This five-minute vegan, sugar-free instant ice cream, made with just two ingredients, was one of those “necessity is the mother of invention” products.
My frustration level with allergy-friendly ice cream and popsicles hit maximum during the spate of 40 celcius weather we’ve been having. There’s a crap-ton of coconut ice cream out there on the market. The funny part is that if you go read the ingredients, almost all of it says “may contain dairy, nuts, and peanuts.”
If you’re dealing with a severe allergy, you know that may contain should be treated as a does contain. And if you’re a practicing vegan who is as fussy as some of the ones I’m friends with, well, let’s just say you wonder why these manufacturers even bother. It’s not safe for allergies, and it’s not guaranteed dairy free. If you’re OK with dairy and nuts and peanuts, why not go buy an entire gallon of chocolate rocky road for the same price you can buy a Ben & Jerry’s-sized serving of Coconut Dream Chocolate Ice Cream*?
*May contain dairy, nuts, and peanuts.
Anyhow, yeah, I know, there’s all sorts of freezies and popsicles that happily are dairy, nut, and peanut free. But they also have a crap-ton of additives–food colorings, gelling thickeners (?!), preservatives, blah blah blah. Seriously, y’all. I don’t have anything necessarily against xanthan gum, and I know what generally xanthan gum is used for, but why exactly does a “100% fruit juice” freezer pop have to have it? These are the things I would like to know. But popsicles with fruit juice are easy to make.
I wanted to make some things that would actually resemble ice cream a bit. I’ve seen recipes out there that use yogurt and frozen fruit, and fortunately cultured coconut milk (the vegan version of yogurt) appears to be dairy, nut, and peanut free.
- 500g frozen blueberries (about 2 cups)
- 500g plain unsweetened cultured coconut yogurt*
- 2-3 tbsp honey or equivalent in stevia extract (optional)
- Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend for 30 seconds to one minute, or until the consistency of ice cream.
- * Yoso (the popular vegan brand around here) makes 440g containers. It's close enough.
- This recipe can also be adapted to use regular or greek yogurt.
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