Spring has sprung with these delicious Vegan Cheesecake Bars. That’s right, this Lemon No Bake Vegan Cheesecake recipe is made with real ingredients and doesn’t require an oven.
Raw Vegan Desserts are some of our favorite sweet treats to make in our kitchen. We love that they don’t require an oven and that all of the delicious ingredients used are in their purest forms. That’s why we have so much love for this particular recipe. These Lemon Vegan Cheesecake Bars are naturally sweetened, gluten-free, vegan, paleo, and a perfectly refreshing dessert! Vegan cheesecake may sound like a daunting thing to make, but we’re going to break everything down for you with a step-by-step tutorial!
Vegan Cheesecake Filling
First and foremost, let’s talk about this amazing vegan cheesecake filling. As you know, these are raw lemon cheesecake bars meaning that there is no baking involved like a traditional cheesecake. That also means that all ingredients used are plant-based and vegan-friendly. Here’s what you need to get started:
- Soaked, raw cashews:Â these babies are the basis of the vegan cheesecake filling. Make sure that you buy raw, unsalted cashews and that you properly soak them.
- Coconut cream: for this recipe, we used coconut cream which is slightly different than full-fat coconut milk. You can find this at most grocery stores right by the canned coconut milk!
- Coconut oil: the coconut oil will help with the setting process because it solidifies at room temperature!
- Honey or maple syrup: if you want to keep this recipe 100% plant-based, opt for maple syrup instead of honey!
- Lemon juice: this is what will give your vegan cheesecake that yummy, lemony flavor!
- Lemon zest: don’t skimp on the lemon zest topping. So yummy!
We recommend a high-speed food processor or Vitamix to make this filling. I will say this over and over again, but when I say high-speed, I mean high-speed! You’re going to need something that can pulverize all of these ingredients into a creamy filling.
Raw Crust
We love this easy raw crust so much. It’s actually a spin-off of our Copycat Cashew Cookie Larabars. Best part? You only need 3 basic ingredients:
- Medjool dates: make sure your dates are soft and sticky AND, don’t forget to remove the pits.
- Raw cashews: for the best results, use raw cashews instead of roasted.
- Salt: if your cashews were already salted, feel free to omit this!
Unfortunately you can not ditch the dates in this recipe, howeve ryou can swap the cashews for almonds or pretty much any other nut.
How to Eat
These No Bake Vegan Cheesecake Bars are best eaten straight out of the freezer or fridge. If you eat them frozen, they are like an ice cream bar and if you eat them partially thawed from the fridge, they’re more like cheesecake! It’s all about preference people. What’s my choice? FREEZER. I just love sinking my teeth into a frozen ice cream bar of sorts.
Storage: Keep these bars stored in the fridge or freezer for the longest lasting results. If possible, keep them covered, too!
Easy No Bake Desserts
- Pumpkin Almond Butter Freezer Fudge
- Healthy Peanut Butter Cups
- Peanut Butter Cup Banana Soft Serve
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse

Lemon Vegan Cheesecake Bars
Ingredients
Raw Crust
- 2 cups pitted Medjool dates packed (~20)
- 2 cups raw unsalted cashews
- 1/8 teaspoon sea salt or more, to taste
Vegan Cheesecake Filling
- 2 cups raw cashews soaked
- 1 cup coconut cream
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- 2 tablespoons honey or maple syrup for vegan option
- juice from 1 lemon ~1/3 cup
- pinch of sea salt
- zest from one lemon
Instructions
- First, place two cups of cashews into a medium/large size bowl and cover them with boiling water. Let them soak for at least an hour or overnight. These cashews are for the filling.
- Next, place crust ingredients into a high-speed food processor and process until crumbly.
- After ingredients are blended, spray a 9x9-inch pan with coconut oil cooking spray. Gently press crust evenly into the bottom of the pan. Set aside.
- Once cashews have soaked for the appropriate amount of time (cashews should be soft and squishy) place all ingredients for the lemon filling (except coconut oil) into a high-speed food processor or Vitamix and blend until smooth.
- When the filling is a smooth consistency, add coconut oil and mix one more time to fully combine all ingredients.
- Pour filling contents on top of crust. Spread evenly with a spatula and place pan into the freezer for 1-2 hours to set.
