Vegan Lemon Tart with Shortbread Crust

A sweet and easy vegan lemon tart made right in the blender! Using the easiest vegan shortbread crust and topped with sweet berries.

To be completely honest, this lemon tart totally came about when I realized a few weeks ago that I had 100% forgotten about Pi Day, ack! I kind of whipped it together on a whim, not really thinking it would work out because it ended up being so easy and didn’t require an extra trip to the store, despite my lack of groceries.

As I slide this lemon tart into the oven, I did realize that I didn’t put any cornstarch into the filling mixture and just did a ‘cross my fingers and hope it works out’ as it kept baking in the oven.

Turns out, it didn’t need it! I was so pleasantly surprised when I took the tart out of the oven and it was perfectly baked, the center was set and the crust hadn’t overcooked.

Basically, I hit the lemon tart jackpot!

The crust to this vegan lemon tart comes from my longtime popular recipe on the blog, vegan lemon bars with an easy shortbread crust. It’s made up of flour, powdered sugar, and melted coconut oil, and it couldn’t be easier.

I’ve used it in a base for cheesecake too, but I think using it as a crust for this lemon tart has to be one of my favorite uses of it so far. The filling came together super quickly in the blender, with raw cashews as a base and lots of fresh lemon juice and zest for maximum tart flavor.

Like I’ve mentioned before, I love lemon desserts, so you might back off on the amount of juice if you aren’t as much of a fan of tartness as I am, but I think it’s the perfect amount.

I also felt like I was reaching peak efficiency while I was making this, because the crust can be baked while you’re making up the filling and the whole thing is baked for a while (hello,do it during dinner time!) and then chilled overnight until set.

If you’re serving this with dinner, I would recommend making it at least at the beginning of the day, if not earlier.

You can also top this with berries, like I did above, or let it go bare and enjoy the lemon tart on its own. I think plain ol’ powdered sugar would be perfect to sprinkle on top, or a heap of cherries would go well too, when they come back into season.

Either way, you really can’t go wrong! Easy and delicious all on it’s own? I still stand by my ‘jackpot lemon tart’ statement from earlier, this one has it all.

How to make lemon tart

This comes together so quickly and easily! Let’s go through step by step:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a tart pan and set aside. I haven’t tried making this in any other kind of pan, so make sure you have a tart pan with a removable bottom for this recipe. 

To make the crust: In a large bowl, stir together the flour, melted coconut oil (melted is key!), and powdered sugar until combined. The dough should be fairly sticky but easy to transfer.

Transfer to the greased tart pan and press evenly into the sides and bottom of the pan. Place the tart pan on a large rimmed baking sheet and bake for 13-15 minutes, until the crust is starting to lightly brown. Don’t overbake or the crust will become crumbly and too crunchy.

Prepare filling while crust is baking.

To prepare the filling: Blend together the lemon zest and juice, cashews, almond milk, vanilla, sugar, and coconut oil until smooth.

Once crust has baked, pour the filling into the crust and bake for another 40-50 minutes, until center is fairly set (doesn’t jiggle when moved) and top has slightly browned. Again, don’t overbake or the filling will curdle and have a strange texture!

Remove tart from oven and allow to cool in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours, until center is cool to the touch. I would recommend refrigerating it overnight!

Top with berries and serve.

What kind of pan should I use to make lemon tart?

A tart pan with a removable bottom is perfect for this recipe! Remember that when you pick it up to pull it up from the sides because the bottom DOES pop out. Ask me how many times I’ve ruined tarts by lifting the pan from the bottom…oops. 

I state this in the recipe, but I can’t emphasize enough the importance of placing your tart pan on a rimmed baking sheet while the lemon tart is baking. This catches any overflow you hopefully don’t have, but also makes putting the tart into/taking it out of the oven so much easier. 

Can I freeze lemon tart?

I haven’t tried, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Freezing the lemon tart would change the texture quite a bit and it may be hard to get it back to a fresh baked texture state. 

If you want to prep this tart ahead of time, bake the crust first, let it cool and store in the refrigerator and blend together your filling and store it in the refrigerator as well. Bake as directed and cool in fridge. 

Alternatively, you can make the whole thing up to 2 days ahead of time and just allow it to chill out in the fridge, especially since it needs chill time anyway!

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