Mango and turmeric cheesecake

If you haven't yet made a dairy-free cheesecake then this is a great place to start. It uses cashews and coconut milk to create a texture and flavour that's as delicious as a dairy cheesecake without the heavy feeling afterwards. It also ticks the boxes for being gluten-free, refined sugar-free and vegan. This recipe is from Buffy Gill and it appears in Bronwyn Kan's book Whole: Recipes for Simple Wholefood Eating. See more from Buffy at begoodorganics.com, and read about some of the other contributors here.

Base

1 ¼ cups	Almonds, raw, or activated and dried
½ cup	Shredded coconut
¾ cup	Dates
1	Lemon, zested
½ tsp	Vanilla, powder
¼ tsp	Sea salt
1 Tbsp	Coconut oil, melted

Filling

2 ½ cups	Cashew nuts, soaked for 2 hours, drained and rinsed
1 cup	Coconut milk
¾ cup	Coconut oil, melted
½	Lemons, juice and flesh
¼ cup	Raw coconut nectar
2 Tbsp	Cacao butter, melted
1 tsp	Vanilla extract
¼ tsp	Sea salt
2 cups	Mangoes, flesh, fresh if possible, chopped (Main)
2 tsp	Turmeric

Directions

1. To make the base, blend almonds and shredded coconut in a food processor until well chopped but still with some chunky texture.
2. Add dates one by one while motor is still running. Then add remaining base ingredients and blend until well combined.
3. Pour the mixture into a 20cm cake tin lined with baking paper. Press the mixture down with a spatula until firm and flat. Place in the freezer to firm.
4. Blend all the filling ingredients, except mango and turmeric, in a food processor or blender until completely smooth, scraping down the inside of the food processor a few times to remove lumps. The mixture should be completely smooth like a thick cream.
5. Pour half of the mixture into a bowl and set aside, then add mango and turmeric into remaining half and blend until well combined.
6. Remove base from freezer and, using one quarter of the plain cream mixture, dollop generous spoonfuls on top of the base.
7. Repeat this with dollops of one quarter of the mango mixture, then continue layering in this way until both mixtures have been used up.
8. Using a chopstick, swirl figure-eight patterns through the mixture to create a swirling effect between the two creams. Don't over-swirl or you will end up with a completely light orange cheesecake.
9. Place in the freezer overnight and then in the morning remove from the tin and place in the fridge. I like to slice and serve this around half an hour after removing from the freezer to maintain a lovely firm texture, similar to an Italian semifreddo. You can also slice the cake and return to the freezer in individual slices to remove from the freezer as you need.

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