No Bake Pistachio Cheesecake

No Bake Pistachio Cheesecake – Raw Vegan & Creamy

Dear pistachio lovers, today’s recipe is a delicious dessert for no bake pistachio cheesecake cake. It’s one that I made for a family member’s birthday, and it was devoured in ONE SITTING. It’s a creamy cake with avocado and coconut cream to give it a richness that usually comes from raw cashews. The soft purple and green color comes from, again, the avocado and pistachios.

The purple flecks come from the roasted pistachio coating. This recipe came about because of the leftover ingredients on hand that day, plus the soft purple and green colours of the pistachios just complement one another so well with the light green avocado filling. It’s also the first time I’ve used avocado in a dessert! Not to mention that this is also inspired by Indian flavours – many desserts in India use pistachios and coconut in their recipes!

I also used roasted pistachio nuts because roasted nuts impart a stronger flavour as compared to raw nuts. For example, you’d roast peanuts before making peanut butter, or roast hazelnuts before making Nutella. The roasted pistachios are critical for this reason. If you don’t buy pre-roasted pistachios, you can roast them yourself pretty easily with a stove, saucepan and a bit of oil. See the notes below on how to do this if you’re roasting them at home.

Why You’ll Love No Bake Pistachio Cheesecake

Energizing and Nourishing: This easy recipe is based on nutrient dense ingredients. This includes pistachio, avocado, dates, oats, coconut flour, walnuts and coconut milk. Even the sweetener, pure maple syrup (the only ingredient should be maple syrup on the label!) is a concentrated form of maple sap that comes out of the maple tree.

Did you know that pure maple syrup is high in antioxidants? It also offers riboflavin, zinc, magnesium, calcium and potassium in every serving? This just gets me ten times more excited about eating a slice of this cheesecake! Adding vegetables into a cake is a sure way to get me to make the recipe, ASAP. I love hiding good-for-you foods in delicious desserts!

No Bake: This recipe requires no baking and no water bath like traditional cheesecakes do. Sometimes, the most important thing for me is wanting to make a quick recipe that does not require turning on the oven. A recipe where I can adjust it and add or remove ingredients as I see fit, because it’s no-bake. This is why no bake cheesecake recipes are my favorite!

What’s in this Recipe?

A no bake recipe for vegan cheesecakes is usually based on raw ingredients and not a vegan cream cheese substitute. The raw version typically has a creamy filling that uses cashews and lemon juice to mimic a cream cheese-y ness. I didn’t use any of that today though. This cheesecake isn’t really lending itself to that cream cheese flavour, but more so it’s the thick pistachio cream filling texture that reminds me of a traditional cheesecake.

Crust: We have dates holding the base together, and fine crumbs of raw walnuts and oats as the “flour.” This is one of my favorite ways to making a cheesecake crust recipe without needing any processed ingredients. Traditional cheesecake uses melted butter with graham crackers or digestive biscuits for a cookie crust. This pistachio cheesecake filling can be added on top of a traditional graham cracker crust as well, albeit not being as healthy as the raw version.

Filling: Ripe avocados add so much creaminess, and mixing them in with all these ingredients makes it much less noticeable. For an added layer of creaminess, coconut cream does the job (for many creamy fillings, heavy cream helps to keep it thick and creamy). Then for sweetener, we have pure maple syrup. Lastly, the main ingredient for the pistachio filling is roasted pistachios. It wouldn’t be a pistachio cake without flecks of the pistachio nut in there! The beautiful light green and purple colors complement one another to make the filling super appealing!

No Bake Pistachio Cheesecake Recipe Notes

• For best results, make sure to either use Medjool dates (they are soft and blend well), or soak your dates in boiling water for 30 minutes as described in the recipe card.
• Do not substitute the coconut milk with low-fat or reduced-fat options. Also, do not buy carton milk. Stick with full-fat, canned coconut milk (like Thai Kitchen brand).
• To roast pistachios at home, check out this link. This way, you can control the extra salt and oil that gets added in too. You can also use pistachio butter if you don’t have pistachios. (If using the nut butter, only use half the amount as the amount of pistachios called for. If the nut butter is not salted, do a taste test and add a bit of extra salt too).
• I love using a springform pan for cakes like this, because the sides pop right off and it has a removable bottom too, if you like the base with parchment paper that you can slide off the base.

Flavour Add-Ins

• For extra add-ins, try adding white chocolate chunks into the food processor for the filling and crust, or drizzling melted white chocolate over top of the cheesecake! Or top with vegan cool whip)! I love using a back of a spoon to create soft peaks with whipped cream topping on a cake. Then sprinkles all the chopped pistachios on!
• I’ve never tried pistachio extract, but a pinch of it, if you have it on hand, will up the pistachio flavour. Lemon zest or vanilla extract may also add more flavour.

More Vegan Sweets You’ll Love

Lemon Coconut Bars

Butter Pecan Tarts

Key Lime Pie Cheesecake

Espresso Brownies

Lemon Raspberry Cheesecake

Tiramisu Cheesecake

If you make this no bake pistachio cheese recipe, leave a comment and star rating! Don’t forget to tag your photos @peanut_palate on Instagram. Enjoy!