The Best No-Bake Greek Yogurt Cheesecake

No gelatin powder, no cream cheese, no problem! This Greek yogurt cheesecake is the easiest and healthiest no-bake cheesecake you’ll find.

I’m always looking for more ways to sneak more protein and less sugar into my kids’ (okay, and my own) diet, so this no-bake yogurt cheesecake was the perfect solution for our summer dessert cravings. This recipe was inspired by Japanese no-bake cheesecakes, which are called “rare cheesecakes” in Japanese. BUT, almost all the Japanese recipes I found used gelatin. While I did test a gelatin-based cheesecake, I simply didn’t love the texture, so I created a cheesecake mixture that set all by itself! In fact, the filling is only five ingredients! I really try to make my recipes as accessible as possible, so it also requires very minimal equipment. Please read through the blog post for any questions you may have on substitutions and variations. Otherwise jump down to the recipe or leave any further questions in the comments below!

Does This Taste Like Regular Cheesecake?

Before we get ahead of ourselves, I want to make it clear – this is not going to replicate the exact flavor of a typical cheesecake with cream cheese. It gets pretty dang close, with the same creamy texture, but it has a little bit more of a tang and a little less of the richness – exactly like how Greek yogurt is a little more acidic and less fatty than cream cheese. But please don’t leave me comments about how it doesn’t taste like normal cheesecake. Some things must be sacrificed in the name of health.

One way to actually make this more similar to a standard cheesecake is to increase the amount of powdered sugar to one cup and make it sweeter. Most of my blog readers like desserts to be less sweet, so it’s not a recommendation I make often. Another way to get closer to the real deal is to use a full fat Greek yogurt, but again, you lose some of the benefit of choosing a “healthy” recipe.

Equipment Needed

The way that the filling in this no-bake cheesecake sets is partially by whipping heavy cream to stiff peaks. To do that, you’ll really need either a stand mixer or an electric hand mixer. Other than that, the only things you’ll need are probably already in your kitchen.

In order to make this a 100% yogurt cheesecake, you need your yogurt to be very thick and replace the cream cheese. The way to do that is to create a yogurt cheese, which is basically the same as the middle eastern cheese called labneh. Line a strainer with a cheesecloth and arrange the strainer on top of another bowl to catch the excess liquid as it drains. Put your yogurt into the cheesecloth, cover, and set in the fridge overnight. The liquid will drain from the yogurt into the bowl, and you’ll be left with a soft, tangy cheese.

Of course you could substitute cream cheese for the labneh, but then it’s really not a yogurt cheesecake, is it?

Changing Up the Crust

My crust recipe is very simple, just graham cracker crumbs and unsalted butter. For a little extra flavor, feel free to add up to 1/2 teaspoon of Kosher salt and/or 1/4 cup of brown sugar. Alternatively, you could substitute a different kind of cookie for the graham crackers. You can blend gingersnaps, Oreos, Speculoos, or any other crispy shortbread-type cookie in a food processor to create crumbs.

Adjusting Sweetness

I know this is an Asian food blog, so I’m not really surprised when readers ask if there’s a way to make this less sweet. Unfortunately, the powdered sugar is one of the factors that helps the filling set, so I don’t recommend decreasing the amount or substituting it for another sweetener. I do think that it’s perfectly just-sweet-enough as is. But, as I said above, you can increase the sweetness if you choose! I would recommend adding no more than an extra 1/3 cup powdered sugar.

Serving Suggestions

This cake is great on its own, but because of its perfectly white filling with little vanilla specks, it also pairs really well (both visually and taste-wise) with bright fruits. Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries – pretty much any berry will work well either on its own or cooked into a compote. Remember that this is a 6″ round cake, so the slices will be fairly small – maybe not even big enough for one whole strawberry per slice. Drizzled chocolate syrup or pistachio spread would work well too.

More No-Bake Desserts

Looking for more cold desserts for hot days? Check these out:

• Almond jello
• Coconut jelly
• Strawberry bingsu
• Warabimochi