Both vegans and non vegans love this delicious vegan cheesecake recipe, with just 6 ingredients and no tofu or cashews required!
The best vegan cheesecake
If you are searching for a plant based cheesecake recipe so good it can hold its own against any non vegan cheesecake, this is the one to try.
In the past six years, I’ve brought this cheesecake to dozens of events, and every single time it’s received glowing reviews and multiple requests for the recipe.
In fact, I have yet to serve it at any party where both vegan and non vegan guests have not raved about the cheesy flavor and opulent texture.
This classic vegan cheesecake is so rich and creamy, no one ever believes it isn’t full of heavy cream and dairy!
You may also like: Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
New York style vegan cheesecake recipe
As a long time vegan and huge cheesecake lover, I’ve tried way more than my fair share of truly bad dairy free cheesecakes.
So I know exactly what comes to mind when people think of vegan cheesecake: spongy or chalky texture, unpleasant artificial aftertaste, disappointingly non cheesy flavor, and a cardboard crust.
Having spent a considerably amount of time growing up in New York City, my standards are exorbitantly high for the perfect baked cheesecake.
Those same high standards were front and center when I set out to make a vegan version that tasted just as good as the original.
When creating the recipe, my goal was to make something that tasted so similar to classic New York cheesecake that, if you did not already know it was egg free and vegan, you would never be able to tell.
I went through a few iterations before arriving at perfection. Then it was time to test it out on a group of non vegans.
A friend’s potluck birthday brunch presented the ideal opportunity. I packaged the cheesecake up and quietly set it down with all of the other desserts, not mentioning to anyone that it was vegan.
My hope was that people would like it, but never in a million years did I expect the entire cheesecake to completely disappear within a half hour!
That’s when I knew for sure, this recipe was definitely a keeper.
Also try these party favorite Sopapilla Cheesecake Bars
Vegan cheesecake flavors
Use plant based lemon yogurt and add the zest of two lemons for lemon cheesecake.
Carefully stir in twelve crushed chocolate sandwich cookies after blending for OREO cookies and cream cheesecake.
Make a delicious holiday vegan pumpkin cheesecake by replacing half of the yogurt with canned pumpkin puree. Add two teaspoons of ground cinnamon and half a teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice.
Or substitute one cup of the yogurt for softened cookie butter. Top your cookie butter cheesecake with crushed Speculoos cookies or vegan caramel sauce.
For vegan chocolate cheesecake, increase the sugar to 3/4 cup and add 3/4 cup of cocoa powder. Omit the cornstarch, and bake Vegan Brownies instead of a crust.
And have fun decorating the cake with sliced strawberries, bananas, blueberries, Homemade Cherry Pie Filling, mini chocolate chips or Chocolate Truffles.
More Vegan Cheesecakes
Mint Chocolate Chip Cheesecake
Greek Yogurt Cheesecake (plant based)
Plant based cheesecake ingredients
The recipe gives you multiple options for dairy free cream cheese, yogurt, and sugar. Choose brands and ingredients that fit your own taste and dietary preferences.
Cream cheese – My favorite choices here are Tofutti or Trader Joe’s vegan cream cheese. Miyokos (soy free), or Kite Hill (soy and cashew free) also work.
If you are feeling adventurous, you can make homemade Vegan Cream Cheese with cashews or macadamia nuts instead.
Yogurt – Any nondairy yogurt is fine, including almondmilk, coconut milk, or soy yogurt. For extra protein, go with vegan Greek yogurt.
Or change up the flavor by replacing half of the yogurt with mashed banana, softened peanut butter, or pumpkin puree.
If using vanilla yogurt, cut back on the amount of pure vanilla extract in the recipe.
Lemon juice – This simple ingredient imparts a delightfully cheesy tang.
If you do not have any lemons on hand or wish to omit the lemon juice, the finished vegan cheese pie is still quite tasty without lemon.
Cornstarch – Since this recipe naturally contains no eggs, I use cornstarch as both a thickener and binder.
For those who want to make cheesecake without cornstarch, swap it for one fourth cup of almond flour or a half cup of your favorite protein powder.
Sugar – Any all purpose sweetener is fine, including both liquid sweeteners and traditional granulated sugar.
I like to use unrefined coconut sugar or pure maple syrup or agave.
For a low carb vegan cheesecake with no sugar added, choose a sugar free substitute like granulated erythritol or xylitol.
Leftover cream cheese? Make Vegan Cinnamon Rolls
Vegan cheesecake recipe video
Above, watch the step by step video showing how to make the recipe.
