RainbowPlantLife Vegan Cheesecake

I got an Instant Pot for Christmas and did you know you can make cheesecake in it? Like, even when it’s 100 degrees outside and you want cheesecake but you don’t want to turn on the oven for an hour? Yeah, it’s awesome.

I bought Nisha’s cookbook before it even came out and waited (impatiently) for it to be delivered. There’s a recipe in her book for Oreo cheesecake, which is totally doable for me because Trader Joe’s makes gluten-free Joe-Joe’s. But I kinda wanted regular cheesecake and thankfully she has a recipe on her website, along with a how-to video. Actually, she has quite a few videos on YouTube. But back to the cheesecake!

I didn’t feel like looking for vegan graham crackers. The ones we have in the cabinet are gluten-free but “may contain eggs”. So I decided that ground oats could work in place of graham crackers or ginger snap cookies. I soaked the cashews and bought vegan cream cheese. I was ready for cheesecake!

Except I couldn’t open the jar for the coconut oil because my husband is FREAKISHLY strong! He’d used it for making energy balls and closed it so tightly I thought I was going to have to go buy more coconut oil. He was at work and I tried all the tricks to open a stuck jar. Then I saw the avocado oil I bought for a vegan and gluten-free carrot cake and I figured that could work. I used 1 cup of ground oats, the 1/2 cup of pecans and 2 tablespoons avocado oil. I ended up with too much crust filling, so I’d suggest cutting back to 3/4 cup ground oats next time.

Nisha’s idea for a sling made of aluminum foil is a good one that I was glad I didn’t skip. I didn’t make any topping and her recipe is so good that it’s just perfect as-is!