This colourful vegan dessert is packed with the flavour of fresh lemons
Life is severely lacking lemons. It’s true! Everything today is white, purified and sanitized. Whatever happened to the lemon-yellow colour you used to see everywhere—from cars to plates to dresses and accessories? When will we ever see a lemon-yellow cell phone? Add some lemon to your life. Sure, you can make lemonade, but why not make these squares too?
CRUST INGREDIENTS
- 12 pitted Medjool dates
- 1 cup whole almonds
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- Pinch of salt
FILLING INGREDIENTS
- 1⁄2 cup cornstarch
- 3⁄4 cup (150 g) cane sugar
- 1⁄2 teaspoon turmeric
- Pinch of salt
- 2 (14 oz) cans coconut milk
- 3⁄4 cup lemon juice
- Zest from 2 lemons
- 1 (8 oz) block silken tofu
INSTRUCTIONS
- For the crust, in a food processor, blend all the ingredients together until the mixture has a uniform, crumbly texture.
- Line an 8-inch (20 cm) square baking pan with parchment paper. Press the crust mixture into the pan and refrigerate for 2 hours.
- For the filling, in a saucepan, off the heat, combine the cornstarch with the sugar, turmeric, and salt.
- Whisk in the coconut milk, lemon juice, lemon zest, and silken tofu. Use an immersion blender to blend until smooth.
- Bring the mixture to a boil while whisking constantly, lower the heat, simmer for 2 minutes, then remove from the heat.
- Pour over the crust and refrigerate for 4 hours to set before cutting into squares.
Makes 9 squares | Prep time: 30 min | Cook time: 5 min | Rest time: 4 hours
Excerpted from The Buddhist Chef’s Vegan Comfort Cooking. Copyright © 2021 Jean-Philippe Cyr. Photography © 2021 Samuel Joubert and Dominique Lafond. Published by Appetite by Random House®, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.