As promised… here’s my all-time favorite raw cheesecake recipe!
–
For the Crust:
If you’d like a traditional cheesecake with a crust, prepare my graham cracker crust (<– recipe here) first.
Press the crust into the bottom of a greased 4″ springform pan, then place in the freezer to set until the cheesecake filling is ready.
–
For the Filling:
Start making the cheesecake filling by peeling and chopping up 1/2 a cup of fresh zucchini.
Process the zucchini in a mini-food processor, until very finely chopped.
To the chopped zucchini, add 2 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, 2 1/2 tablespoons raw honey, 2 dates, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract and 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt, and blend until smooth.
Finally, add 1/2 a cup of raw cashew butter to the mixture, and blend until smooth and well combined.
Assemble your cheesecake by pouring the batter on top of your prepared graham cracker crust
(You will probably have a little bit of cheesecake batter leftover–> I like to freeze this in a separate container and enjoy it on its own!)
Smooth the top with a spatula, and freeze overnight to set.
The next day, your cheesecake should be ready to devour!
Remove from the spring-form pan, slice and serve!
Straight from the freezer, this cheesecake is the PERFECT consistency, incredibly similar to the REAL thing!
(Make sure you serve it directly from the freezer, as it can get soft quickly at room temperature, and will go back to a more “pudding-like” consistency if left out too long.)
- ½ cup zucchini, peeled and chopped
- ½ cup raw cashew butter
- 2½ Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 2½ Tablespoons raw honey (or agave nectar, for vegans)
- 2 dates
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- In a mini food processor, blend zucchini until finely processed.
- Add the lemon juice, raw honey, dates, vanilla, and sea salt, and blend until smooth.
- Finally, add in the cashew butter and blend until well combined.
- Pour into a spring-form pan, over a raw graham cracker crust if desired, and FREEZE OVERNIGHT until set.
- Serve frozen for an authentic cheesecake texture.
–
This stuff doesn’t last long around my house–> so I highly recommend doubling the recipe if you have lots of cheesecake-lovers around!
Hope you all enjoy!!
Thank you!!!!
(And frankly, I think cheesecake pudding sounds just delicious as well…not that I think it will last long enough from freezer to mouth to get there.)
thank you SO much for this recipe! It’s so simple.
I hope to make it in the near future to try it out.
oh yum! This recipe looks delicious. Thanks for sharing it.
That sounds amazing! Thank you so much for the recipe.
Zucchini in cheesecake?! Thanks certainly different…can you taste the zucchini?
Thanks,
Erika
I just made it and no, you can’t taste the zucchini at all!
[...] Let Them Eat Cheesecake! [...]
[...] Let Them Eat Cheesecake! [...]
amazing! i am so impressed…
Wow this looks so good! And I have a few zucchinis, this is so tempting to try.
What a beautiful, creative recipe, and I love your cute plates! Thanks for posting
[...] Let Them Eat Cheesecake! [...]
[...] Let Them Eat Cheesecake! [...]
This looks AMAZING! Andy and I tried raw cheesecake at the Foodbuzz Festival last year and have been wanting to try it again since. I never would have imagined that zucchini would be good in it. I need to try this.
You must be kidding me. That’s the healthiest cheesecake i’ve ever seen
and it looks the best! thanks for the recipe 
i’m definitely going to have to make this soon!
[...] always served crust-less Pumpkin Pie, so that’s what I’m used to! But feel free to use the crust recipe from my traditional Raw Cheezecake recipe if you like! It would be a VERY tasty [...]
[...] always served crust-less Pumpkin Pie, so that’s what I’m used to! But feel free to use the crust recipe from my traditional Raw Cheezecake recipe if you like! It would be a VERY tasty [...]
[...] there have been quite a lot of raw, nut-centric treats in my life lately. Namely, in the form of Raw Almond Butter Cups, Raw Brownie Batter, Raw Cheesecake, and Banana [...]
[...] there have been quite a lot of raw, nut-centric treats in my life lately. Namely, in the form of Raw Almond Butter Cups, Raw Brownie Batter, Raw Cheesecake, and Banana [...]
Can you use stevia instead of honey? will it affect texture?