Vegan graham cracker crust
I like to make a simple 2 ingredient graham cracker crust for my cheesecakes, because the sweetness of the cookies perfectly balances the tangy cheesecake filling.
(If preferred, you can opt for a traditional pastry crust, a keto crust, or a store bought crust to save time. This cheesecake recipe can also be crustless.)
To make a homemade graham cracker crust, start with three cups vegan graham crackers. Biscoff cookies, OREOs, or gingersnaps all work here too.
Pulse the cookies in a food processor to form fine crumbs. Then stir six tablespoons melted nondairy butter or coconut oil into the crumbles by hand.
Press very firmly into the bottom of a nine inch springform pan. Refrigerate while you make the cheesecake filling. There is no need to prebake the crust.
How to make vegan cheesecake
Start by gathering all of your ingredients and preheating the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Fill any baking pan about halfway up with water, and place the pan of water on your oven’s lower rack.
Prepare a vegan crust of choice in a round nine inch springform pan. Set this pan aside.
Bring the cream cheese to room temperature, then beat all cheese cake ingredients in a blender or food processor until smooth. Be sure not to over beat, which could cause air bubbles to form that might later burst and cause cracking.
Smooth the cheesecake filling evenly on top of the crust, and place the springform place on the oven’s middle rack, directly above the rack with the water.
Bake for thirty minutes. It is important to never open the oven door while the cheesecake bakes.
When time is up, keep the oven door closed but turn the heat off. Leave the cake in the closed oven for five additional minutes.
Use pot holders to carefully remove the pan from the oven. The cheesecake should still look underbaked and jiggly.
Let it cool on the counter for about twenty minutes before refrigerating for at least four hours to firm up.
These cooling steps are important because they allow the recipe to cool gradually. Not exposing your cheesecake to harsh temperature changes is another great trick to prevent cheesecake cracking.
The vegan dessert will be considerably firmer in texture after chilling in the refrigerator and should be easy to slice once cold.
Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to four days. Or freeze individual slices in an airtight covered container for up to two months, and thaw frozen cheesecake fully before serving.
Vegan Cheesecake
Ingredients
- 24 oz vegan cream cheese
- 2 cups plant based yogurt
- 2 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 4 tsp cornstarch (or here's a Keto Cheesecake Recipe)
- 2/3 cup sugar or pure maple syrup, or xylitol for sugar free
- 1 tbsp lemon juice (optional)
- 1 pie crust (store bought or my homemade vegan pie crust recipe above)
Instructions
- To make vegan cheesecake, first preheat the oven to 350 F. Fill any baking pan about halfway with water and place it on the oven’s lower rack. Prepare your crust in a 9 inch springform pan, and set aside. Bring cream cheese to room temperature. Beat all cheesecake ingredients in a blender or food processor just until smooth. (For best results, do not overbeat, which can introduce air bubbles that might burst in the oven and cause cracking.) Smooth the filling on top of your prepared crust. Place on the middle rack, above the rack with the water pan. Bake 30 minutes. When the time is up, keep the oven door completely closed but turn off the heat. Leave the pan in the closed oven for an additional 5 minutes. Then remove the still underdone cake and let cool at least 20 minutes on the counter before refrigerating until chilled. It is important to let the vegan cheesecake cool gradually so it does not crack. The cake firms up considerably as it chills and will be ready to slice after a few hours. Or you can make it the day before and let it firm up overnight. Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for 4 days or in the freezer for up to 2 months.View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
More popular vegan recipes
Or this vanilla Vegan Cake
This cheesecake looks amazing! I need to try it asap!
Paige
Isn’t this the same as this https://recipesofholly.com/vegan-cheesecake-with-no-cashews-recipe/
Wow yes, it unfortunately looks like that blogger copied Katie’s recipe without giving any credit at all. It’s really disappointing a blogger would think that’s okay.
You cannot simply assume that Holly stole Katie’s recipe!
I enjoy your cheesecake recipes beyond your knowledge. The photos are very appealing and I hope to make this soon.
I baked a cherry cheesecake for Father’s Day and it was not as delicious as it looked. Perhaps this will compensate (;
So creamy!! 🙂 And the perfect recipe to be creative with toppings too!
