A: Welcome to “Food Delight” where we present a new recipe every week.

B: This week’s recipe is oreo cheesecake. The recipe is super easy and simple because it’s a no-bake cake recipe with just a few ingredients.

A: I’m a big fan of cakes, you know, but there’s one problem. I’m putting on weight after a long period of social distancing at home.

B: Don’t worry. This recipe is perfect for you because it’s a recipe for vegans. We have Nguyen Cam Ngoc from  Beemart, a purveyor of baking accessories and cake decorating, here today. She will show us how to make the cheesecake from vegetarian ingredients.

Chicpeas - a major ingredient to make cheesecake made vegan style (Photo: bachhoaxanh.com)

A: The major ingredients of cakes are butter, cream, flour, milk, and eggs. What about cakes for vegans? What kinds of ingredients will replace the usual ones? Let’s hear from Ngoc.

Ngoc: Some vegans still consume eggs, but many others don’t eat eggs, animal milk or dairy products. Eggs will be replaced with ground apples, bananas and chia seeds. Instead of animal milk, vegans will have milk made from almond, soya beans or cashew nuts. Cream is made from chickpeas.

B: Surely, the texture of vegan cakes isn’t the same as normal cake. Ngoc, please tell us more about the ingredients for vegan cheesecake?

Ngoc: Cheese cake is one kind of no-bake cake.  We make the cake base with oreo cookies. The first ingredient is oreo cookies. The second one is chickpeas: 300 grams. To replace sugar, we use honey or stevia sugar, which are good for your health. You can add vanilla, strawberry extract, or lime for more flavor. And butter.

A: Most no-bake cheesecakes are made with gelatin. Do you use gelatin in vegan cheesecakes?

Ngoc: Normally, gelatin is used to keep the cakes’ structure. However, gelatin is made from animals’ skin and bones, so we use agar-agar instead.

B: Everything is ready now. Apart from the ingredients,  all we need are a round cake mould, a blender, and an electric egg beater. The first step is the same as for a normal cheesecake: Crush some oreo cookies into crumbs.

A: You can use a blender to help you. Another option: put the oreo cookies in a bag and  beat the bag until the cookies turn into crumbs. Then melt a little butter and mix with the cookie crumbs. Put the mixture into the mould and press it. Put the mould into the fridge  until the base sets and becomes firm.  

B: That’s it for the base. Cam Ngoc will now tell us how to make the cheese part using the chickpeas.

Ngoc: 300 grams of chickpeas are soaked in water overnight. For cheesecake, we use both the water and the soaked chickpea for a flavor similar to real cheesecakes. Use an egg beater to whip the chickpea and the water into a froth. After that, add some sugar, vanilla, or strawberry extract. Finally, put the mixture into the cake mould and put it in the fridge for 6 to 8 hours.

A: It takes much longer to make a vegan cheesecake because you don’t use gelatin to set the texture, but it’s worth it because the ingredients are good for your health and you don’t have to worry about putting on weight.

B: We’ll be back with more recipes next time. Good bye.