The other day I was looking for a savory vegan cheesecake recipe and couldn’t find one single recipe and so I took on the challenge and made my own. A complete experiment that turned out amazing, yay! Don’t you just love when that happens! And so let me introduce you to my first savory raw cake with Italian inspired seasoning that tastes utterly amazing.
The crust is made with sunflower seeds, flaxseed, sun-dried tomatoes and oregano. The sun-dried tomatoes help the mixture to stick together which creates the base for the cheesecake.
The filling is a basic cashew cheese recipe that I’ve adapted from Kris Carr’s Crazy Sexy Kitchen and I’ve added some baby spinach and fresh basil to the mix. And this gorgeous creamy cheesy filling goes on top of the crust and altogether is such a dream. I’ve used dry sun-dried tomatoes in this recipe, which I soaked in hot water to soften. You could also buy ones already soaked in olive oil and then they wouldn’t need further soaking. If you don’t have the nutritional yeast, it’ll be okay to leave it out, but it does add that cheesy flavor to the cashews. The cake took about 3 hours to set in freezer, you don’t want it completely frozen, only around the edges and firm in the center, so you can easily remove it from the tin. It’s lovely served with some fresh green salad.
Raw Spinach Cheesecake with Sundried Tomato and Sunflower Seed Crust (grain-free & vegan)
Ingredients
Crust:
- 120g sunflower seeds (1 cup)
- 30g flaxseed (1/4 cup)
- 85g sundried tomatoes (1 cup)
- 1/2tsp oregano
- 1/4tsp sea salt
- 1tbsp olive oil
Cheese layer:
- 250g cashews (2 cups) soaked for 3 hours
- 120ml water (1/2 cup)
- 2tbsp lemon juice
- 1tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 garlic clove
- 1/2tsp sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 100g baby spinach (2 cups)
- fresh basil, small bunch
Instructions
- Place cashews into bowl, cover with water and leave to soak for 3 hours. Rinse well under running water and drain.
- Place the sundried tomatoes into bowl, cover with boiling water and leave to soak for about 20-30 minutes. Drain once soft.
- In a food processor or high speed blender process sunflower seeds until broken down, but not completely ground. Add drained sundried tomatoes, flaxseed, oregano, sea salt and olive oil and process until the mixture sticks together.
- Press the mixture evenly onto bottom of 8" spring form round cake tin and set aside.
- Place cashews into high speed blender with water and lemon juice and blend until smooth and creamy. Add nutritional yeast, garlic, sea salt and black pepper and blend again. Finally add washed spinach and basil and blend just until incorporated.
- Spoon the mixture onto the crust layer and smooth out the top. It will be thick consistency.
- Place into freezer for about 3 hours to set.
- Remove from the tin once set and serve.
- You can slice the leftovers and store in freezer.
- Enjoy!
Wow, yes! The first savory cheesecake I’ve seen too! But it sounds interesting and looks lovely! Bravo, my friend!
Thank you so much Rebecca! I’ve been eating way too many cakes lately, so had to make a savoury one for change :)
This is such a delicious recipe and the perfect balance of flavours! Very fresh and moreish. Thank you dear Hana! Txx
Thank you so much for your wonderful comment Teresa! I’m so happy you loved this cake as much as me:) Hxx
Hi Hana
Me again (sorry!) Just wanted to know if there is a possible substitute for cashews as I am allergic to them, but I’m ok with other nuts. Thanks for your advice.
Hi Olivia, you could try using macadamias, the texture is the most similar to the cashews, but I haven’t tried yet. Hope this helps:) Best, H
Hi Hana How many do you think this will serve. I have aweekend away with the girls and would like to make it for our dinner. There are 4 of us on dinner that night and we have 10 to serve. Do you think I should make 1 and 1/2 of the recipe?
Thanks
Daryl
Hi Daryl, this size should make 8 good size slices and would be enough for 4 people. But if it’s going to be more of you, then probably better to make 1 1/2 quantity. It’s a rich cake, so slice or two is more than enough per serving. Hope everyone enjoys it:) x
hello , hope i’m not too late in posting here. your savoury cheesecake looks incredible! i would love to try making it, but i cannot have nuts. i wonder, so long as i kept the viscosity/thickness of the cheese mixture close to that your recipe, could it be possible for me to use butter beans in place of the cashews? or would that sub not work well with the freezing aspect? i also suppose it might not be as creamy.
so happy i chanced upon your blog, it’s a delight for my senses :-)
-M
Hi Michelle, I’m so happy you did, thank you! I think butter beans are great idea, if you omit the water you should be fine. You could also add 2tbsp of melted coconut oil, it would help keeping it more solid. But it should hold shape well semi-frozen. Hope it goes well :)