Using stevia might affect the texture AND flavor, but it’s definitely worth a shot! If the cheesecake doesn’t hold together for you when using the stevia, you could add a couple tablespoons of coconut oil to the mix– which would help it solidify in the freezer.
Let me know if you try it!!
Aaaah, this looks so good! I can’t believe it has zucchini in it, what a great idea! I am bookmarking this, because I have to try it, it’s hard to find non dairy cheesecake recipes that don’t involve soy!
This is a MUST HAVE TRY!! Thanks for sharing!
Check out my new blog if you have time
http://www.pureglowsixteen.blogspot.com
Thanks!
If I don’t have cashew butter, can I try another butter??? Sun butter? Almond butter?
I finally got around to trying this recipe and I am SO impressed! I had to make some substitutions based on what I had on hand: walnuts added to the crust since I didn’t have enough pecans, a yellow squash instead of zucchini, and almond butter instead of cashew butter for the filling. But I am floored by how delicious and healthful this is! I even came up with a fun idea for how to use the rest of the pie crust, and I’ve posted the recipe on my blog here:
http://salubriousnoms.blogspot.com/2011/07/getting-your-dessert-on-raw-reverse.html
Thanks, as always, for your wonderful ideas and inspiration!
So glad you enjoyed it!! Good to know that the almond butter worked as a substitute, too!
I’m in love with your recipes! This cheesecake looks so yummy. Thank you!
I love that this cheesecake doesn’t have a bunch of oil in it! i will be trying this out! Thank you for the recipe!
I just tried this recipe and was amazed and delighted at how much it tasted like “regular” cheesecake, made with cream cheese. I used agave instead of honey and added nutmeg to the crust, but otherwise followed the recipe and it really came out great! I am on day 4 of a 21-day cleanse and am really excited by all of the recipes on your website. Thanks so much!
how many servings does this make? and has anyone tried substituting something like avocado, pumpkin, or mashed banana for the nut butter? I don’t have any nut butters at the moment…
Had this last night with a glass of your homemade coconut milk and it was amazing! I’ve given up a lot of foods in the last couple of weeks and with things like this I don’t even feel deprived at all. Thanks so much for your recipes!
Would cucumber work for this recipe? I’m not quite familiar with the texture of zucchini so I dont know how substituting with cucumber would effect it. Unfortunately we currently have no zucchini.
Thanks!
Cucumber is more watery, and may alter the flavor a bit, so you’d have to experiment with that. If yellow squash are available, that would work as a zucchini substitute, too!
I am really really these recipes, I’m on a candida cleanse diet right now and its becoming tons easier to follow as i try these recipes and look at other vegan/ sugar/ gluten free blogs… thanks a ton!!
really really liking*
I’ve also realized the longer i dont consume candida irritating foods, the less I crave the stuff! This is great! I had a cucumber with cayenne and salt/ plain yogurt for breckfast and unsweetend almond butter as a snack and I am completely satisfied! I am not even hungry for lunch! I think I’ll do a green smoothie later!
I used a little more zucchini than called for and filled 20 cups in a mini muffin tin. I also put a rounded 1/2tsp of your graham cracker crust in the middle of each. Using My Fitness Pal I came up with 75 calories for each. I used stevia and 1 Tbsp coconut oil in place of honey. I am so looking forward to these.
YUM!!! I hope they taste as delicious as they sound.
I just made this and it looked nothing like yours. Mine was light brown, not white. I’m not sure how it’s supposed to be white since the butter is brown and so is the vanilla. Am I doing something wrong?
Hmmm… the vanilla may affect the color slightly, but the cheesecake should primarily turn out the color of the cashews– which is an off-white color. (You can see in my pictures that my cheesecake isn’t pure white, in comparison to the bright white dots on the plate.)
Did you use raw or roasted cashews? I believe raw cashews are lighter in color, so that would make a difference in both the color and flavor. Otherwise, I have no idea! I hope it tastes good, regardless.
Thanks for your reply. I bought the cashew butter at my local bulk barn. I’ll have to try it again and make my own butter with raw cashews. The stuff I bought looked very strangely like almond butter which is darker.
