This healthy Greek yogurt cheesecake recipe is luxuriously smooth, easy to prepare, and surprisingly good for you!
High protein cheesecake recipe
With a thick and creamy custard texture, this high protein Greek yogurt cheesecake is nutritious and filling, no cream cheese required!
Pour it into any store bought or homemade crust, or serve it in bowls as fancy cheesecake mousse.
A soft and delicious homemade cheesecake that just so happens to be healthy at the same time? It’s like a dessert dream come true.
Also try these Black Bean Brownies
Cheesecake is for sure my favorite non chocolate dessert.
I could happily eat cheesecake for days on end and still want more.
It’s like that scene from Friends where they accidentally drop an entire cheesecake on the floor and then continue to eat it…
I would totally be that girl.
Healthy Greek yogurt cheesecake ingredients
To make the recipe, you will need Greek yogurt (dairy free if desired), lemon juice, a pinch of salt, sweetener of choice, cornstarch or arrowroot (or almond flour), either cream cheese or silken tofu, and pure vanilla extract.
I normally use pure maple syrup, but any all purpose granulated or liquid sweetener is fine, including regular sugar, coconut sugar, honey, agave, or granulated erythritol or xylitol for a sugar free cheesecake. If using powdered sugar, increase the amount to equal the sweetness of granulated sugar.
For a vegan yogurt cheesecake, either vegan Greek yogurt or nondairy coconut yogurt work well in the recipe. To keep it plant based, use tofu or vegan cream cheese.
You can use vanilla yogurt if you wish. Simply omit the vanilla extract. Or change the recipe flavor by choosing strawberry banana, pineapple, French vanilla, peach, or any other flavor yogurt you wish.
Turn it into a low carb and keto Greek yogurt cheesecake by substituting two tablespoons of almond flour for the one tablespoon of cornstarch.
For the tofu version without cream cheese, I like silken firm tofu (look for shelf stable Mori Nu). If this is not available, refrigerated soft tofu will also work.
The cheesecake can be gluten free, oil free, low carb, low calorie, and vegan.
Use leftover yogurt to make Healthy Banana Bread
How to make Greek yogurt cheesecake
Gather all ingredients, and prepare your optional crust of choice.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Combine all cheese pie ingredients in a blender or food processor until completely smooth.
Either enjoy as mousse, or pour the filling into the prepared cheesecake crust.
Bake on the center rack of the oven for 50 minutes. Remove from the oven when it is still soft and under baked. Allow the cake to cool for about an hour.
Transfer the cheesecake to the refrigerator and let it chill, uncovered, for six to eight hours, during which time it will firm up considerably.
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to four days. Or slice and freeze leftovers in a covered container for up to three months.
Above, watch the Greek yogurt cheesecake recipe video
Greek yogurt cheesecake mousse
Since there are no eggs in the recipe, it’s fine to skip both the crust and baking steps if you prefer to save time and calories.
I mean, it’s basically cheesecake flavored yogurt, so why not???
Serve in bowls or glasses, topped with fresh strawberries and Homemade Nutella, raspberries, cherries, or blueberries and Coconut Whipped Cream.
Or eat the cheesecake filling straight from the blender with a spoon!
If you want to eat it for breakfast, you will get no judgement from me. This is mostly because I will be right there beside you, doing the same exact thing.
Crust options
If you do wish to bake the cheesecake and use a crust, feel free to use either a store bought graham cracker crust or a homemade crust.
Graham Cracker Crust: Stir 2 cups of graham cracker crumbs with 6 tablespoons of butter or plant based butter (softened but not melted) and 2 tablespoons sugar of choice in a bowl. Press very firmly into a 9 inch pie pan or a springform pan. Refrigerate for at least an hour before adding filling. No need to bake.
Keto Almond Flour Crust: Stir 2 cups of almond or pecan flour with 1/4 teaspoon of salt, and 6 tablespoons of melted coconut oil or butter. Press down very firmly into a 9 inch springform or pie pan. Refrigerate for at least an hour before filling.
Traditional Crust: In a large bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups of flour (regular flour or whole wheat pastry both work), 1 teaspoon of salt, 1/3 cup of sugar or xylitol, 1/2 cup of oil or melted butter, and 2-4 tablespoons of water so it sticks together but isn’t gummy. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Press into a 9 inch pie pan. Put in the oven and immediately increase the temperature to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake for 15 minutes. Let cool, then press down. Once cooled, the crust is ready to fill.
