Mini Vegan Limoncello Cheesecake

These turned out delicious.  They are super flavorful.

 

Mini Vegan Limoncello Cheesecake

Preheat your oven to 350 and lightly grease and flour 24 mini muffin cups.

Crust:

1 Cup ground walnuts
2 Tablespoon Sugar
4 Tablespoons Flour
4 Tablespoons Coconut Oil- Melted ( you can use a vegan margarine)

Grind up walnuts in a food processor or blender. ( if you have almond meal sitting around your house you can use that instead.  I did not because my sister is very allergic and my parents would get mad if I killed her).  Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl and mix until everything is moist and crumbly.  Divide up the mixture in your prepped muffin tins and press them into the bottom of  each cup.  Store in the freezer as you make the filling.  

Filling:

16 Ounces (2 Cup or 2 Container) Tofutti “Cream Cheese”
4 Tablespoons Cornstarch
1/2Cup Granulated Sugar
2/3 Cup Limoncello  ( Used my homemade limoncello)
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Beat together the “cream cheese,” corn starch, and sugar with your mixer on low speed, or with a wide spatula, until smooth. Pour in the limoncello and vanilla, mixing until thoroughly combined. Distribute the filling between all of your crust-lined cupcakes, and bake for 15 – 20 minutes. Like a standard cheesecake, they will seem very loose when fresh out of the oven, but continue to firm up as they cool, so be careful not to over bake them. The cheesecake bites will puff significantly in the oven, but will fall as they cool.

After chilling in the fridge for at least an hour, slip a thin paring knife down the sides of each cheesecake bite and use it as a lever to remove them. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Makes 24

Alternate ideas:

 Corn blackberry (cornmeal instead of flour and blackberry cordial instead of limoncello)

Chocolate Kahlua ( add cocoa powder to the crust and kahlua instead of limoncello)

The Great Cabbage Challenge 3

Usually my soups are a casual amalgamation of whatever I have sitting around: a broth, a little bit of starch (pasta, grain, or potato), some vegetables and some herbs and spices.

I was digging around in my cupboard and found some dried beans and thought "hmm there is nothing like the excitement of beans and cabbage".  So a new soup was born.

Cabbage Bean Soup with Toasted Parmesan Bread

¼ cup onion

Olive oil

Sauté the onion in the oil until soft

Broth

A clove of garlic (or more to taste)

½ cup diced tomato

½ cup whole beans (I used pink for this but any will work)

Generous handful of sliced cabbage

Pinch of sage, thyme, marjoram and pepper ( any mixture of your favorite herbs and spices will do)

Handful of a small pasta (I used spaghettini, you could also use a grain, quinoa or diced potato)

Add to onions and cook until pasta is tender

Slice of bread

Butter

Parmesan cheese

Toast the first side of the bread

Turn bread over and sprinkle with parmesan and cover

When second side is toasted, turn over one more time to toast the cheese.