender until a sticky crumbly mixture forms. Transfer mixture into the tart pan and press down evenly along the base of the pan to create a uniform crust. Place the tart pan with the crust into the freezer. Freeze for at least 10 minutes before adding in the next layer into the pan.
- Place all cheesecake filling ingredients into a blender and process until a smooth mixture forms. Remove the tart pan from the freezer and pour the filling mixture into the pan over the crust. Make sure it is smooth and uniform (you may want to tap the pan lightly to get rid of any air bubbles, etc.). Place the tart into the freezer and freeze for at least 3-4 hours (or overnight) prior to serving.
- Prepare the blueberry topping by placing all the ingredients except for the agar agar into a small sauce pan. Heat over medium-high heat and bring the mixture to a boil. Then reduce heat to low and simmer for 20-25 minutes until the liquid has reduced a bit, stirring occasionally to mix all the ingredients together. Then add in the agar agar flakes and stir until the flakes are dissolved (should just take a minute or two). Remove from heat and transfer into a glass jar or bowl. Allow it to cool down to room temperature and then place in the fridge. The mixture will thicken and become more gel-like as it cools in the fridge.
- Prior to serving the cake, remove it from the freezer and top evenly with the blueberry filling, creating a smooth finish. Return back into the freezer for about 10 minutes to allow the blueberry mixture to harden a little (this helps it to slice very cleanly). Serve out of the freezer when ready.
Notes
Feel free to use a springform pan instead.
Syl says
Hello,
great recipes!
Could you please help me?
I want to do this as a birthday for my son, how can I adjust the ingredients to get a 24 piece cake?
Audrey says
Hi Syl, the good news is that this recipe is very easy to size up / down and to change the pan size. The challenge will be finding a suitable pan that's big enough and I suspect you might just need to make it in several batches anyways (to make sure everything fits into the blender, etc.).
The type of pan you want for this is a non-stick tart pan with a removable bottom or a springform pan (so that the cake can easily dislodge). Tart pans usually come in 9" as the largest round size, though sometimes they also come in various rectangular shapes.
Not sure what you have on hand, but let's say you wanted to make it in a 9" tart pan... you'll need to double this recipe to fit that. And a 9" pan usually will give you about 8-10 slices, depending on how big / small you slice them. So you'll need to make 3 9" tarts in this case to make sure you have enough for 24 "pizza slice" shaped slices. You could get creative and cut them into smaller squares and maybe get away with 2 tarts instead of 3...
Another alternative could be to use a larger silicone sheet pan to make the tart a rectangle / square and cut into squares. The size will depend on the size of the sheet pan. I'm talking about something like this by the way: https://amzn.to/4fajE6K . The way to figure out how much you'll need to multiply the recipe by is to calculate by the volume of the pan (often pans will say their volume in the listing, but you could also easily find an online calculator and plug in the dimensions and find out the volume..
One last suggestion is to make and serve this recipe in small mason jars with spoons -- cheesecake in a jar sort of thing. Then you don't need to worry about the pan sizes + it'll hold its shape better for sitting out longer at room temperature. So you can start by quadrupling the recipe and dividing it between jars. And if you want to make more to make it taller, you can always do so.
Hope this helps, and let me know if you have any other questions.
jan ellis says
Audrey, all of your food is so lovely! I know that cashews are a cornerstone of your recipes. What is a good substitute for those of us who cannot eat them?
Audrey says
Right, Jan -- sorry I should have realized you were looking for nut free before recommending this one. So... cashews are definitely an ingredient I LOVE, but I also try to really vary it up with different nut-free options and options with other nuts or seeds (there are lots of options if you go to the recipes page and select "cake" and "nut-free" -- like other nuts or seeds, tigernuts, cauliflower, beans, avocado cakes, and even a parsnip cake... lots of room to explore ? ).
I can't give a blanket substitute for cashews in all recipes because in each one the flavors and ingredients would need to be adjusted according to the substitution. For instance in a recipe like this, I'd probably go with macadamia, but that as you can imagine will lend the cake a new flavor too and will also require a bit more sweetener to taste. My recommendation is to try out some of the other nut-free cakes first so you can get a feel for the flavors and textures, and then substituting cashews to taste in most of the other recipes won't be an issue.
