Strawberry Lime Cheesecake Stacks

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The beautiful spring time brings with it a promise of warmer weather ahead, warmer weather and swim-suit ready bodies! Have a little sweet treat while maintaining your healthy eating plan with this raw, vegan, low sugar and paleo-friendly recipe by Joelle Amiot of jarOhoney! With raw food it’s the best of both (all) worlds.

Ingredients

NUT/SEED CHEESE

• 2/3 cup fully raw organic whole cashews
• 2/3 cup fully raw organic whole almonds
• 1/2 cup fully raw shelled whole organic sunflower seeds
• 2 cups filtered water
• 8 medium ripe organic limes
• 1 3/4 cup filtered water
• 3 layers of cheese cloth about 8 inches long
• large rubber band
• large twist tie
• chop sticks
• deep container to hang the cheese ball from (read further)

SOAKED DATES/SYRUP (prepare 1 day before constructing)

• 8 large organic un-sulphered sun dried Madjool dates
• 3/4 cup filtered water

NATURAL FOOD DYE (prepare 1 day before constructing)

• Inspired by “DYI Natural Food Coloring” by Eat Play Love More (click to check it out)
• 4 cups fine chopped organic baby spinach
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STRAWBERRY SAUCE (prepare 3 hours before constructing)

• 4 cups large chunked ripe organic strawberries
• 1/2 cup of water

CRUST (prepare when ready to construct)

• soaked dates (see above)
• 2 cups sun dried unsweetened organic mature coconut fine shredded
• 2 cups truly raw whole organic cashews

MIXING INGREDIENTS (prepare when constructing)

• 2 large ripe organic avocados, peel and pit
• 1 large ripe organic banana, peeled
• 1/2 cup of reserved date syrup (see above)
• 2 tablespoons of green natural food dye (see above)
• 2 medium ripe organic limes just the juice (reserve the zest for another recipe)

Instructions

NUT/SEED CHEESE

In a large bowl, soak the cashews, almonds and sunflower seed in the 2 cups of water for 24 hours. Drain well and place in a blender. Zest 3 of the limes into the blender and reserve the rest of the zest for another recipe. Juice all 8 limes into the blender and blend on high for 1 minute. Slowly add the 1 3/4 cup water to the blender while on high and blend until creamy and smooth. Open up and then layer your cheese cloth together on top of each other. Spoon in the cheese into the center. Gather the sides of your cheese cloth up to make a pouch over the cheese and twist tie the top that is gathered tightly to the cheese but do not squeeze. Place the chop sticks on either side of the gather at the twist tie and rubber band it together so you can hang it. Find a container to suspend the cheese ball from to allow it to drain. It needs to be at least 2 inches deeper that the cheese ball. Suspend it using the chop sticks as it’s support across the opening of your container. Hang for 48 hours, drain the container if need be. Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator up to 1 day. This is your nut/seed cheese.

SOAKED DATES/SYRUP

Halve and pit your dates. Cover the dates with the water in a small bowl for 24 hours. Reserve the dates and reserve the liquid (date syrup).

NATURAL FOOD DYE

Place on the solid tray of your dehydrator and dehydrate at 110 degrees F until crisp. Now Powder and place in a sealed container out of the sunlight or heat. It is ready to use in any recipe that you want to help turn GREEN!

STRAWBERRY SAUCE

In your blender, blend on high until smooth. Place on a solid tray in your dehydrator and dehydrate at 110 degrees F until 2/3 rds of the original amount and is slightly thick (about 3 hours). Stir often, this is your strawberry sauce.

CRUST

In your food processor, fine grind the coconut and cashews into a fine meal, place in a medium mixing bowl. Fold in the soaked dates and mix well, this is your crust mix.

MIXING INGREDIENTS

In a blender, place the NUT/SEED CHEESE in with the MIXING INGREDIENTS and blend until smooth, this is your cheese mix.

CONSTRUCTING INSTRUCTIONS

In a medium waxed paper lined metal pan (9 x 13) press the crust mix in the bottom evenly. Now pour the cheese mix on top of the crust and evenly smooth out. Cover and place flat in your freezer and freeze for at least 4 hours to set. Remove the pan from the freezer and trim the edges about 1/2 inch to make even. Now gently slice the set cheesecake into 24 even squares or use a small ring cutter to cut circles like I did. Use a cake spatula and remove each piece and place on a flat clean surface. Reserve any trimmings to snack on for later 🙂

Notes

A CHEF’S TIP: Be sure to pick RIPE organic fruit. When fruit is fully ripe, it has the best flavor. Also choose whole fully RAW nuts and seeds for the best quality of nut cheese. NOTE: this recipe has 6 elements to it (nut/seed cheese, soaked dates/syrup, natural food dye, strawberry sauce, crust, mixing ingredients) for ease of preparation I will list the ingredients by element in order of preparation and then at the end provide a master ingredient list for your shopping. DO NOT WORRY, this is actually simple, just keep reading 🙂

SERVING SUGGESTION: Gather 6 serving plates and 2/3 cup of coconut shreds. On each plate: start by swirling 1 tablespoon of strawberry sauce in a circle and make a dollop in the center, place 1 cheesecake piece (crust up) in the center. Top with 1 teaspoon of strawberry sauce and a few coconut sprinkles. Now top with a cheesecake piece (green side down). Now top with a small whole strawberry, sprinkle with coconut shreds and serve.

MASTER SHOPPING LIST

• 2 2/3 cup fully raw organic whole cashews
• 2/3 cup fully raw organic whole almonds
• 1/2 cup fully raw shelled whole organic sunflower seeds
• 10 medium ripe organic limes
• 8 large organic un-sulphered sun dried Madjool dates
• 4 cups fine chopped organic baby spinach
• 4 cups large chunked ripe organic strawberries
• 2 2/3 cups sun dried unsweetened organic mature coconut fine shredded
• 2 large ripe organic avocados
• 1 large ripe organic banana
• 12 small organic strawberries for garnish
• 3 layers of cheese cloth about 8 inches long
• large rubber band
• large twist tie
• chop sticks