Vegan Cherry Ice Cream
Vegan cherry pie ice cream is luscious, ultra creamy, packed with cherry compote and pieces of cherry cookies that taste like pie! This ice cream recipe is made with wholesome, healthy ingredients and is gluten-free, dairy-free, and refined sugar-free!
Ingredients
Cherry ice cream
- 1 1/4 cups raw cashews
- 1 cup full-fat canned coconut milk *shaken
- 2/3 cup THICK coconut yogurt or greek yogurt
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 3 tbsp coconut sugar
- 3 tbsp melted coconut oil (helps to stabalize)
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Cherry compote
- 1 10oz bag frozen cherries *about 2 cups
- 1/4 cup orange juice or water
- 2 tbsp coconut sugar or monk fruit
- 1 tsp tapioca flour/starch *optional
Crust/cookies
- 1 bag Sprouts gluten-free cherry cookies, graham crackers, or homemade pie crust broken into pieces *The bag i used was 3.5oz. Any cookie will work!
Instructions
The night before:
- Place your ice cream maker in the freezer the night before you want to make your ice cream. You can also place it in the freezer early in the morning to make it at night/later in the day.
Cherry compote
- Add the cherries, juice or water, and sweetener to a saucepan over medium heat. Bring it to a low boil. Once boiling, bring the temperature down to medium and cover with a lid. Allow to cook covered for 10 minutes, or until the cherries soften and begin to break apart. I like to use a fork to mash them up a bit.
- Take the lid off, bring the heat down to low and cook for an additional 5 minutes until thick and the cherries are covered in a syrupy-like sauce. If you want your compote thicker, you can stir in 1 tsp tapioca starch but this is optional!
Ice cream
- Blend the ice cream ingredients. In a blender, combine all of the ingredients, blending until super smooth. Turn on your ice cream maker. Add the ice cream mixture to the ice cream maker and use according to it's instructions.
- While the ice cream is churning, crunch up the cookies you plan on using into small pieces. If making pie crust, prepare it, bake it, and let it cool. Then break it into pieces.
- Once the ice cream is thick, add in the cherry compote a little at a time. Then add in 3/4 of the chopped cookies or pie crust. Once it's mixed well, remove the bowl from the ice cream machine.
- Serve immediately with an extra sprinkle of the reserved cookies/crust. You can also store the ice cream in an air-tight container and sprinkle the remaining cookies over top.
Notes
How to make healthy ice cream without an ice cream maker:
Although I highly recommend using an ice cream maker, you can make this healthy ice cream without a machine. Simply blend all of the ice cream ingredients until smooth. Then pour the mixture into a large Tupperware container. Stir in the compote and cookie crust pieces. Place a lid on top and place in the freezer. To prevent an icy texture, I remove the ice cream from the fridge and give it a stir every hour for the first two hours. When the ice cream is totally firm, about 6-7 hours, let the ice cream thaw on the counter for 30 or so minutes before enjoying.