Chickpea Cheesecake
It is so amazing what you can do with a can of chickpeas. This recipe for example, cheesecake out of chickpeas, is going to turn out delicious! And it tastes just like real cheesecake! I know there is no cheese in it so it’s not actually cheesecake, it’s chickpea cake. Or chickpea cheesecake. But you wouldn’t know the difference. If you like this recipe be sure to check out this one too! and this one!
Crust
We are going to start with the crust, I’m using Nabisco Grahams. I take out two envelopes of grahams and I also preheat the oven for 350ºf. Now I add one envelope of grahams to the blender at a time. I need to melt a stick of vegan butter so I toss that into the microwave now. Then I add the blended graham cracker to the melted butter. Next I add the other graham crackers to the blender but put two crackers off to the side. The first grahams I pulsed and left some chunks, these ones I turned to a powder. Add that to the melted butter as well, and mix. I have a nine inch springform pan and I’m going to line it with some parchment paper.
Cheese
I add in some of my crust and give it a solid press on the bottom, then build up the sides. I put that crust into the freezer so it firms up. Part of making the chickpea cheese is cashews so I add about two cups of cashews to a saucepan and cover them with water and a pinch of salt. Get the water boiling and let it boil for about fifteen minutes.
In the meantime I drain my chickpeas then add them to the blender along with a tablespoon and a half of vanilla extract, one can of full fat unsweetened coconut milk, about a half cup of maple syrup, and two tablespoons of almond butter. Blend this until incredibly smooth. Once we are close to the correct texture I grate in two lemons and a big pinch of kosher salt, blend. If you don’t want to use lemon you could use lime, different vinegars, citric acid, lactic acid, whatever you prefer!
Baking
At this point our cashews are boiled down. I strain the cashews then dump them right into the cheesecake mixture. And now blend that until it is smooth. After that has blended add in three tablespoons of cornstarch, quickly blend it together. And quickly pour the cheesecake mixture into the crust. Now I crush up one of the crackers we saved from earlier and sprinkle it over top. Carefully add this to the oven and bake it for about forty five minutes. After about forty minutes it is browning a little and looks great so I take it out. The sides got a pinch darker than I wanted so maybe thirty eight minutes. I toss this in the fridge overnight!
Topping
The next day I make a really quick strawberry and clementine topping. I have a saucepan here and the first thing I’m going to do is chop the clementines in half and give them a squeeze into the saucepan but through a strainer. For the strawberries all I’m going to do is chop off the tops, then quarter them and add them to the saucepan. I also want to add a quarter of a teaspoon of vanilla extract and about a quarter cup of maple syrup.
Now we just need to throw this onto the stove, bring it up to a boil, and continue stirring until the strawberries kind of break down. Once it breaks down and everything thickens up you get a really nice syrup out of it. Then I pour it into a glass container, let it cool down, add just a little pinch of salt and give it a stir.
Taste Test
This looks, tastes, and smells like cheesecake! There’s no question! You’d never know it wasn’t really a cheesecake. It’s smooth, rich, it melts in your mouth. This is just like restaurant New York style cheesecake! There’s no chickpea taste, no nut taste. It just tastes like a really good cheesecake! You need to try making this chickpea cheesecake for your family and friends. Watch the full video here!
One Can Of Chickpeas Will Change How You Think About Cheesecake
Ingredients
- 2 envelopes graham crackers
- 1 stick vegan butter
- 2 cups cashews
- 1 can chickpeas
- 1.5 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 can full fat unsweetened coconut milk
- 1 cup maple syrup
- 2 tbsp almond butter
- 2 lemons
- kosher salt
- 3 tbsp cornstarch
- few strawberries
- 2 clementines
Instructions
- Add one whole envelope of crackers into the blender and pulse.
- Melt a stick of vegan butter.
- Preheat the oven to 350ºf.
- Add blended crackers to melted butter. Blend the rest of the crackers (except one or two set to the side) into a powder then add that to the butter as well and mix.
- I have a 9 inch springform pan and I line it with parchment paper. Add in the crust and press it down then build it up on the sides. Put it in the freezer to firm.
- Add cashews to saucepan along with water and salt. Get the water boiling and let boil for 15 minutes.
- Drain the chickpeas and add them to the blender along with vanilla extract, coconut milk, maple syrup, and almond butter, blend until smooth.
- Grate in lemons, add kosher salt and blend again.
- Add cashews to mixture and blend until smooth again. Add in cornstarch and blend again. Pour this into the crust. Crush up one of the saved crackers from earlier and sprinkle over top.
- Put it in the oven and bake for about 38 minutes. When it is done put it in the fridge overnight!
- For my topping I chop clementines in half and squeeze them into saucepan then add chopped strawberries, vanilla extract, and maple syrup.
- Put it on the stove, bring it to a boil, and stir until strawberries break down. Pour into glass container and let it cool.