Creamy vegan ice cream

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!

Summer is on its way. Well, here in Nicaragua it is always summer, so it’s always time for ice cream!

Creamy vegan banana based ice cream made with just a few ingredients and a blender is what we are going to make today.

How to make vegan ice cream at home?

I’m sure many of you already know the basic concept of blending frozen bananas in a blender or food processor until it has the texture of soft serve ice cream. Add a little bit of fat (such as coconut milk or (pea)nut butter) and it’ll taste pretty similar to ice cream.

The base recipe

We live in a tropical climate. Bananas don’t last long here. No worries, because key to flavorful ice cream is very ripe bananas. So when bananas are too ripe to eat, I cut them up in pieces, put them in a ziplock bag and freeze them so I can make ice cream with them.

Add frozen banana pieces to a food processor or high quality blender (I use a Ninja) and blend until the consistency resembles soft serve.

If your blender is having trouble processing, you can add up to 1/4 cup of milk of your choice or other liquid.

That’s all; your ice cream is ready now! Eat it immediately or scoop it into a container and freeze an additional 30 minutes. The ice cream is firmer now so scoop out the ice cream with an ice cream scoop.

Ice cream flavors…

So that was the base recipe. Let’s talk flavors now. The possibilities are endless honestly. Our current favorites are:

1. Piña colada: Make the original recipe (see below), using 1/4 cup of canned coconut milk as your milk of choice. Blend in 1/2 cup of frozen pineapple. Stir in 1 tbsp of coconut flakes (this is optional… my kids don’t like ‘pieces’ in there ice cream… except for cookie crumbs ofcourse).
2. Cookies and cream: Make the original recipe, using 1/4 cup of almond or oat milk. After blending add in 2-3 tbsp of crushed (homemade) cookies. I recommend eating the ice cream straight away so the cookies still have a crunch to them (my kids don’t mind though as long as I use chocolate chip cookies).
3. Strawberry: Make the original recipe, using 1/4 canned coconut milk for extra creaminess. Blend in 3/4 cup of frozen strawberries and 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract.
4. Coffee ice cream: Make the original recipe, using 1/8 cup of canned coconut milk and 1/4 cup of strong espresso and a handful of small cacao nibs.
5. Nutella: Make the original recipe, using 1/8 cup of canned coconut milk as your milk of choice. Add 1/8 cup of hazelnut butter, 1/2 tsp of pure vanilla extract and 3 tbsp of cacao powder (mix coconut milk and cacao powder before adding to the blender for better consistency).

We hope you love this as much as we do! It is:

creamy – flavorful – easy & quick to make – a family favorite

Who doesn’t like ice cream? We do here! We eat it al lot and we come up with new flavor combinations all the time. The great thing is it’s healthy; no heavy cream or added sugars and no/low on fat. It is dairy free, vegan, raw and gluten free. Try our ice cream sandwiches as well. Made with this ice cream and our chocolate chip cookies.

DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE?

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