Raw Vegan, Gluten Free, Blueberry Cream Tart In A Chocolate Coconut Crust - Perfect For Valentines Day!

This blueberry tart makes a perfect Valentine's day dessert!

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Blueberries and Chocolate
I know, it's almost Valentine's day. I should be making something red, like chocolate covered strawberries or red velvet cupcakes. But I was inspired by the thought of whipping fresh blueberries and cashews into a creamy filling served in a simple raw crust made from heart healthy English walnuts, dried coconut and chocolate in its purest form - raw cacao. Is there a better way to say, "I love you" than giving a gift of delicious and powerful antioxidants? I don't think so.

Elegant or Casual?
This recipe makes enough for one 4 1/2 inch tart pan with enough crumble and filling left over for 2 small ramekins. A tart makes a very elegant presentation. But if you don't have a tart pan, feel free to use individual ramekins or small bowls for the entire recipe. Sprinkle the crust ingredients in the bottom of 4 to 6 individual ramekins or small bowls and cover them with the filling. It tastes just as delicious!

Don't have a tart pan? No problem.
Just sprinkle the crust on the bottom of individual ramekins.
Cover with blueberry filling, top with a blueberry and serve!

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Blueberry Cream Tart 
Raw Vegan, Gluten Free
Requires a high speed blender, a 4 1/2 inch tart pan and 2 small ramekins
Plan 8 hours ahead to allow time for soaking and chilling
[ makes 4 to 6 servings]

For the Crust (Chocolate Crumble)
3/4 cup raw English Walnuts
3 Medjool dates, pitted and chopped
4 teaspoons raw cacao (or unsweetened cocoa)
1 tablespoon unsweetened, shredded coconut
Pinch of salt

For the Filling
1/2 cup raw cashews, soaked 6 hours
2 Medjool dates, pitted and soaked 6 hours
2 packets powdered stevia
1 cup fresh blueberries plus 8 for garnish

Prepare the crust. Place the crust ingredients in a food processor, such as a Cuisinart, fitted with an S-blade. Process until they form a "chocolate crumble" and are the size of bread crumbs. The will begin to stick together.

Making chocolate crumble for the crust

Place enough chocolate crumble into a 4 1/2 inch tart pan to cover the bottom and the sides. Press with your fingers to make a crust. You should have enough to sprinkle the bottoms of 2 small ramekins. If you do not have a tart pan, divide all of the crumble into four to six small ramekins.

Press enough of the crumble to cover the bottom and sides of a 4 1/2 inch tart pan with a removable bottom.

Sprinkle the rest in the bottom of 2 small ramekins.
You can use all ramekins if you don't have a tart pan.

Prepare the filling. Drain and rinse the cashews. Drain the dates reserving the soak water. (You will not be using the date soak water for this recipe, but save it for a smoothie.)

Place the cashews, dates, blueberries (reserving 8 for the garnish) and stevia in a high speed blender, such as a Vitamix or a Blendtec. Blend until smooth, scraping down the sides as necessary. 

Filling ingredients

Process the cashews, blueberries, dates and stevia until smooth

Spread the filling over the crust and garnish with fresh blueberries. Spread the remaining filling over the 2 individual ramekins and garnish each with a single blueberry. 
Cover gently with plastic wrap or was paper and refrigerate for one hour.

Carefully push the tart up from the bottom and remove the side pan. Enjoy!

Release from tart pan and serve.

Added Bonus and Tip
You may notice that it's almost impossible to get all of the filling out of your Vitamix. I just hate wasting all of those beautiful ingredients. So make a small smoothie!
Add the date soak water and a cup of almond milk to the blender with its residue filling. Blend until smooth and enjoy!

Go Nuts For This Raw Vegan Pecan Pie, Made As Cute Little Tarts - A Great Thanksgiving Dessert

This recipe calls for 4 1/2 " tart pans with removable bottoms.

Press walnut mixture into and up the sides of the tart pans.

Fill with cashew and date filling. Then top with pecan halves.

A Special Dessert

I love pecans, especially raw Texas pecans. Unfortunately whenever I've been served pecan pie, I generally just pick the pecans off the top and leave the rest. Traditional pecan pie is made from processed white flour, lots of sugar and corn syrup, butter and eggs. This delicious raw dessert has no processed sugar - it's sweetened by dates. Three kinds of heart healthy nuts are used in this tart: English walnuts, cashews and, of course, pecans. Some ground flaxseeds are added to the crust to optimize the omega 6 to omega 3 balance to 4:1.

But as "non-processed" as it may be, this dessert is very rich so save it for special occasions like the upcoming holidays. You also only need to eat a small portion. Last night Doug and I each ate 1/4 of this small tart and it was plenty.

Tart Pans

I use 4 1/2" tart pans with 3/4 inch sides for this recipe. I found some on the King Arthur website. You can use others that are close to that dimension. But whatever you use, a fluted tart pan is very elegant.

Complete Raw Vegan Thanksgiving Menu

Last Thanksgiving I posted a Complete Raw Vegan Thanksgiving or Winter Holiday menu from raw appetizers to dessert. It's been a very popular post so check it out for lots of great "raw" ideas for Thanksgiving.

