Vegan Lemon Cheesecake (no bake)
The creamiest vegan lemon cheesecake topped with eggless lemon curd. This cheesecake is no-bake and made with less than 10 ingredients. You don’t need any cashews, coconut oil or agar powder!
This delightful lemon cheesecake was adapted from my popular strawberry cheesecake recipe.
Ingredients you’ll need
This vegan lemon cheesecake uses less than 10 ingredients that you can get in major stores (in countries like the USA, Canada, and the UK).
The full list of ingredient quantities and instructions are in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Vegan cream cheese for a classic cheesecake flavor and texture. As this cheesecake doesn’t need to be baked, most brands of cream cheese will work. If you don’t have access to vegan cream cheese, check out my baked vegan cheesecake recipe.
Fresh lemon juice and zest for the best lemon flavor!
Vegan-friendly cookies. I used accidentally vegan cookies from a major supermarket. Alternatively, you can use graham crackers with a little sugar.
Coconut cream for texture. Alternatively, you can use more cream cheese. Firm silken tofu will work but you’ll need to blend it and your final cheesecake will be softer.
When you scroll down to the recipe card at the bottom of this post, it may look like a lot of ingredients. However, similar ingredients are used in the crust, filling and curd, so it’s not too many ingredients
Making the crust
Add the cookies to a small food processor and pulse until it forms fine crumbs. Add the melted vegan butter or coconut oil and pulse until combined.
The mixture should resemble wet sand. Press the mixture into the bottom of your cake tin and you’re done.
How to make the cheesecake filling
This vegan lemon cheesecake gets its unique creaminess (and setting ability) from a foundation of lemon custard or eggless lemon curd. No cashews, no coconut oil, just traditional stovetop cooking!
To make the ‘lemon custard base’, add the coconut cream, lemon juice and cornstarch to the saucepan. Whisk the mixture to dissolve the cornstarch – this will help prevent any lumps of cornstarch!
Place the saucepan over medium heat and heat for 5 minutes or until thickened. The mixture may separate and that’s absolutely fine! It’s ready when it has thickened and you can’t ‘feel’ the powdery cornstarch. Then, remove the saucepan from the heat.
Next, add all your cream cheese to the saucepan and whisk until smooth. The residual heat from the saucepan will help soften the cream cheese and make it easier to mix. You can use either a spatula or a hand mixer for this step! Just make sure there are no lumps of cream cheese at the end.
Alternatively, you can mix the cream cheese and lemon mixture in a food processor or a mixing bowl. I mixed the ingredients in my saucepan for convenience (and for less dirty dishes).
Now you’ll have an incredibly creamy yet dairy-free cheesecake mixture. It already tastes SO GOOD at this stage but it’ll turn even more creamy over time. Don’t eat it all yet! Pour the mixture into your cake tin, smooth the top and let it set.
How to make vegan lemon curd (optional)
You know that saucepan we just used? Don’t clean it – we’ll use it to make the lemon curd.
The eggless lemon curd has similar ingredients to the cheesecake filling. The only different ingredient is turmeric, which is added for color. All ingredient amounts are in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
It’s really easy to make vegan lemon curd topping. Simply, add all the ingredients to your saucepan, whisk and heat until thickened! The curd will thicken further when it cools down.
Pour the curd on your vegan lemon cheesecake and let it set further or serve immediately.
The lemon curd is also amazing served with my vegan lemon cake (layered) vegan lemon poppy seed muffins or lemon blueberry cake!
Other ways to decorate the cheesecake
Apart from vegan lemon curd, you can also top your dessert with:
- Fresh berries, mango slices or even kiwi fruit!
- An easy mixed berry compote or strawberry compote, similar to my other vegan cheesecakes.
- Passionfruit puree, like my baked passionfruit cheesecake!
- Coconut yogurt or whipped coconut cream
- Chopped macadamia nuts and flaked coconut
TOP tip!
Make sure you cook the filling and curd on the stovetop for long enough! Use the images in the blog post as a guide. The filling and curd should thickly coat the back of a spatula. Cooking times will vary depending on your stovetop.
More vegan cheesecake recipes
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Vegan Lemon Cheesecake
Ingredients
Crust
- ~2 cups (200g) plain sweet cookies, gluten-free if needed (note 1)
- ⅓ cup (75g) vegan butter, margarine or coconut oil, melted
Cheesecake filling
- 1 cup (240g) thick scoopable canned coconut cream, (note 2)
- ½ cup (100g) granulated sugar, or light-coloured sweetener of choice
- ⅓ cup (70g) lemon juice and zest, or to taste (I used ~2 lemons and weighed the lemon juice and lemon zest together)
- ¼ cup (30g) cornstarch / corn flour
- ~2 cups (480g) vegan cream cheese, room temperature (2 x regular tubs)
Vegan lemon curd (optional)
- ½ cup (125g) dairy-free milk
- 1 tablespoon (8g) cornstarch / corn flour
- ¼ cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons (30g) lemon juice and zest, or to taste (I used ~1/2 lemon and weighed the lemon juice and zest together)
- Pinch of turmeric
Instructions
- Line an 8-inch (20 cm) spring-form or loose-bottom cake pan with parchment paper.
To make the crust:
- Add the cookies to a food processor and pulse until fine crumbs. Add the melted butter and pulse until combined. Firmly press the mixture into the bottom of your cake pan. Set aside.
To make the filling:
- Add the coconut cream, sugar, lemon juice and cornstarch to a medium size saucepan and whisk to dissolve the cornstarch. Place the saucepan over medium heat and stir the mixture constantly for 5 minutes or until it resembles a thick lemon curd. It's ok if the mixture separates! Remove from the heat.