- When bars are hard and ready to eat. Remove from freezer, top with shredded coconut and lemon zest.
Tips & Notes
- Storage: store bars in the freezer for more of an ice cream bar texture or in the fridge for more of a cheesecake texture.
Nutrition facts
More Raw Vegan Desserts
- Raw Walnut Brownies from The Healthy Maven
- Chocolate Caramel Banana Ice Cream Bars from Eating Bird Food
- Frozen Salted Almond Joy Bars from Food Faith Fitness
- Chocolate Cranberry Puffed Millet Cookies from Running to the Kitchen
- Easy Kiwi Pops from Lexi’s Clean Kitchen
These were SO good, we wanted to eat the whole pan in one sitting. My family didn’t believe me that this was simply cashews and coconut cream… with recipes like this, it’s so easy to stay gluten and dairy free!
So glad you loved these!
These look divine!! Can’t wait to try them out. What food processor do you use? I’m just getting into raw recipes (and loving it), but no matter how long I soak the cashews, it seems like the filling always comes out a bit grainy. Right now I’m using a 4 cup Cuisinart food processor, but I heard the Vitamix is good?
I have a Kitchen Ninja, which doubles as a food processor and blender. I am obsessed and LOVE it! Best kitchen investment I’ve ever made. http://bit.ly/2apvvSf
In step 4 of the instructions, do you blend the cashews with the water in which they were soaked, or do you discard the water?
Hey Donna! You discard the water! I will update that in the recipe directions right now!
Lemon is my FAV right now, and these look so creamy and delish!
These sounded great, then I started figuring out how much it’d cost to make them. $20 worth of cashews and $17 for the dates. Also ran the nutrition numbers on My Fitness Pal and got 5000 calories, 300g fat, 216g sugar, and 482g carbs. My health and my wallet can’t afford these.
This is a lovely dessert! I did have one issue through.
Where can I find coconut cream?
I had to make my own coconut cream with creamed coconut and this was not easy to figure out and I believe this also contributed to my dessert being super high in calories. In fact, almost the exact number as Jamie. I had to cut mine into 12 servings and ended with pieces totalling over 400 cal, 47 grams of carbs and 33 grams of sugar…. Ouch… because they tast great! So, since the only difference in my recipe is the coconut cream, can someone tell me where they get it or how they make it to be less calorically dense?
This dessert tastes perfect for me and I would love it to replicate the same nutrition information as the authors.
Thanks!
Hey Chelsey! Coconut cream can be purchased from Trader Joes OR what you can do is just scrape the cream off the top of the coconut milk after it’s refrigerated. I should be more specific to that in the directions! So sorry for the confusion. Unfortunately coconut cream is the fatty part of coconut, which is why it’s so high in calorie…but no fear- it’s healthy fats!
Saw these on FFF and THM and fell in LURVE. So glad I came today! Lemon bars are soooooooooo dreamy, right? And so is coconut! The two paired together? I’m basically in heaven and it’s fantastic up here 😉
Lemon and coconut are amazing together. This recipe is totally awesome.
I have been wanting to try Dana’s vegan cheesecake too so I’m glad to know it’s a win. I don’t usually gravitate toward lemony desserts, but these look AMAZING. Must try!
PS – Glad we’re back in action with the group posts this month. This one is epic!
Seriously Linley and I were talking about how amazing all of these look! The cheesecake is EPIC. You could totally flavor it however you wanted!
No bake treats are life savers! Mmmmm coconut and lemon are a great combo! I’m SWOONING/DROOLING 🙂
AHGREED. I love anything no-bake…hence my obsession with BALLS.
These look delicious!
Any suggestions for an alternative to cashews in the crust and filling?
Hi Alisha! That is a really good question. I have not tried anything other than cashews for this recipe. You could try almonds, but I have no idea how that would turn out!
I am OBSESSED with lemon bars…and that coconut addition? PURE GENIUS. Totally drooling over these. Pinned!
Your paleo lemon bars look EPIC on your site. Linley and I were drooling over them the other day.
Amazing roundup! Lemon and coconut is like peanut butter and jelly for me. SO DANG GOOD.
YAS. Now I want peanut butter.