Vegan strawberry ice cream
Cuisinart ice cream maker
The ice cream is sweetened by a few dates soaked in milk.
The ice cream maker is filled with the mango-peach mixture.
Vegan mango peach ice cream
Delicious Dairy Free Ice Cream
I just bought a Cuisinart ICE-30BC 2 quart ice cream maker. I can't eat dairy so I thought I'd buy some equipment to help me make some healthful, dairy free ice cream. Well, it turned out to be the best $68 I ever spent! When I looked at the recipes that came with the machine I started to wonder if it was possible to make a tasty frozen dessert without the cream and the sugar but after experimenting a bit and trying some tricks passed on to me from my friend Bernadette, I quickly came up with a few delicious recipes.
Healthful Ice Cream
Most ice cream is loaded with cream, sugar, corn syrup, egg yolks and some even have artificial coloring.
Along with that come calories, saturated fat, cholesterol and tons of carbs. I won't try to convince you that Haagen-Dazs or Ben and Jerry's taste bad. We all know how easy that finely tuned combination of fat and sugar goes down. But wouldn't you rather be able to eat something that delicious without the guilt? OK, maybe you don't have any guilt. Let me phrase it another way. Wouldn't you feel good about serving a delicious ice cream to your family knowing that it's as healthful as a bowl of fruit and a glass of dairy free milk? And if you are vegan or lactose intolerant, wouldn't it be nice to be able to enjoy ice cream again?
Vegetarian, Vegan and Raw Vegan Options for Making Healthful Ice Cream
These two recipes use unsweetened soy milk as a base. But you have many options. Just experiment using healthful ingredients that you enjoy the most. For example:
* For other vegan options, try almond, rice, coconut or hemp milk instead of soy milk.
* For a raw vegan dessert, use a raw nut milk like Raw, Fortified Almond Milk in place of the soy milk. You could also use macadamia nuts, brazil nuts, cashews or other raw nuts.
* If you eat dairy and just want a healthier ice cream, use 2% organic milk or plain yogurt or kefir instead of soy milk.
Strawberry Ice Cream
Ben and Jerry's strawberry ice cream has 230 calories, 13 grams of fat (9 grams of which are saturated), 65 mg of cholesterol, 26 grams of carbohydrates and 25 grams of sugar per serving. This recipe has one third the calories, one tenth the fat (almost none of which is saturated), zero cholesterol and almost half the carbs and sugar. The sugar content comes from fruit, not refined sugar or corn syrup! The creamy texture comes from the added banana. The fresh fruit gives the added benefit of 2.4 grams of fiber per serving.
Mango Ice Cream
Haagen-Dazs mango ice cream has 250 calories, 14 grams of fat (8 of which are saturated), 85 mg of cholesterol (from cream and egg yolks), 28 grams of carbohydrates and 27 grams of sugar (from refined sugar and corn syrup). This recipe is less than one third the calories, only 1.3 grams of fat (only 0.2 grams of which is saturated), zero cholesterol, and less than half the carbs and sugar. The creamy texture in this recipe is from the mango. This recipe also provides two and a half grams of fiber.
Best the Same Day
Because of the low fat content, this ice cream tends to freeze pretty hard so it's best to serve it as soon as you make it. But it's not much of a concern since you probably won't have much left over. If you do have left over ice cream, put it in the freezer. Check out my technique of freezing left over ice cream in my Vegan Chocolate Hazelnut Ice Cream post.
Add a Shot of Omega 3 Fatty Acids
If you are trying to get more omega 3 fatty acids in your diet, add 2 tablespoons of flax oil to the mixture at the same time you add the fruit to the blender. It doesn't affect the taste at all and you get a whopping 1.8 grams of ALA Omega 3 fatty acid to each serving! Can this delicious dessert get much healthier??
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Vegan Strawberry Ice Cream
[makes 8 servings]
3 pitted Medjool dates (soaked in soy milk below)
2 1/2 cups unsweetened soy milk, or other milk
2 cups strawberries, cleaned and cut in half
1 medium banana, peeled and cut into 4 pieces (about 1 cup)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
An hour or more before making the ice cream, soak the pitted dates in the soy milk. Keep refrigerated.
In a high speed blender, blend the dates and the soy milk until smooth. Add the strawberries, banana and vanilla extract. Blend until smooth. Add to the ice cream maker and process until frozen. Serve immediately. This takes around 25 minutes. To cut down the time you can freeze the fruit before blending.
Per serving: 73 calories, 1.3 g fat, 0.2 g saturated fat, 0 g cholesterol, 2.6 g protein, 14.6 g carbohydrates and 2.5 g of fiber.
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Vegan Mango Peach Ice Cream
[makes 8 servings]
3 pitted Medjool dates (soaked in soy milk below)
2 1/2 cups unsweetened soy milk, or other milk
2 peaches, peeled and sliced (about 2 cups)
1 large mango, peeled and sliced
An hour or more before making the ice cream, soak the pitted dates in the soy milk. Keep refrigerated.
In a high speed blender, blend the dates and the soy milk until smooth. Add the peaches and mango. Blend until smooth. Add to the ice cream maker and process until frozen. Serve immediately. This takes around 25 minutes. To cut down the time you can freeze the fruit before blending.
Per serving: 78.5 calories, 1.4 g fat, 0.2 g saturated fat, 0 g cholesterol, 2.6 g protein, 16.1 g carbohydrates and 2.4 g of fiber.
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