Greek Yogurt Cheesecake
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups Greek yogurt, vegan if desired
- 1/2 cup cream cheese, or soft or firm tofu
- 1/4 tsp salt, just over level
- 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup or agave (or 2/3 cup sugar or xylitol)
- 1 tbsp cornstarch or arrowroot
- crust of choice (or use the crust recipe written out above in this post)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine all ingredients until completely smooth – I highly recommend using a blender or food processor for smoothest results. Pour into any prepared crust. Bake 50 minutes, then remove from the oven. It should still look underdone. Allow to cool for an hour before moving the cake, uncovered, to the refrigerator to set for at least 8 hours, during which time it will magically firm up and become more flavorful.View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
More healthy cheesecake recipes
Sopapilla Cheesecake Bars (reader favorite)
I just made this for dinner tonight. I don’t use a lot of tofu, so I was unsure of what to buy, so I guess I used regular tofu. It was a bit too firm and it cooked faster, but it was still so very yummy. I cut up strawberries to go with it. Thank you so much! You have opened my eyes on healthy desserts. Every recipe I have tried of your has turned out even when a do a bit of substituting. You are amazing!
Katie,
I have been following your website for about 2 years now and I LOVE it! Pretty much every dessert I make comes from your blog…and my entire family has loved every single one of them! I was planning on making a pumpkin cheesecake for Thanksgiving dinner this year…and incorporating pumpking into this greek yogurt cheesecake came to mind. I found a copy cat recipe for The Cheesecake Factory’s recipe…but it’s not exactly something I would eat and therefore wind up with tons of leftovers. If I want to make this cheesecake recipe for dessert…how would I go about doing that??? Thanks!!!
I have “pumpkin cheesecake” on my list of things to try, but I don’t think I’ll get around to it until next year :-?.
Katie, this is seriously amazing. We used Gluten free graham crackers for crust. FANTASTIC!!!! Thanks
I can’t wait to buy your cookbook 🙂
Hello Katie!
I made the greek yogurt last night and was so happy with the thickness of it this morning. I made my morning Bob’s High Fiber Hot Cereal (oats, flax, chia, etc.) with the whey liquid and it was delicious! The yogurt I used was Trader Joe’s Vanilla Soy so the liquid was sweet and vanilla-y. Thank you so much for this idea. Did you make it up or did you find it somewhere?
Best Health,
Nicole
I have a cheesecake recipe that uses Tofutti cream cheese, but I know that when I post it people will immediately want to know what can be subbed for the Tofutti… so I thought I’d give this a try and see if it’d work as a substitute. According to wikipedia, Greek yogurt has simply been strained, and I’d heard of making “thicker” yogurt by straining overnight for frozen yogurt, which gave me the idea to try it out here.
I’ve tried making some of your milkshakes with refrigerated tofu before, since it was all I could find, but apparently my brand of tofu left a very strong aftertaste. Since then, I’ve been wary of tofu. Could you perhaps use Tofutti cream cheese instead of tofu? It would be a brilliant alternative.
I loved this idea but I wanted to try a making a no-bake cheesecake to preserve the healthy probiotics in the Greek yogurt. I made your recipe but substituted a package of light cream cheese for the tofu. (I wanted to try to make it with tofu but I couldn’t find the kind you mentioned.) I made a gluten free crust using equal parts cinnamon Chex and gluten free ginger snap cookies with a little melted butter and milk. I placed the pie in the freezer for about an hour to firm it up before moving to the fridge.
Let me say- it was divine! I have already made two of them. With the first one I used maple syrup for the liquid sweetener and I liked the flavor better than when I used half maple syrup and half agave.
The texture is more like pudding than a firm cheesecake but the taste was incredible! I tried topping it with sliced bananas and it tasted like banana cream pie but healthier.
I love love love your blog, Katie! I am addicted to sweets and chocolate but I much prefer a healthier tasting, less sweet dessert over the traditional. I will continue coming to your blog for for dessert inspiration!
You do realize that heat kills bacteria and renders probiotics useless, right?
You do realize I said I made a no bake version in my post. I said I firmed the cheesecake in the freezer before refrigerating it. ???
Question about the yogurt. If making your own, why do you have to strain 24oz if you are only using 12oz in the recipe? Can you please clarify this for me? I am planning to make this but want to be sure to get it right.
You’re only using 12oz of the thickened stuff. You lose some of the bulk as it drains.
I tried this and it was so amazing I had to blog about it!
Katie, I tried your homemade Greek yogurt trick using So Delicious coconut yogurt. I put it in a sieve lined with a coffee filter for close to 24 hours. A decent amount of water drained off and it did thicken a little bit, but it was NOT super thick like regular dairy Greek yogurt. It was more like pudding. Is this expected? Or did something go wrong? TIA!
It should definitely get thick.
Try Wholesoy if you can. I haven’t tried it with SoDelicious, but I know Wholesoy and Silk work.
How about making tsaziki with your leftover yogurt. It makes a great dip for raw veggies.