Looks amazing Katie!
https://everythingdessert.wordpress.com/
I’m currently a vegetarian, and have been slowly transitioning to vegan and I was so so amazed w this recipe. I made this w the cashew creamcheese and coconut yogurt recipe for your site and it was delicious! I could taste the cashew but I really didn’t mind it. (Tbh I made only 1/8 of this recipe bc I didn’t think it would be so good, I baked it on a slightly lower temp. for 10 mins ,left it in for 10, and cooled it in the freezer for 15 mins. I dug in straight after and it’s gone.)
This made us so happy to read 🙂
Looking forward to trying this!
This is great, I can’t digest cashews.
Katie, you go to so many parties! How do you do it? 🙂
I have also always wondered about the huge number of parties Katie seems to attend regularly!
It looks so delicious. Can’t wait to try this. Thank you! 🙂
IT WOULD BE NICE TO HAVE AN “ALERT” IN YOUR RECIPES WHEN THE INGREDIENTS ARE NOT AVAILABLE OUTSIDE THE USA…I FIND MYSELF SAVING YOUR RECIPES TO MAKE LATER, ONLY TO REALIZE I CAN’T GET THE INGREDIENTS IN THE COUNTRY WHERE I LIVE. I AM SURE OTHER PEOPLE HAVE THE SAME ISSUE. VERY DISAPPOINTING.
Hi Jan, while I’m sure it must be frustrating to not be able to get the ingredients you need for a recipe you want to make, unfortunately I’m not sure how Katie would be able to know what ingredients are available in other countries besides the one where she lives. However, there are some online shops that at least can help with some ingredients and ship overseas. I would recommend iherb.com. Hope that helps.
I’m not in the USA I’m in the UK and can buy all the ingredients at my local supermarket. I was actually quite impressed at the absence of “weird” ingredients in this recipe and also the number of suggestions for substitutions given.
I live in the USA and have had no issues finding these ingredients at farmer’s markets, the local vegan shop, or online. Jan, some research is necessary when coming across new recipes. Read the ingredients before saving the recipe and if there is something you do not recognize or haven’t bought before, look it up. It isn’t hard. Recipes from blogs based in the USA don’t come with a warning either so if you are to demand one person to do so, you should demand it for others as well (not that anyone is required to do so on their own blog). There are places outside of the USA, please take that into consideration before making Americans look worse than they already do. Thank you.
Julie, this cheesecake looks divine. I have a friend that is vegan and I can’t wait to make this for her. Thank you!
Please be courteous and don’t tell in your responses.
My reply is to the person who responded in Caps.
Then maybe u should only look at blog from your country. Plus there are tons of shops online
Wow! Nasty!!!
Don’t you mean “Tasty”?
You can adjust the ingredients a bit. I just tried a different brand of cream cheese available here in The Netherlands.
Hey Jan, in case you’re talking about the vegan creamcheese and yogurt, she has recipes on how to make cashew creamcheese and coconut yogurt too, and I tried this recipe with those and it was wonderful!
Hey, where do you live? Tell us so we can help. I’m living in Germany and just recently (after few failed tries) I flung the right ingredients available in almost every supermarket
great to see another healthy cheesecake recipe, I started way back using non fat cream cheese as a primary ingredient trying to make a healthy cheesecake without realizing at the time how many sugars there are in some of the “big brand” cream cheeses, and it also didn’t taste very good, so much appreciated, thank you
Thank you for not including cauliflower in this recipe. The last vegan cheesecake recipe I was looking at included cauliflower, and I just couldn’t do it.
This comment made me laugh! I am with you on the cauliflower desserts!
I am not. Cauliflower is one of the few things I can eat. Nuts, grains and beans are a no go for me. And finding something without those is so very rare. Thanks.
No cauliflower, but almost all recipes include xylitol as an option for sugar substitution. Please educate yourself about that particular ingredient. if you are carrying enough about your health, you would prefer cauliflower in the dessert recipe:).
That’s so weird!! Lol
…you bill this as tofu free, but the first ingredient has tofu (it’s in the name)!
Tofutti is just one option. If you want it to be tofu free, you can easily use a cream cheese brand such as Daiya that does not have tofu. The recipe does not say you must use tofutti.
Thank you, Jason. I wasn’t clear on that, either, since, when people list the ingredients, they usually list the ones that worked best for them, so you (general you) have no idea whether alternatives would work, as well. However it is odd that the header says it doesn’t include tofu but the recipe lists something that contains tofu right off the top.
No no.. that person needs to release the concrete thoughts and realize that it was one out of the many options given to make this cheesecake according to personal preference. The person who complained about tofu being present in a recipe advertised as tofu free, when the tofu product was merely a suggested option needs a hobby.