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Raw Vegan Pecan Tart

[makes two 4 1/2 inch tarts, 8 servings]

For the crust

Some extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil to grease the tart pans

3/4 cups raw English walnut pieces

4 teaspoons dried, shredded, unsweetened coconut

1/8 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 large Medjool dates, pitted

4 teaspoons ground flaxseeds

For the filling

10 large Medjool dates, pitted and soaked for 1 hour

Some reserved date soak water

1/3 cup raw cashews, soaked 6 hours or more

2 teaspoons fresh lime juice

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon unrefined virgin coconut oil, softened

1/8 teaspoon sea salt

20 perfect, raw pecan halves

You'll need two 4 1/2 inch tart pans with removable bottoms.

Oil the insides of each tart pan with extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil.

To make the crust, place English walnuts, coconut, salt and cinnamon in a food processor with an S blade. Process until crumbly.

Add dates and ground flaxseeds and process until the mixture begins to stick together.

Divide mixture among the two tart pans and press firmly into the bottom and up the sides of the pans. You can use your fingers or the back of a teaspoon. (No need to clean the food processor, you'll be using it again).

To make the filling, drain the dates reserving the soak water. Drain and rinse the cashews.

Place the dates, cashews, lime juice, vanilla extract, coconut oil, and sea salt in the food processor and process until smooth, scraping down the sides often. If it is too dry, add 1 tablespoon of the reserved date water but only if needed. Save the rest of the date water to sweeten your morning smoothie.

Fill the crust filled tart pans with the date filling.

Top each tart with 10 pecan halves.

Refrigerate for several hours. Carefully push tart up and remove side pan. You can serve tarts on their removable disk or carefully try to remove it.

Cut each tart into 4 pieces and serve. Or, more easily, set tarts on the table and hand your guests forks!

Per serving: 247.5 calories, 13.3 g fat, 2.3 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 1.3 g ALA omega 3 and 5.4 g omega 6 fatty acids, 3.1 g protein, 33.4 g carbohydrates and 6.2 g of dietary fiber.

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Ice Cream Tart with Raspberries—Vegan Ice Cream, Frozen Yogurt and Goat Milk Ice Cream Options

4 1/2 inch tart pan with a removable bottom.


The pleasure of a dessert has many facets. Of course it has to be delicious but it also adds a lot to your experience if it’s beautiful. And, I must admit, there’s nothing much prettier in the dessert department than a tart!

So I went on Amazon looking for miniature tart pans. They were selling a set of six 4 ½ inch pans with removable bottoms (very important), from Golda’s Kitchen (a company in Mississauga, Ontario). I’m still experimenting with recipes, but the easiest and most tasty so far is one that uses a simple raw vegan crust made from walnuts and dates and is filled with my favorite soy ice cream. Top it with some raspberries and you have an elegant and delicious treat. Its presentation will impress your guests and they will never know it took you 10 minutes to prepare it. The soy and walnuts make this a heart healthy, guilt free dessert.

I love soy ice cream but you need to taste different brands to see which one you like as they vary in sweetness and texture. There are some terrific ones on the market now and the selection continues to grow. I like Turtle Mountain’s “So Delicious Dairy Free Creamy Vanilla” and another favorite is “Soy Dream Green Tea”.

For my non vegan friends, feel free to fill this tart with healthy, low fat frozen yogurt full of live cultures. Our local yogurt shop makes a flavor called, “simply Sebastopol”. It contains organic non fat milk and is sweetened with organic agave syrup which has a lower glycemic index than regular cane sugar.

Another non vegan option for those of you who may be allergic to cow milk or soy milk products is Laloo’s goat’s milk ice cream. Their grass fed goats roam around on 350 acres in Sonoma County, California. Their ice cream is low in fat, contains no growth hormones, has live active cultures and allows superior digestibility over cow’s milk. Many lactose intolerant people can tolerate goat’s milk. My husband picked up some “Deep Chocolate” for his tart and it was truly amazing.

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Ice Cream Tart with Raspberries
2 1/4 cups raw walnuts
9 large Medjool dates, pitted and coarsely chopped
¼ teaspoon salt
Quart of your favorite ice cream
Raspberries for garnish

Remove ice cream from the freezer and let soften. Process walnuts and salt in a food processor until course. Add dates and process until the mixture starts to stick together but be careful not to over process. This will make 3 cups of crust. Use a minimum of 1/3 cup per tart. Oil the bottom and sides of the tart pan. Press the nut mixture firmly in the bottom and place enough ice cream over the crust to fill the pan. With a very long and thin spatula (the kind used to ice a cake), spread the ice cream out until it is very smooth and completely even with the top of the pan. Place in the freezer until hard (at least 4 hours). Carefully remove the tart by placing it on top of a small glass or jar smaller than the removable disk in the tart pan (I use a large vitamin bottle) and pushing down until the tart comes out. Leave the disc on the bottom of the tart (it’s too hard to remove) and place tart in a small dish. Garnish with raspberries and serve immediately.