Homemade Vegan Ice Cream

Summers in New York are typically very hot and very sticky. As you walk through the heat you can feel the heavy weightiness of the humidity, and if you do not have air conditioning, you probably experience a kind of misery that only ice can abate. This summer, though, is a whole other story. We’ve had hot and humid days, but overall the weather as been extraordinarily mild and we’ve had a preference for open windows instead of electricity-sucking air conditioners. It’s been fantastic and one of the more tolerable summers during my life on the East Coast.

Even though it has been mild, we still have had a lot of excuses to make ice cream in our new KitchenAid ice cream maker attachment. We’ve tried various flavors so far, and have been very impressed. Below is the base recipe you need for a nice coconut ice cream, and the options are endless to make other flavors.

Note: You can use any ice cream maker for this, but most will require that you freeze the bowl for 12 – 16 hours. Usually what we do is either keep the ice cream bowl in the freezer when we’re not using it (which takes up vital real estate), or we just stick it in the freezer the night before we plan to make ice cream.

Coconut Ice Cream
This makes enough for two people or for four people to each have a small serving. To make more I would suggest using two cans of coconut milk.

• 1 can coconut milk
• 1/3 cup sugar or agave nectar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Blend all ingredients until well combined, then chill for at least an hour. If you are using the Kitchenaid attachment, turn on the mixer to stir, then pour in the ice cream mixture and let it stir for about 15 to 20 minutes or it is at the desired consistency.

You can serve immediately, which will make it more of a soft serve, or stick it in the freezer for a few hours so it will set a little more. We prefer to eat it fresh as we haven’t found a way for it to retain its smooth consistency after it sits in the freezer.

Creamy Vegan Ice Cream

Suggested variations

Peanut Butter Ice Cream
Blend about 3 tablespoons (or more or less to taste) with your other ingredients. If you like chocolate chips, you can add this towards the end of the ice cream maker’s cycle.

Mango Ice Cream (or you can do other fruits like peaches or bananas)
Add in a cup or so of frozen or fresh mango and blend well with your other ingredients. You may want to up your vanilla to 2 teaspoons. Taste test after you blend to make sure it’s exactly the flavor you want.

POM Wonderful

Pomegranate Ice Cream
To make a creamy sorbet, add about a cup of POM Wonderful juice to your other ingredients and blend well. Again – taste test. Other fruit juices or nectars could be used.

Yummy Vegan Ice Cream

Do you make vegan ice cream? If so, what’s your favorite flavor?

“We love you, man,” the postman said, and held out a glass like you’d hold out a bag of something made by the sea. We all want what’s in the bag. You’d have to be crazy not to take some. Have you ever had a mango lassi? Thick down the throat, crazy orange, delicious and happy if you like that sort of thing? What else can a fellow do, in the grip of mango and yogurt and fruit, spun up into a substance just like love? It is love. It’s a part of it.

-Adverbs by Daniel Handler

I feel as if I am giving you this post a week in advance. I also feel that since I am giving you a recipe inspired by love that I should probably give you another one next week on (or near) the 14th.

I’m spoiled by novels. They are easy, seamless, and satisfying. You start it knowing that the characters you have come to know and love (ah love) are going to have their issues resolved. But this book was completely different. I started off by learning about Andrea and “I” and Peter, then I went to chapter two, and I was learning about someone else. It was as if the book was both a collection of short stories about completely unrelated people and a book about the same people. So I am not sure what to tell you. It was completely illogical as a novel, but that may have been part of the point. It was a book about love, and love is not always considered to be logical.

It seems illogical to be having a cool and refreshing mango lassi in the middle of winter, but truth be told we’re not having a normal winter. It’s been warm, and we’ve been denied a good snowstorm so far (winter, in my mind, is not justified unless there is a good amount of snow).

Mango Lassi
This is for one serving

• 1/2 cup frozen mangoes
• 1 single serving sized plain or vanilla yogurt (I used Silk)

Place both the mangoes and the yogurt into a blender and blend until smooth. Pour into a glass, enjoy, and pat yourself on the back for creating something so good in a matter of seconds.

Other recipes call for ice, honey, and spices. It’s completely up to you. I left out the sweetener because I used Silk yogurt which already has sugar in it. It was very good as simple as it was – thick, creamy, and sweet. Lovely!