June is all about strawberries for me so I figured I’d better get started with strawberry-themed desserts as soon as possible, the season is short! I try to only buy them in season and switch to frozen if a sudden hankering for a strawberry smoothie hits me in the middle of winter (although it rarely does to be honest) so I cannot get enough of them when the season finally rolls around…
The sun is meant to be out in full force this weekend so we wasted no time and invited some friends for a BBQ, as you’ve got to make the most of the sunny weekends when you live in the UK! I have a pottery class for the whole day on Saturday and I’m working today so I decided to rein in my perfectionist tendencies and attempt low-effort hosting so that I can enjoy the day instead of fretting about food. I am planning to marinate the filling for these simple fajitas tonight and cook them on our barbie and I bought a stack of corn tortillas so that I’m not tempted to be chained to the tortilla press and my hob for hours. On the day I will whip up a simple cashew crema and some guacamole and take a bottle of hot sauce out of the cupboard 😉 . For dessert, I came up with a super simple cheesecake in a glass with a side of gluten-free shortbread. One of our friends is a Celiac so I’ve taken extra care to make sure there is no gluten involved at all as I know how much he suffers if he ingests any. What’s nice about this dessert is how easy it is to make, there are no setting agents involved, no faff. You simply dump all of the ingredients into a blender and blend the mixture until super smooth. It gets thick and creamy after a few hours (overnight is ideal) in the fridge. I flavoured it with lemon and cardamom but ginger would also be a great flavour match. To add a bit of crunch, I made a tray of simple shortbreads, but I am serving them on the side rather than in the dessert so that they retain maximum crunch. I made mine from scratch for the sake of my friend, but many biscuits are accidentally vegan so you can simply buy some. I hope you and your guests / fellow diners will appreciate the flavour and the simplicity of this summer, strawberry-laden dessert. Less time in the kitchen, more time for catching the rays outside, I say…I’m like my basil plants – which are still thriving, who knew… – I need my sunshine to feel like all is well in the world.
45 ml / 3 tbsp lemon juice + zest of 1 large lemon 90 ml / 6 tbsp maple syrup or other liquid sweetener 1 tbsp vanilla extract or paste 200 g / 1 cup silken tofu 200 g / 1½ cups raw cashews, soaked* 8 g / 4 tsp tapioca starch (optional, see METHOD) scant ½ tsp ground cardamom (optional)**
SHORTBREAD (makes 12)
2 tsp psyllium husks (for GF version only) 50 g / ¼ cup refined coconut oil or vegan butter, softened 38 g / 3 tbsp sugar 50 g / ½ cup almond flour 65 g / ½ cup GF flour mix (I like this one), rice flour or regular AP flour 1/8 tsp salt ¼ tsp ground cardamom (optional)
SHORTBREAD