- Add the cream cheese to the saucepan (note 3). Mix until the cream cheese is fully combined with the coconut cream mixture. There shouldn't be any lumps and your mixture should be a little thick (refer to the images above).
- Pour the mixture into your lined cake pan and smooth the top. Cover the cheesecake and place it in the fridge for at least 4 hours or until set.
To make the vegan lemon curd (optional):
- Add all ingredients to a medium-sized saucepan and whisk to dissolve the cornstarch. Place the saucepan over medium heat and stir constantly for 5 minutes or until the mixture thickens. The curd will thicken more when it cools down.
- Remove the cheesecake from the cake pan, pour your lemon curd on top and serve!
- Store leftovers in an airtight container for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 1 month.
Notes
- Alternatively, you can use 150g graham crackers and 50g granulated sugar.
- If you can, avoid buying light canned coconut cream or even full-fat coconut milk as they contain less ‘thick scoopable cream’ compared to regular canned coconut cream. Otherwise, you’ll need to buy too many cans to get the required amount of coconut cream in the recipe. If you don’t want to use coconut cream, you can substitute it with more vegan cream cheese. Or, you can use firm silken tofu if you add it to a blender (your cheesecake will also be softer).
- Adding the cream cheese to the saucepan allows the residual heat to soften the cream cheese (it makes mixing easier and there’s one less dish for you to clean)! Alternatively, you can add all the cheesecake filling ingredients to a food processor or mixing bowl and mix until smooth.
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I have made this twice now and it’s incredible, however I have a big problem with the scoopable coconut cream. I bought 2 cans of coconut cream (not milk) but they only had a small amount of cream on the top – the rest was water just like with coconut milk. I had another carton of coconut cream in the cupboard – different brand – and had exactly he same problem. I then had to buy 2 cans of coconut milk (seemed pointless to buy yet more so called cream) and used the cream on top of these. Needless to say this worked out SO expensive and SO wasteful! Could I just use a block of creamed coconut instead? If not any other solutions please? UK based fyi. Thanks x
Hi Ella! I’m so glad that you enjoy this cheesecake! Ah, I get that it can be tricky finding a reliable brand of coconut cream. It sounds like the brands that you bought happened to have a lower percentage of scoopable coconut cream. In Australia, brands can vary a lot but some are 90% thick cream, whereas others are around 20%. I’m not sure about the brands in the UK, but generally the higher fat % of a can, the more thick cream it’ll have. Sometimes even the cheaper brands have 90% thick cream! It’s best to avoid cans with additives/emulsifiers as they change the consistency of the cream. Full-fat coconut cream always has more thick cream and a higher fat percentage than full-fat coconut milk. Unfortunately, creamed coconut won’t work in the same way. Creamed coconut is ground coconut and is a little gritty, whereas coconut cream is the fat/liquid extracted from the coconut (it’ll affect the texture of a cheesecake). Hope that helps! x
Thanks so much for your reply Angela. Really useful to know that the creamed coconut blocks won’t work due to their texture. I’ve had a look online at as many UK available coconut cream brands as possible, including organic ones, and the highest fat content I’ve found so far is from one of the brands (M and S) I used that was full of water so I’m at a bit of a loss tbh. Seems that UK coconut cream is not what it claims to be! Have you ever tried a thick vegan dairy alternative cream in place of coconut cream by any chance? We have a great thick cream here by Coconut Collab (coconut based) and I’m wondering if that could be used instead? Not ideal as processed but as a 1 off I’d be OK with that. Any thoughts gratefully received as I really want to make it again but can’t justify so much expense/ waste x
Sorry for the late reply, Ella! I perused some vegan UK baking groups on Facebook and a few people said Aldi stocks a good canned coconut cream which contains more of the thick cream than other brands. Some people suggested going to Asian stores for coconut cream too! I’ve tried replacing coconut cream with other ingredients (such as tofu) and while it works, the cheesecake is softer. I haven’t personally used Coconut Collab so I’m not 100% sure but it sounds/looks like a cream that thickens when you whisk it? If so, it will probably work but won’t be as thick the original as it needs to be heated for the cake. I hope that helps!
Oops apologies – Anthea not Angela x
It was Delicious! 😍 A real Easter Miracle! (considering that was my first time😃) All possible to this great recipe🐣🙏💕
Aw, I’m so glad that you enjoyed this recipe, Joel! Thanks so much for your lovely feedback 🙂
Just seeking clarification: for the lemon curd, recipes says 1c (120grams) dairy-free milk. Is this correct? I am making the curd to go in your Lemon Cake and in the cake recipe it says 1c milk (250grams) which is on track with the almond milk I used for the cake.
Hi Theresa, I’m so sorry, that’s a typo! It should be 1/2 cup (125g) dairy-free milk and I’ve updated the recipe to reflect that. Thanks for letting me know!
I made this for an Easter gathering and it was a hit! I accidentally missed the part about only using scoopable coconut cream, but it turned out ok. I’ll try again with only scoopable cream next time though.
Hi Lauren, I’m so glad that everyone enjoyed this cheesecake, and that it still turned out decently without the scoopable cream. Thanks for your feedback 🙂
I just passed by to thank you for the clarity and the suitability to all readers. I was looking for a Vegan recipe with the ingredients stated in grams and thankfully I’ve found you! Very clear, passionate and careful to many details (even the advice to avoid cleaning too much dishes!😂👌👌)
I didn’t even make this recipe and I already love it. I will do it for Easter and I can’t wait 🐣🌸
So thank you for your hard work!
By Joel
Hi Joel, aw it’s my pleasure! I’m glad that you thought that my post was helpful :). Thanks so much for your thoughtful feedback and I hope you enjoyed making it for Easter!