I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! If you’re shaking your head thinking, I can’t have ice cream: I’m vegan or lactose intolerant or allergic to milk, think again. With the proper ingredients, a powerful blender, a freezer, and some basic culinary know-how, you can quickly whip up an incredible batch of dairy-free ice cream. The base for these recipes is raw cashews—a crucial component to many spectacular dairy-free desserts. Soaking the nuts overnight allows them to blend into a thick, creamy spread. Mix with arrowroot powder—another essential ingredient that acts as a thickener—coconut milk, and flavorings, and voila! You’ll end up with a rich and wonderful ice cream that’s so tasty your family and friends won’t notice that it’s missing the traditional milk, cream, and sugar.
S’mores Ice Cream
Ingredients
2 cups raw cashews
1 can full-fat coconut milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tbsp cocoa powder (optional, but recommended for chocolate lovers!)
2 tbsp arrowroot powder
2 tbsp maple syrup (optional)
3 sheets of graham crackers
1/2 cup chopped dark chocolate chunks
1/3 cup marshmallow fluff (to make vegan: use ricemallow fluff)
1 tbsp cashew butter
Directions
Soak cashews overnight in the fridge.
Combine soaked, drained, and rinsed cashews with coconut cream, vanilla extract, arrowroot powder, and maple syrup in a blender. Blend until smooth. (You can sneak a taste to make sure there are no cashew bits left.)
Crush graham crackers in a sandwich bag, and give the chocolate chunks a rough chop. Set aside.
Combine fluff with cashew butter, and mix well. This gives the fluff a more creamy texture.
Pour half of the ice cream base into a freezer-safe container.
Then layer in half of the fluff, and sprinkle in half of the graham cracker. Give it a soft stir then repeat. (Note: if you combine it all together ahead of time, all the chocolate will sink down to the bottom of the container!)
Place it in the freezer for 2+ hours.
Before serving, let it sit at room temperature for 15–20 minutes to soften.
Coffee Nice Cream
Ingredients
1 1/4 cup raw cashews
1 small frozen banana (about 1 cup)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp arrowroot powder
1 can full-fat coconut milk
2 tbsp espresso powder
1–2 tbsp maple syrup (optional)
Directions
Soak cashews overnight in the fridge. Combine soaked, drained, and rinsed cashews, frozen banana, vanilla extract, and arrowroot powder. Don’t blend yet!
Scrape out the coconut cream from the coconut milk, and add it to the blender with the other ingredients.
Heat the remaining coconut milk in a small sauce pan over the stove, and stir in the espresso powder.
Add the espresso coconut milk mixture to the blender, then blend all ingredients until smooth. Taste it and decide if you wish to add the maple syrup (depends on sweetness of bananas, and personal taste!).
Pour mixture into a freezer-safe container, and place it in the freezer for 2+ hours.
Before serving, let it sit at room temperature for 15–20 minutes to soften.
Editors Notes
- S’mores: There is a hint of coconut, but if you add the cocoa powder and maple syrup, you won’t taste it!
- Coffee: This recipe is sweetened with banana (no added sugar needed!) so there is a hint of banana. You can sub the banana for cashews (use 2 full cups) if you don’t like bananas. Then add some maple syrup, or stir some sugar into the espresso/coconut milk mixture. Alternatively, for the banana lovers, you could also use only frozen banana (no cashews) for the recipe for a quick & easy, low calorie, nice cream!
- Both are best to enjoy within two days (if they even last that long!). The texture changes the longer it sits in the fridge.