Creamy vegan lemon tart with a date and nut crust is the perfect year-round dessert. It’s great for holidays with its festive colors, and topping it with fresh berries makes it even more delicious. The crust is simple to make in a food processor and takes only 12 minutes to bake. The filling cooks up quickly on the stovetop with only a few ingredients that you probably already have in your kitchen.
What You Need To Make This Lemon Tart
- dates
- walnuts
- almonds
- rolled oats
- maple syrup
- refined coconut oil
- vegan butter
- 2 lemons
- corn starch or arrowroot
- agar agar
- plant milk (unflavored and unsweetened
- light coconut milk (unsweetened)
- 9″ springform pan
If you’ve been looking for a vegan lemon tart recipe, this one more than holds its own against the traditional lemon tart made with eggs. You can also make it gluten-free by using gluten-free oats from Bob’s Red Mill.
Looking for more desserts with fruit? Here’s a blueberry almond crisp that’s sure to please everyone.
If you love lemons, here’s another way to add them to your cooking:
Lemon Tart
Prep
Cook
Inactive
Total
Yield 1 9" tart
A creamy and tangy vegan lemon tart with a date nut crust.
Ingredients
For the crust:
- 1 cup chopped dates (about 6 whole dates)
- ¾ cup raw almonds
- ¾ cup raw walnuts
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons refined coconut oil, melted
- 1-2 teaspoons vegan butter for greasing the pan
- 9” round springform pan with 2” high sides
For the filling:
- ½ cup fresh lemon juice (from 1-2 lemons)
- Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
- 3 tablespoons corn starch or arrowroot
- ½ cup unsweetened plant milk
- 13.5 ounces light coconut milk (1 can), unsweetened
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon agar agar
- ½ teaspoon turmeric (for color; optional)
- Fresh raspberries, blueberries, and/or sliced strawberries for garnish.
Instructions
First, make the crust. Heat your oven to 350℉. Combine all crust ingredients in a food processor, and process until very crumbly and the ingredients hold together in one loose ball and no large chunks of nuts remain. You may have to stop a few times to scrape down the sides with a small spatula. The dough will be very sticky. Lightly coat the inside of the springform pan with vegan butter. Scrape the dough into the pan. With damp fingers or the back of a soup spoon, press the dough evenly over the bottom and and 1” high up the sides of the pan. It helps to have a small bowl of warm water to dip the spoon in if the dough sticks to the spoon.
Bake the crust for 12 minutes. If it rises up while baking, that’s fine. Just press it down gently after it comes out of the oven. Let it cool completely before filling.
Make the filling by combining all filling ingredients in a saucepan. Whisking constantly, heat the mixture just to boiling, then lower the heat to a simmer for 3 minutes. Let the mixture cool slightly. It will thicken as it cools. Pour the filling into the crust and let it sit at room temperature for an hour before refrigerating the tart. The tart should be refrigerated, covered with aluminum foil, for at least 4 hours before serving.
Use a very sharp thin knife to cut the slices, and use a pie server to remove the slices from the pan to ensure whole slices as the tart can be delicate. Garnish with berries. Store the tart refrigerated.
Notes
If your dates are quite hard or dried, soak them in warm water for 10 minutes. Also make sure to remove any hard or woody sections from the center of the date where the pit was removed.
To get finely grated lemon zest, use a microplane. Zest the lemon before squeezing it; it’s tricky to zest a lemon after it’s been squeezed.
If your goal is a gluten-free tart, make sure that you’re using gluten-free oats. These oats are grown in fields that aren’t contaminated with wheat. Bob’s Red Mill is a good source for this product.
This tart is also excellent when made with lime juice substituted for lemon, and lime zest for lemon zest. Just don’t use turmeric for coloring.
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