The other day I was looking for a savoury 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 savoury 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 flavour 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 centre, so you can easily remove it from the tin. It’s lovely served with some fresh green salad.
- Crust:
- 120g sunflower seeds (1 cup)
- 30g flaxseed (1/4 cup)
- 85g sundried tomatoes (1 cup)
- ½tsp oregano
- ¼tsp 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
- ½tsp sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 100g baby spinach (2 cups)
- fresh basil, small bunch
- 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!
Rebecca @ Strength and Sunshine says
April 15, 2016 at 10:02 pmWow, yes! The first savory cheesecake I’ve seen too! But it sounds interesting and looks lovely! Bravo, my friend!
Hana says
April 15, 2016 at 10:17 pmThank you so much Rebecca! I’ve been eating way too many cakes lately, so had to make a savoury one for change :)
Teresa says
April 16, 2016 at 9:38 pmThis is such a delicious recipe and the perfect balance of flavours! Very fresh and moreish. Thank you dear Hana! Txx
Hana says
April 17, 2016 at 4:50 pmThank you so much for your wonderful comment Teresa! I’m so happy you loved this cake as much as me:) Hxx
Olivia says
July 17, 2016 at 2:12 pmHi 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.
Hana says
July 17, 2016 at 5:39 pmHi 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
Daryl says
October 11, 2016 at 7:04 amHi 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
Hana says
October 11, 2016 at 9:00 amHi 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
michelle says
May 9, 2017 at 11:26 pmhello , 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
Hana says
May 12, 2017 at 8:58 pmHi 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 :)