The good news is, I decided to throw in some cocoa to make a chocolate cheesecake. Not bad for my first attempt! My 7 year old loves it! Of course he’s more on board for raw eating than the rest of the family. Gotta start them young!
[...] Who knew that you could make a raw cheesecake with zucchini?! I did not, until I found this post. I now have a lovely dairy free dessert with nutritional value that actually satisfies my [...]
I made a similar pumpkin cheesecake using cashew butter & pumpkin recently. You can also do a great crust out of almonds, coconut & dates.
I made a raw pumpkin cheesecake a couple years ago, and it was delicious! Might need to pull it out again this fall.
Found this via pinterest and made it yesterday. We ate it tonight and it is deeelish! Love the ingredients, amazing. Makes sense that zuchinni takes on the other tastes around it, since it doesn’t have a strong taste on its own.
I definitely taste the lemon, so for those who aren’t big on lemon flavor, they may want to decrease the amount.
What can you sub if allergic to tree nuts? I can do coconut, sunbutter, and peanuts but not any tree nuts. Would those take ok?
Sunflower butter might work, though I haven’t tried it myself. Any changes will definitely result in a different flavor, but I’m sure with a little experimentation, it will still be tasty!
Hi, there wasn’t any info under the “for the crust” section. Is my computer glitching?
There’s a link to the crust recipe above, because my “print this recipe” settings won’t let me post 2 recipes in the same post.
You can find the recipe for the crust here: http://detoxinista.com/2010/07/friday-night-splurging/
Meg!!! I am so glad I found you!
And this recipe…It plays with my imagination and very soon I’ll make it!
Actually I am very keen on cooking and experimenting, but zucchini in a cheesecake wouldn’t come to my mind!
Thanks!
I’ll keep you under eye
Hi! I have been dying to try this recipe but have 2 questions
1. Can squash zucinni replace zucinni? I did not find a zucinni in Publix last weekend
2. Where do I find raw cashew butter ?
Thanks!
hi, can i substitute cashew butter with anything else? such as a banana or something? thank you!!
The cashew butter is pretty key in the flavor and texture of this recipe. You could use another nut butter, or coconut butter, for a similar texture, but the flavor will not be the same. I don’t think a banana would work.
I also have a nut-free avocado cheesecake recipe to post in the near future, so stay tuned!
Doubling the recipe? Are you nuts? I have made this 3 times and quadruple the recipe b/c it is so amazingly delicious and gets eaten so fast. This recipe goes in a special file labeled “heavenly”, and Inormally don’t even like regular cheesecake that much. This is way better, seriously.
Another AMAZING recipe from the Detoxinista. Thank you SO MUCH Megan for the recipes. I am seriously converting my family to a healthier way of eating thanks to your blog.
I doubled the crust and the filling recipes for a 9″ springform pan. It’s in the freezer right now…setting up for a gluten-free Thanksgiving.
Thank you for another great recipe! Do the dates play a big role in taste?
They don’t add a specific flavor, but they do add sweetness and an extra helping of fiber and nutrients. You can replace with extra honey, if you prefer.
Thank you! I got medjool dates and made this delicious cheesecake this weekend!! It is incredible and almost gone! Only one slice left! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!
This looks so good. Too bad I am allergic to zucchini and cashews. This is still really ingenious. Thank you for sharing!
Megan, help please! I love your website and make many of your recipes. I was so excited to make this, but it did not turn out anything like yours! I followed the recipe exactly. Instead of looking delectable like the pictures, the filling turned out super thick, sticky and dark in color. More like a fudge texture, nothing like a fluffy cheesecake! Not sure what went wrong. Should I have soaked the cashews before making it into butter? Maybe it was the raw honey I used, the texture was thick and dark in color. I am determined to make this again, the right way!! Any suggestions would be great. Thank you!!
P.S. Although the texture didn’t turn out right, it still was super delicious and I ended up cutting it into squares and eating it like raw fudge!!
The honey could definitely affect the color, and maybe it added to the thickness, too? I would try using a lighter raw honey, or maybe try adding some extra zucchini, which helps thin the batter. This raw version doesn’t get quite as “fluffy” as traditional cheesecake, but the batter should be runny enough to pour out of the blender easily.
