Cashew Sweet Potato Cheesecake

I was looking for a way to use the natural sweetness of sweet potato in a dessert so I wouldn't feel compelled to add sugar.  I found a recipe that combines the healthiness cashew-based cheesecake (as opposed to one made of real or fake cream cheese) with sweet potato, which I imagine would not work raw like many cashew-based cheesecakes are.  I've tasted a delicious raw vegan cheesecake, which is unfortunately $7 a slice but is just as good, if not better, than vegan cheesecakes made with processed ingredients.  I also made one when I received raw cashews and other nuts as a gift, but if I had purchased all the ingredients, it still would've been expensive even if it was less per slice.  The raw cheesecake, while having some benefits of the living foods, is much more involved than this recipe which doesn't have a crust.

I liked that the recipe included some stevia, since I was also concerned about minimizing sugar.  Despite the presence of the sweet potato and the stevia, I wasn't prepared to omit the sugar, although I did use less than it called for (1 1/2 tbsp rather than 2 tbsp), and I used a coconut sugar (sourced from the coconut flower) which is supposed to be one of the healthier sugars.  I have agave nectar at my house, but I have come to suspect that most agave nectars are processed similarly to high fructose corn syrup (with even more fructose) unless it's raw, which is too expensive for me.  I'm glad I didn't skip the sugar, because it really wasn't even very sweet even with the sugar.

I had baked the sweet potato, then took off the peel and added the coconut oil to melt it.  I think the coconut oil, while I would have preferred to skip that too, gave the cheesecake a firmness that made it easier to eat and serve.  This firmness could've possibly been accomplished with lecithin or something, but I've never used that and don't own any.

I also altered the recipe by adding lemon juice of about 1/2 lemon, and frozen blueberries which I blended just a bit longer.  I baked it in a glass pie pan that I greased with coconut oil, then sprinkled with almond flour.  The cheesecake ended up a bit thinner than I thought it would.  It was less than an inch thick.  Next time I might double the recipe for one cake, but I would probably also have to cook it longer.