Vegan Lemon Cheesecake (GU-Style)
Yield:
6
Prep Time:
20 minutes
Additional Time:
4 hours
Total Time:
4 hours 20 minutes
These no-bake vegan lemon cheesecake pots are my dairy-free take on the Gü classic — a buttery biscuit base, a thick layer of creamy Violife lemon filling, and a bright hit of fresh lemon zest. Just six ingredients, no oven and no setting agents: the fridge does all the work. Make them ahead in little ramekins for dinner parties, or keep a batch for an everyday treat.
No Ratings
Ingredients
- 120 g vegan biscuits
- 50 g vegan butter, melted
- 300 g Violife cream cheese
- 100 g plain vegan yoghurt
- 55 g caster sugar (or icing sugar)
- 2 lemons, zested and juiced
Instructions
- Make the base: Crush 120 grams of vegan biscuits into fine crumbs (bash in a bag or blitz). Stir in 50 grams of melted vegan butter until it looks like wet sand.
- Press and chill: Divide the crumb between 6 GU ramekins and press down firmly with the back of a spoon. Chill while you make the filling.
- Beat the cream cheese: Beat 300 grams Violife cream cheese with 55 grams caster sugar (or icing sugar) and the zest of 2 lemons, zested and juiced, until completely smooth and glossy. Icing sugar dissolves best if you have it.
- Add lemon and yoghurt: Fold in 100 grams plain vegan yoghurt and the juice of one and a half lemons from 2 lemons, zested and juiced. The acid helps it firm up. Taste and add more juice for extra tang. If your yoghurt is watery, drain it first so the filling isn't loose.
- Fill the pots: Spoon the filling over the chilled bases and smooth the tops.
- Chill to set: Refrigerate for at least 240 minutes, ideally overnight, until set. Finish with a little extra lemon zest before serving.
Notes
A cream-cheese-heavy ratio gives the firmest set without agar — don't be tempted to add more yoghurt. For a sharper GU-style hit, zest both lemons, but save some zest to scatter on top. Overnight chilling makes a real difference to how cleanly it holds its shape.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 6 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 354Total Fat: 27gSaturated Fat: 15gUnsaturated Fat: 12gCholesterol: 69mgSodium: 338mgCarbohydrates: 25gFiber: 1gSugar: 13gProtein: 6g
A dairy-free love letter to the little glass pot
If you grew up in the UK, you know the ritual: dinner’s done, someone opens the fridge, and out come those little glass Gü pots. For years, I watched everyone else dig into a lemon cheesecake while I sat with a square of dark chocolate, because going plant-based meant the dessert aisle mostly stopped talking to me. So I did what I always do – went home and worked out how to make my own. These no-bake vegan lemon cheesecake pots are the result, and honestly, I think they hold their own against the originals.
They’re made with six everyday ingredients, set in the fridge overnight with no oven and no faff, and land in that sweet-sharp, pillowy place that makes a good lemon cheesecake so hard to put down. Best of all, they go straight into reused ramekins — Gü or otherwise — so there’s a pleasing full-circle feeling to the whole thing.
A quick word on Gü (and why it’s worth copying)
Gü started life in London back in 2003, the brainchild of James Averdieck, who’d fallen for the patisserie counters of Belgium and decided Britain deserved restaurant-quality puddings in the chilled aisle. The first products were chocolate — mousses and a now-legendary soufflé — all served in heavy little glass ramekins people couldn’t quite bring themselves to throw away. (My cupboard, like yours, is quietly full of them.)
The cheesecakes came soon after, and lemon was one of the originals, arriving around 2005 and never really leaving. What makes it work is restraint: a thin, buttery base, a thick and genuinely creamy middle, and just enough lemon to cut the richness without tipping into lemon-curd territory. Gü even launched a proper vegan range a few years back, which tells you the demand was always there. My version just gets you to the same place from your own fridge, for a fraction of the price.
Why lemon earns its place
Lemon and cheesecake are one of those pairings that feels almost structural. Cheesecake is, by design, rich and dense and a little bit much — that’s the point of it. Lemon is the counterweight. The acidity doesn’t just add flavour; it physically brightens the whole spoonful and keeps each bite feeling light enough to warrant the next one.
There’s a practical bonus for vegan bakers, too. A good hit of fresh lemon juice helps firm a plant-based filling, because the acid thickens the cream cheese and yoghurt as it chills. So the lemon here is doing double duty — it’s the flavour, and it’s part of the set. Use the zest for perfume and the juice for both tang and structure, and don’t be shy with either.
Setting a vegan cheesecake without agar
This is the question I get asked most, so let me save you the trial and error. Traditional no-bake cheesecakes lean on dairy that firms up hard when cold. Vegan cream cheese behaves differently — Violife, which I use here, sets beautifully in the fridge but stays soft at room temperature. That’s actually very on-brand for Gü, whose pots have always been more mousse than New-York slab.
The trick is ratio, not chemistry. Keep the filling cream-cheese-heavy and the yoghurt modest, so you get richness and a reliable set without needing agar, coconut cream or anything you’d have to go shopping for. If your yoghurt is on the watery side, give it a quick drain first. Then let time do the work: four hours will get you there, but overnight is where the magic happens, giving you clean spoonfuls that hold their shape right down to the bottom of the pot.
Serve them cold, straight from the fridge, with an extra grating of zest on top. Six little pots, one bowl to wash, and not a dairy cow in sight.
More no-bake vegan desserts to try
- No-Bake Vegan Biscoff Cheesecake: a buttery Biscoff crust and creamy dairy-free filling
- Festive Vegan Trifle Bûche: a show-stopping plant-based Christmas centrepiece
- Decadent Dark Chocolate Sorbet: rich, refreshing and naturally dairy-free
Or browse all my vegan dessert recipes for more ideas.