That reminds me though -- I do have a recipe saved up and waiting to be shared without cashews and using yogurt -- I'll prioritize it to go up this week so you can check it out :)
Jan Ellis says
Thank you so much, Audrey. I am so grateful for the cornucopia of delicious options you offer on your site! I am following Dr. Peter D'Adamo's Blood Type Diet and Type A's are not supposed to have cashews, so that's why I asked for a substitute. I think macadamia nuts are divine & those I can have. I look forward to trying these out.
Audrey says
My pleasure, of course :)
The recipe is up now btw: SUNFLOWER SEED BUTTER CHEESECAKE
And if you're into macadamia, you might like this cake: STRAWBERRY LIME MACADAMIA CHEESECAKE
Sarah says
Dear Audrey,
Love this recipe, thank you so much! I was just wondering though: I want to make a smaller version, a 5inch version really (I love your 5inch tart pan recipes!) because it has to fit my freezer ;-) Do you think I need to cut the recipe in half? or perhaps use only 1/3 of 2/3 of all the ingredients? Thank you for all you do!
Audrey says
Hi Sarah, I'd cut it to 1/3 of the ingredients in this case. It's an oldie (hence the larger size) but a goodie :) Enjoy it!
Sarah says
Thanks so much for the super quick response! I eventually made them into 3 mini tarts, that are now sitting in the freezer to firm up. I already had a bite of one of them because I was dying to try them and they are D-E-L-I-S-H! And that's even without the fresh blueberries that I am going to decorate them
with later! Your recipes rock! :-) I will post a picture later on my instagram and naturally tag you in the heading. Thanks again!
Audrey says
Aw, so happy to hear, Sarah! Can't wait to see :)
fatcats says
I made this cheesecake and it was wonderful. I followed the instructions listed with a few changes for ease of preparation. I made the crust with all of the ingredients called for, except I used almond meal and mixed ingredients together in a bowl, then pressed in a parchment lined 9 inch spring form pan. I made the filling as described, instead of non-dairy yogurt I used organic kefir, for that is all I had on hand. Plus, did not have all of the ingredients to make the topping separate so I mixed fresh mixed berry blended in with the filling and poured on top of the crust. I smoothed it out and put in the freezer. This came together wonderfully and it is hard to believe that it is not the real thing. I will definitely make this again. Thank you for sharing this recipe for I did not know about cashew nuts being used as a substitute for cream cheese.
Audrey says
Thanks so much for sharing the lovely feedback and all the changes you've made — I really appreciate it and love hearing how people adapt things :) Love your substitutions and I think that cake with fresh fruit is totally amazing as well. So glad you liked it and I agree, it’s hard to tell from a traditional cheesecake.
Christy says
This looks amazing! I am making it right now and so far it taste amazing,
ThAnks for the recipe. :) Do you think you could use tapioca or arrowroot to thicken the blueberry mixture? I couldn't find the agar agar flakes. Thanks
Audrey says
Hi Christy -- thank so much, and yes, tapioca or arrowroot would work great instead of the agar. Enjoy it!
Christy says
Thanks so much! I used arrowroot and it turned out great. This is my new favorite recipe now! Even my girls loved it! Thanks so much for sharing this recipe with us. Keep them coming!
Audrey says
Oh, that's wonderful. So glad it turned out to your liking, Christy! :)
lisa says
hi, i got here from whole new mom/traditional tuesdays. your website looks very nice and well organized. i have a suggestion: when publishing recipes i think its helpful to list ingredients in a column (or bulleted), instead of paragraph form. it is very difficult to follow ingredients otherwise (especially with parenthesis and annotations). thanks!
Audrey says
Hi Lisa. Thanks for the suggestion -- good idea! I'll try that out next time.
Audrey says
Hi again, Lisa. Gosh, I totally didn't look up at the recipe when I responded to you earlier and I just realized what you're talking about. Something happened in the formatting when I made an update earlier and the ingredients got all jumbled into paragraphs. That's not what it looked like originally, and I totally get why you'd find it not user-friendly! I just fixed it and added bullet points as per your suggestion too, so it's good to go now. Sorry about that and thanks for pointing it out.
puree juice bar says
this looks AMAZING! thanks for sharing! ps. do you have an instagram we can follow?
Audrey says
Thanks soooo much! I'm going to have an instagram account very soon. I'll follow up here once it's up. Thanks for stopping by!