Blueberries & Cream No-Bake Vegan Tarte

I love when you stumble across something wildly delicious after making last-minute changes to a recipe idea in the face of ingredient issues…

That was the case with this tarte!

Originally I had four large mangos to use up, and wanted to play around with a raw vegan mango cheesecake.  Once I cut into my mangos, two turned out to be no good inside. And out went the idea for a very mango-forward flavour in my dessert.

I decided to use the two mangos for some sweetness and fruity flavour, and instead of doing a mango glaze on top, I’d use some fresh blueberries. I was hoping for a creamy and subtly sweet, moist tarte, and that’s just what I got.

With cashews in the filling, I opted to go with walnuts in the crust, which I paired with oats – seek certified gluten-free oats or replace oats with more walnuts/other nuts or seeds for a gluten-free crust.

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Ingredients – Crust:

• 2 cups walnuts
• 2 cups rolled oats
• Pinch salt
• ½ cup dates, pitted and roughly chopped
• ¼ cup oil (coconut, safflower, anything light and relatively flavour-less)

 

Ingredients – Filling:

• 2 cups cashews (soaked overnight and drained)
• Flesh of 2 mangos
• ¼ cup pure maple syrup *optional*
• Pinch salt
• 2 cups blueberries, for topping

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Directions:

Prepare a 8-inch spring-form pan.

Begin with toasting the walnuts and oats in a stainless steel pan over medium heat until fragrant.  You can skip this step and use raw nuts and oats, but I really love the flavour it gives.
(Chef’s note: I notice that the dates blend up much easier with the hot nuts and oats versus room temperature.)

In a food processor, add the chopped dates, hot toasted nuts and oats, and salt. Turn the processor on and let it chop as you slowly add the oil into the crust mixture. Turn it off when you notice the mixture stops moving as much and use a spatula to bring down the sides and mix up the bottom layer. Turn the food processor back on, and repeat this process a few times. The crust sticks together a lot better, and is overall more enjoyable, when you process the mixture here very well.

Empty the mixture into your springform pan and press it out, bringing the crust up about one and a half inches, and making sure it is all pressed evenly throughout. Put the crust in the fridge to cool down as you make the filling.

You can wash out the food processor before making the filling, or not – I opted to not! Less dish washing, and more flavour 😉

Drain the cashews and place in the food processor.  Add the mango flesh, salt, and maple syrup, and let it process until the mixture is very fine and smooth.  You will need to stop the machine to bring down the sides and mix into the bottom several times, like we did with the crust.

Pour the mixture into the cooled crust.  One by one, place the blueberries whole around the surface of the tarte, starting from the outside layer and working in. Give them a gentle push so they form into the cashew filling ever so slightly, creating a more solid and attractive dessert.

Let the tarte chill in the fridge for at least 3 hours – the flavour was pretty amazing after a full 24 hours, though – extra time to sit give it extra time to build more flavour!

Keep cool, serve immediately.

Enjoy!