Gluten-free Frozen Berry “Cheesecake”

More than meets the eye–or palate, this treat is amazingly nutritious for a dessert and highly refreshing–and all-natural, of course. While it isn’t really a “cheesecake”, its frozen texture is instead down to  ice-cream or frozen yogurt.

And you don’t really miss the breadcrumbs, or the treacly sweetness of sugar. Not when you get an even better taste PLUS a mega dose of vitamin E, manganese, phosphorus, and selenium (and here we are just taking about the crust of the pie, not even scratching the surface of the antioxidant-rich filling), among other nutritional treasures. Instead of the conventional breadcrumbs or *gasp*the crushed biscuits and butter (or worse, margarine), you can substitute all these empty calories with lightly toasted sunflower seeds, dates, and coconut oil. It makes a delightful, aromatic blend brimming with all these sacred nutrients. Just have a quick look at the nutrition fact labeling below before we move on:

Other treasures as pleasures include the fresh (or frozen, if you choose) raspberries and strawberries, phytonutrient gems. And again, to give the sweetness some nutritional value, I use some low GI organic agave syrup (although it’s not really a saint among the sweeteners, it’s still the best of the lot).

Now instead of non-fat plain yogurt (Greek yogurt), you may also use some low-fat mascarpone (which is somehow hard to find). But then again, the yogurt offers more health benefits with the probiotics it contains!

Ingredients:

225 grams sunflower seeds

7 pitted dates

1 tbsp organic coconut oil

350 grams plain non-fat yogurt

125 grams strawberries

125 grams raspberries

1/4 cup agave syrup

Preparation:

1. In a pan, lightly roast the sunflower seeds for 5-7 minutes.

2. After the roasted sunflower seeds have cooled, pulse them in a blender for 2 minutes, and then add the dates and the coconut oil until a paste is formed.

3. Press the paste onto your pie mould:

4. Puree the strawberries and raspberries with the agave syrup.

5. Stir the fruit puree into the yogurt, and pour above the crust:

6. Freeze for around 1 1/2 hours. Enjoy!

Roula