France is the land of my favorite food I try to avoid: bread, cheese, salted butter, cream wine and champagne. Ok. So I don’t avoid the wine and champagne. And butter I don’t necessarily avoid – but replace with coconut oil or ghee. But every time I go, I promise myself I will not do is over-indulge on the wine, cheese, bread, butter and cream. But when vegetables are scarce on the family table, vegetarian substitutes are heavy pasta with cream sauce and salads are more dressing than lettuce, as a vegetarian, I find it difficult not to indulge in the things I should not.This year I am in luck. my sister-in-law has been vegetarian, my brother-in-law has started to experiemtn with vegetarian cooking and my mother-in-law is into “healthier” cuisine. And although they forget, they love my cooking when they visit us in the states (or so I hear…). So this year I packed my bags with a spiralizer, a mandoline (yes I know it is a French culinary instrument, but apparently not used in their home), a cook book called At the French Market  all about vegetarian french recipes so i could spend sometime cooking with them. Now that I don’t have to focus on the veggies as an obstacle to introduce to the fare, I focused on desserts.  The apple roses to please them, the cashew-based cheezcake to expand their minds.

I  love the fall and winter for the plethora of pumpkins and squashes. They are abundant here and in France. Except in France the season is not dictated by “pumpkin flavored”  or “pumpkin spiced” (insert edible or aromatic here). So I roasted a seeded pumpkin for about 45 min until tender an made it into a puree…of course you can use a canned pumpkin puree, but fresh offers so many more nutrients.

 For the cheesecake, I used soaked cashews and separately soaked dates – both soaked for 3 hours to overnight as the base. But first I blended dates until they were liquid – this serves as the sweetner. I saved the date water for pureeing.

• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 1/2 pecans
• 1 cup pitted dates
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

• 3 cups cashews, soaked overnight, water drained
• 10 dates, soaked overnight
• 1 and 1/3 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/3 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 3 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp ground allspice
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground clove
• 1 tsp salt
• coconut flakes (optional)

For the crust:

Oil a 9 x 12 pan with coconut oil.

Add pecans and walnuts to a food processor and grind into a meal. Add dates, salt and cinnamon and incorporate. Process on and off until sandy like in texture. Press into the baking dish – distribute evenly and press down firmly. Place into fridge.

For the cheesecake:

Soak the cashews in water for 3 hour to overnight. Discard the water.

Add dates to a food processor with a little bit of the soaked water and puree until smooth. Add soaked cashews, pumpkin puree, spices and lemon juice and puree until smooth – about 5-10 minutes depending on the food processor. It should be smooth and creamy – not grainy or textured (otherwise keep blending). Push down side every so often so it it fully mixed. add a little bit of date soaking liquid as needed but not too much as the filling must not be liquid.

Pour over date nut crust evenly and top with coconut flakes or desired garnish as needed. Freeze for at least 2 hours. Cut into squares and serve. Can stay in freezer for up to 2 weeks.