Easy Vegan Chocolate Cheesecake {Gluten Free}

This no bake vegan chocolate cheesecake is completely gluten free and refined sugar free, but just as decadent and custard-like as a traditional cheesecake!

I’m quite obsessed with this raw vegan chocolate cheesecake, mainly because it looks fancy and sophisticated, but it really takes little effort at all! Oh, and it’s absolutely delicious and sweet, just like your traditional custard cheesecake!

It always amazed me when I would scroll through Instagram, seeing one magnificent and elegant raw vegan cheesecake after the other, and they all looked absolutely incredible.

Well, if you never try, then you can’t learn! So I decided to try my hand at making a healthy chocolate cheesecake 🙂 It’s completely gluten free and refined sugar free! Plus it’s actually double chocolate- both the crust and the filling are, you guessed it, chocolate! Because who doesn’t love chocolate!? Okay, so I actually have one friend that’s allergic to chocolate, so that might not work for them! But the rest of you, you like chocolate, right?

To my surprise, this vegan chocolate cheesecake turned out easier than expected! All you really need to do for a raw vegan cheesecake is blend all of the ingredients together and then freeze it!

I’m actually not a huge fan of regular cheesecake. The reason being, I think it’s way too tangy! You can never control the sour-ness of the cream cheese and the sour cream together, so you basically get what you get with a regular cheesecake!

I firmly believe that dessert needs to be first and foremost sweet. So that’s what I decided to do! I controlled the tanginess of this vegan chocolate cheesecake with a secret ingredient 😉

Okay, so it’s not so secret. In fact, I’m pretty sure most people use it when making their raw vegan cheesecake. But I thought it was pretty cool at first! But let’s just get to what you’ll be needing for this vegan chocolate cheesecake!

Ingredients for a healthy chocolate cheesecake:

Let’s start with the crust, shall we? So I needed a crust that could work in order to consider this a raw vegan cheesecake. And, because I’m me, I wanted to add a twist to it, so I made it gluten-free. It’s actually a little different than my blueberry cheesecake crust that I made last summer (still need to update that recipe, so mind the ugliness of the formatting, but the recipe is there!).

Date + Oat Flour Crust! I first soaked the dates for about 4 hours prior (just woke up in the morning, and it was one of the first things I did!) so that they would be soft enough to puree and so that the pits would come out easily (cheaper to buy the non-pitted dates haha!). Then I actually made my own oat flour with these organic sprouted oats (already had oats on hand so why waste buying another product?!).

Cacao Powder: You’ll need this for both the crust and the filling of this vegan chocolate cheesecake! I always say go for quality on the cacao powder because it will reflect in the taste and nutrients, so skip the Hershey’s (sorry, Hershey’s, I do love you) and go for some cacao!

Maple Syrup: my handy-dandy refined sugar free sweetener that reminds me of childhood (raise your hand if you were one of the kids who ate those maple syrup hard candies! Nope, just me? Alright, hands down).

So those are the main ingredients for the crust. But what about the filling of this healthy chocolate cheesecake!? Glad you asked 😉

Cacao Powder: well duh! It’s a chocolate cheesecake after all!

Cashews: okay so I debated about adding cashews to the filling because my blueberry cheesecake came out so well with just coconut milk. But I decided, it could have been a little thicker and more custard-like. Which is why I decided to go for the cashews! You’ll need to soak the cashews for about 3-4 hours at least prior to pureeing them (so start soaking them along with the dates!). This is basically the key to making this vegan chocolate cheesecake so thick and custard-like.

Coconut Milk: Please do not buy light coconut milk to save calories here! You’re having cheesecake after all, just let it be cheesecake! But also, the cheesecake won’t come out as thick and custard like because there’s not enough coconut cream. So please go with the full-fat coconut milk to get the consistency right! No one wants a watered-down cheesecake! That’s just no fun!

And now for the secret ingredient…

Lemon! Yes, citrus! But only a little!! I know a few people ask for a full lemon in their raw vegan cheesecake recipes, but I say, stick with half. If you want a little extra tanginess, go for 3/4 (just don’t squeeze the lemon fully and save it for some lemon water! It’s my go-to every morning!). I think that’s just about enough. But if you want a full on tangy raw vegan cheesecake, by all means, just give it the full lemon! I know for some people, that floats your boat! I’m not trying to stop you!

Only here for the recommendations 🙂

Alright, awesome, so we went over the ingredients, we talked about what not to do (aka swap in light coconut milk…I don’t want to read any comments saying I used light coconut milk and it went wrong now!! Just kidding, you’re allowed to do whatever you want, and who knows, maybe it’ll work for you!).

But let’s go over the process to get this healthy chocolate cheesecake to the finish line!

How to make this vegan chocolate cheesecake:

Get ready to break out my absolute favorite kitchen machine. The food processor. I am quite literally in love with mine. Use it multiple times a week. It’s my favorite.

So basically, what makes this healthy chocolate cheesecake so easy is that there’s no mixing on your part. Only pressing the puree button and pouring it into the cake pan!

I highly recommend lining your cake pan (that has removable sides- SO KEY HERE!) with a little coconut oil and parchment paper. This will help you get the cheesecake out a lot easier!

With the crust, you basically puree all of the ingredients together until it’s a thick batter, then press the dough into the cake pan bottom evenly. Next, puree all of the cheesecake filling together and pour on top of the batter.

Then we freeze it for about 3 hours, to make sure it sets properly! When you take it out of the freezer, just allow it to dethaw a bit, say 15 minutes or so, before slicing.

Easy peezy, right? Lemon squeezey! Okay, I had to because there’s lemon in this vegan chocolate cheesecake haha! It’s so good served with some coconut cream on top or a scoop of ice cream! Shave some extra chocolate on top for an elegant touch, and you could bring this to any dinner party or get-together and wow the crowd!

I hope you love it as much as I do!

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