Vegan Ice Cream

Most vegan ice creams contain soy or other ingredients that might not be so great... anyway, I have used the book Vice Cream before for making vegan ice cream at home. However, most of the recipes call for cashews and cashews can be expensive. I calculated the cost of the soy ice cream at the store vs. my homemade and it was more expensive to make homemade because of the cashews...

Then I found this blog. I don't use soy milk or soy creamer, but I did modify her cherry ice cream recipe and it was quite delicious...


I started by making my own almond milk. The first time I made ice cream, I used my regular almond milk recipe which is 1 LARGE handful almonds to 4-5 cups of water in the blender and strain. The ice cream was good. The second time I made it, I used half the water to have a higher fat to water content. Much better. I did use rapidura instead of sugar. Ordinarily I use honey in my ice creams, but this time, since I wasn't starting with a nut base, I was worried about too much liquid. I will fiddle and see what I come up with using honey. For now, this is what I did- not entirely healthy due to the sugar- but FAR FAR FAR better than store bought or dairy ice cream and quite tasty too!

2 c. pitted cherries
½ c. sugar (my cherries were super sweet organic cherries that I froze last year but fresh would work too)
2 c. almond milk
2 T. arrowroot powder
1 t. vanilla extract
1/4 c cacoa nibs
1/2- 3/4 c pitted cherries chopped and frozen

Reserve 1/4 c almond milk and add arrowroot to it to make a slurry. Pour remaining milk and sugar into a sauce pan with cherries. Heat until sugar begins to melt. Blend and return to pot. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and immediately stir in the arrowroot slurry. Stir until thickened a little. Then add the vanilla. Let cool completely (ideally cool until at least refrigerator temperature so it spends less time in the ice cream maker). Pour in ice cream maker according to the ice cream maker directions. Stir in cacoa nibs and cherry chunks. Enjoy!