I love the citrus flavor in desserts and I can say that as much as I enjoy chocolate, I think that cream desserts can really blow my mind (or maybe I just love all kinds of desserts!). Lemon pie combines cream and lemon and it’s one of my favorite desserts for many reasons. First of all, you don’t need to bake anything so the oven remains turned off, it suits every season and occasion, it’s flavorful and aromatic and the vegan version is not that different from the conventional one, so everyone loves it.
I prefer to make the base with nuts instead of cookies and I add coconut yogurt with probiotics to the cream for both flavor and probiotics, raising the nutritional value. Overall, I’ve created a recipe that, while it doesn’t lack the fat from the coconut yogurt and the plant-based cream cheese, it is clearly nutritionally superior to the classic recipe that uses whipping cream and butter.
Ingredients
For the base
1 cup of dates
1,5 cup of walnuts or almonds
Pinch of salt
For the lemon cream
1 cup coconut yoghurt
2 cups plant-based cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup maple syrup
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice and lemon zest
Pinch of salt
grated coconut (optional)
Method
Start making the base by blending the dates with the nuts and salt in a blender. Line a parchment paper in a baking pan or pyrex and put the mixture on it. Make sure you press it down with your hand or the back of a glass to make it spread evenly. If you see that the mixture is a bit dry, add a few more dates. Your baking pan should be about 20 cm long.
In a large bowl, add the yogurt, cream cheese, vanilla extract, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt and syrup and blend with a hand blender until all the ingredients are mixed well together. Spread it over your base.
Once you’re done, add some more lemon zest on top of the cream for even more flavour and freshness and finish with the grated coconut. You can also try orange zest.
Tip
If you like, you can soak some cashews overnight and add them to your custard too for an even richer, protein-packed cream.