I don’t care for the texture of soaked cashews, so I don’t recommend doing that, unless you’re going to dry them before blending. It ruined a cheesecake for me once!
Does any one know of anything that could be substituted for the cashew butter? Possibly soy butter or something to that effect due to a nut allergy…
Please review the comments above. I’ve never tried anything of the substitutes, so you’ll have to experiment and let us know if you have any success!
OMG! I made these (left out the honey and made my own cashew butter) right before my Whole30 (it ended up being a Whole34) and I completely forgot about them in the freezer. I found them last week and GOODNESS ME are they ever good! Literally *just* like cheesecake but without all the creepies!
[...] without affecting the flavor. Now, I can’t imagine making a cheesecake without it. My classic raw cheesecake, also made with zucchini, fools even the pickiest of [...]
Incredible!!! I made this for a super bowl party and people raved about it!! They couldn’t believe there was zucchini in it.
Looks sooo great!! You can´t buy cashewbutter in germany, do you have a receipe for it to make?
If you grind 1 cup of cashews in a food processor or blender, it will make 1/2 cup of cashew butter. You can see my directions for making your own nut butters here: http://detoxinista.com/2012/09/how-to-make-homemade-almond-butter/
Just wondering where you find a 4 inch springform pan? I’ve never seen one so small. These look really good and I’ll have to try them soon. Might just use the mini muffin cups like they did in a comment above.
I picked it up at a Home Goods store a few years ago! I used to have to make my raw desserts pretty small, because no one would dare try them– now, they all know better and I almost never use my small pan anymore.
You can double or triple the recipe to fill up a full-size pan, if you prefer.
I can’t wait to try this! YUM! Sounds like a great recipe and I have everything on hand. I haven’t had cheesecake in years, so this will be a real treat! Thanks so much for sharing! And great blog too!
Hi there,
Happy to have discovered your website, just amazing! Thank you”
Your raw cheesecake, we don’t have, oh oops I didn’t read all the recipe! I have just answered my own question.
We don’t have graham cracker, ( biscuits) I take it? Are they are savoury biscuits?
Big love from Rosie
I don’t use real graham crackers for my raw cheesecake, this is the recipe I use instead: http://detoxinista.com/2010/07/friday-night-splurging/
This looks amazing! Can’t wait to try…. I do not have a spring-form pan… do you have another suggestion?
Thanks
I would just line a normal pan with plastic wrap, so it’s easy to remove when it’s set.
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Hi,
Looking for a dairy-free take on the (Japanese) Rare Cheesecake I came across this recipe. I’m really interested in trying this, but before I do I’m curious about your thought process: How did you came to include zucchini? I’m a lifelong foodie and this would just never have occurred to me.
Great site, btw.
Cheers,
Steven
I’m always looking for ways to sneak veggies into my recipes, so the zucchini addition made sense to me– it adds moisture and texture, without altering the flavor! I can’t imagine making this cheesecake without it now.
Megan, if we would like to double this with an 8 inch spring form pan, we should make everything else doubled right?
THANK YOOOOU,
I became lactose -intolerant around 2 years ago and have been missing cheesecake ever since!! This was the perfect recipie and I will deffinitly be making more of them! THANK YOU
Katie
I made this a couple of times. First time I used almond butter instead of cashew butter. This was also very good! This last time I used the actual cashew butter. The first one came out a lot darker. It looked like it was a coffee cheesecake. This one looks more like the one on the picture:
I could not find a 4″ pan, so I used a 6″ pan and doubled the ingredients. Everyone loved it. Thanks for sharing the recipe with us!
Payday is looking better and better. My shopping list is going to be pretty fun looking for the ingredients to so many of your recipes!!Since finding your blog tonight the hardest thing you ask?? Putting the laptop down & going to sleep!! LOL This looks amazing & I seriously can’t wait to try it. I may even offer to share with my family
Just thought I would share… you can totally skip the whole make your own cashew butter and just use cashews. I made it and substituted the cashew butter for a heaping 1/2cup raw cashews and put all the ingredients in the blender and blended until smooth – turned out great and super easy!! I skipped the crust and topped it with fresh berries.
Thanks for a yummy recipe. Oh and I used yellow squash!