Today is a special one because you’re visiting a page that’s part of the Virtual Vegan Potluck! This is the second one that Turning Veganese has been fortunate enough to participate in and it’s a great way to look at lots of vegan food blogs and even some non-vegan blogs that are participating by presenting a vegan dish. I definitely recommend exploring. Use the “go forward” and “go back” buttons at the bottom of the page to participate.
I wanted to be sure that Florida culture came out in my Virtual Vegan Potluck contribution so I decided to include some local flare. Guava pastries are a staple in our Cuban heritage, coconut and lime are ubiquitous in Caribbean cuisine so I wanted to include them in this recipe, and pecans are here to represent the Southern elements in South Florida culture. This is an incredibly easy recipe and shouldn’t take you more than 20 minutes to prepare. All you need is a good spring form pan and the ingredients.
First prepare the crust by combining the following in a bowl:
1 cup of medjool dates, soaked overnight in water, drained and blended until smooth
1 cup of shredded coconut, preferably unsweetened
1 cup of crushed pecans
1 cup of almond meal
1/4 tsp of vanilla extract
a pinch of cinnamon
Mix these until uniform, adding extra water if it’s dry. It should be crumbly and a little sticky.
Once you like the texture, moosh it into the bottom of your spring form pan.
Now that you’ve got your crust, we’ve got to make the ‘cheese’cake part. It’s simple too:
1 carton of silken tofu
1 tsp starch (we used arrowroot) dissolved in 1 tbsp of lime juice
7 ounces of guava paste
Put all of that into your blender and blend until smooth. Pour it over the crust and put it into your freezer.
I sprinkled mine with some additional coconut to make it extra pretty. It’ll be ready in 4 hours.
Remove the wall of your spring form pan and serve. It will get gooey as it melts so put your spring form base on a wide plate to catch anything that falls off the edge.
This concludes my part in the Virtual Vegan Potluck event and I hope you’ll visit all the other posts in the chain. If you’re new to Turning Veganese, I hope you’ll visit again. Click on the “go forward” or “go back” button below to see what else the Virtual Vegan Potluck has in store for you!
This is Christie and Brent, signing off to head to the Potluck!
Turning Veganese 
Love how beautiful and simple this is. Where in the heck can I find guava paste? Sounds divine!
When I’m not in Miami I usually find it in the ‘ethnic’ section of the supermarket. Let me know if you can’t find it and I’ll send you some.
Sweet! I’ll be on the lookout!
The pecans in the bottom/crust sound terrific!
🙂 I hope you get to try it… pecans give it a texture to match the flavors.
My Bestie lives in Miami, I know what I want her to send to me ASAP….Lovely recipe
I could eat the crust all by itself – but topping it w/ guava creaminess – wow. Beautiful and creative contribution. Thanks for being a part of the Potluck again this time around!
Brent licked the bowl… I’m kinda jealous. I’m really glad we could participate. The VVP is definitely worth the effort: meeting new blogs, people and recipes is the shiznit!
I couldn’t have said it better!
I love the flavour combinations in this and I also love the word ‘moosh’. 🙂
Brent is the expert moosher in this house. We do it instead of other mixing and molding techniques purely for the fun of mooshing. 😉
I don’t blame you, when you get the chance to moosh, grab it with both hands!
Just making my way through the VVP & wanted to say hey 🙂
Wow, look delicious. And nice and simple! Nice to meet you at the potluck!
Wohh just what I was searching for, appreciate it for putting up.
Guava!? Amazing! What great flavor combinations. YUM!
This looks soooo good! I don’t know if I’ve ever had guava, but I want to try it now
Oh, yuuuum! I need a slice of this now, perhaps with a mojito? 🙂
Oh you said the magic words! Mojito and guava cheesecake…
I love that you used local ingredients, and created so honest South Florida flair in your dessert. It looks delicious too!
So beautiful and wonderfully tasty – I am sure 🙂
I love guavas. I usually just use it in fruit salads. I am really excited about this recipe.
Thank you for the great recipe.
I live in Miami and toured super markets looking for a healthy version of guava paste. Guavas are naturally sweet but unfortunately ALL guava paste that you find on the shelves contain refined sugar. To me this just defeats the purpose of a healthy dessert since me and my children we don’t eat refined sugars.
However I purchased guava pulp (frozen) which is 100% natural guava. it doesn’t have the same texture as guava paste (far from it) but I will give it a try.