NO, ALL of Daiya’s cream cheeses are SAVORY with additional flavorings. NONE on their website are just “cream cheeze”. The ones that are not savory are SPREADS not CHEEZE. Also, since the ingredients are radically different, and this is a BAKED product (and labor intensive with the “be careful it doesn’t crack” etc,) people are understandably hesitant to do the testing themselves to see how a different non-soy product would hold up. Not surprisingly, they don’t even have a cheezecake recipe on their site – only sauces for the cheezecakes. AND when you search “cheezecake” it returns hits on their READY MADE processed cheezecakes. So there’s a HINT right there you cannot use Daiya for subbing out in a typical vegan cheezecake.
Let’s just call this an “oops”.
I’m really not sure why you’re getting upset. It’s a delicious recipe that works with numerous brands, and Daiya is just one brand I mentioned. I could have easily said others, such as Miyokos, Wayfare, or Kite Hill. All vegan and soy free and delicious. There’s really no reason to get upset. 🙂
Jason
I USE PLAIN DAIYA CREAM CHEESE ALL THE TIME. I ASSURE YOU IT EXISTS. ALSO DAIYA IS NOT THE ONLY OTHER BRAND OF VEGAN CREAM CHEESE BESIDES TOFUTTI. MY LOCAL GROCERY ALONE HAS MORE THAN FIVE BRANDS. USE WHATEVER YOU WANT AND STOP BEING A JERK TO SOMEONE THAT PROVIDES YOU WITH FREE CONTENT. See? Isn’t it nice to be yelled at?
Kara, so glad you said this! I was thinking of posting a similar comment, but yours says it all!
My local grocer carries a plain Daiya cream cheese along with fruity-flavored cream cheeses by Daiya such as strawberry, and have done so for quite some time, as I recall using the strawberry to make some frosting for my daughter’s 9th birthday cake, who will be turning 12 this summer. Of course, I understand not all stores carry the same brands and varieties, so it’s quite possible you didn’t have plain at your location at that time. 🙂
I feel like some of these comments are a bit accusatory. Thank you for posting a recipe with many suggestions and variations, Katie! I think we just need to use our common sense – can’t have tofu? Don’t use Tofutti. Can’t find a plain Daiya cream cheese – use something else. Mikiyos makes a great one, as does WayFare and others, and there are a bazillion DIY vegan cream cheese recipes out there. Use what works, and what you can find locally or via online stores.
she said it was CASHEW free
Read again. It’s right under the title in the sub-title. “The easy vegan cheesecake recipe that even non vegans love… with no cashews, and NO tofu!” AND it’s in GIGANTIC TYPE in the section between the two GIANT photos in a special box highlighting it, no less.
See my comment below. There are numerous brands of vegan cream cheese that are soy free and delicious.
It’s not worth arguing w people like the above. You explained yourself perfectly and kindly. Some folks just need the last word. Sad
Violife is another tofu-free brand of cream cheese (as well as other vegan products). Very delicious 😋
Hi Katie,
My husband balks at any and all things healthy — like if I serve something with quinoa, his first question is “Is this rice or quinoa??” like I’m trying to really get one over on him, lol. So glad that this is healthy and it sounds so delicious that I won’t need to answer any questions on the nutritional value! Can’t wait to try it!
Hi Katie! Have you every tried making your own vegan cream cheese? I haven’t found one yet that is especially healthy and organic. I was curious if you’d figured out how to do it on your own. Thanks!
She’s working on a cashew-based cream cheese recipe! It needs another test to get it perfect, but it’s probably similar to other cashew cream cheese recipes out there. Have you tried cashew cream cheese? I’m not completely vegan, but I’ve tried a few that are pretty good!
Jason (media relations)
I have a hard time finding plain dairy free yogurt. Can vanilla be substituted?
Sure! Just scale back on the vanilla extract in the recipe or maybe omit it?
I made this last night and had my first bite today and it was fantastic. I used a premade graham cracker crust and added some purred strawberries on top and absolutely loved it. I have been really craving cheesecake lately but being lactose intolerant did not want to commit to that discomfort haha this tasted turly just like the real thing and I love that it has much less sugar/fat than traditional cheese cake as well. Thanks for such an easy and delicious recipe!
Hi Katie! Do you have any idea on how long I would cook these for if I did them in muffin tins as minis instead of a whole cheesecake? I cant wait to try it! Thanks!
https://lett-trim.today/2016/06/28/cheesecake-cupcakes/%3C/a%3E%F0%9F%99%82%3C/p%3E