No bake vegan cheesecakes with all the flavours of classic acai bowls!
Smoothie bowls are a staple in my diet as they are quick to make, delicious and can be made out of pantry/freezer ingredients. Smoothie bowls are normally thick smoothies poured into bowls, made with some sort of frozen fruit, and topped with things like granola, fresh fruit, dried fruit, nuts, coconut... or whatever is in your pantry!
I have seen acai bowls pop up more and more in healthy cafes in Australia in the last few years. These are a subset of smoothie bowls but the smoothie has acai in it, which is a superfood fruit and usually comes in a frozen sachet, dehydrated powder or juice. Acai boasts to have more antioxidants than readily available berries, like blueberries, raspberries and strawberries.
I thought I'd take the acai smoothie bowl up a notch and make them into something more special... cheesecakes! I had a lot of fun decorating these. Just like most smoothie bowls, no two were decorated in the same way. I felt like a grown up kid icing and dressing gingerbread (wo)men.
Acai Bowl Cheesecakes
Ingredients
Base
- ½ cup dried figs, stems cut off, soaked in water for at least 2 hours
- ½ cup mixture of oats and/or whatever muesli or granola that you have in your pantry
- Pinch salt
Cheesecake filling
- 1 ¼ cup raw cashews, soaked in water overnight
- 2 tbs coconut butter or oil, softened
- 2 tbs sweetener or sugar, of choice, optional
- 1 packet frozen acai
- ½ cup berries such as raspberries, blueberries or whatever you desire
- ¼ cup banana, chopped
Toppings
- Whatever you desire! Think fresh or dried fruits, granola, buckwheat, puffed grains, coconut, nut butter, cacao nibs, superfoods, chocollllattttee… You can use anything that you would put on a smoothie bowl!
Instructions
- The night before: In separate bowls, soak the figs (for the base) and the cashews (for the filling) in enough water to cover.
- Use a silicon cupcake mould or line your cupcake tin with cupcake papers or baking paper.
- For the base: Drain the figs and add to a food processor with the rest of the base ingredients. Whizz until well combined. Firmly press the mixture into the bottom of the cupcake moulds. Set aside in freezer.
- For the filling: Drain the cashews and add to a food processor with the coconut butter/oil and optional sweetener. Whizz until smooth and creamy. Add the fruit to the food processor and whizz until smooth and creamy. Taste and add more sweetener if desired.
- Remove the cupcake mould from the freezer. Spoon the cheesecake filling into the moulds and return it to the freezer.
- Prepare fruits for the toppings as desired.
- Remove the cheesecakes from the freezer before they are completely set and arrange toppings as desired.
- Return cheesecakes to freezer for at least 5 hours.
- To serve: defrost for 5-15 mins depending on how frozen you'd like your cheesecake and enjoy!
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