If you’ve been missing ice cream and frozen yogurt now that it’s summer and the season for those cool, sweet treats, I have a surprise for you…
You can make ice cream or sorbet without the dairy (consumption of dairy and acne are actually found to be correlated) and added sugar…or fancy, expensive ice-cream maker! These great recipes are perfect for the occasional summertime treat.
There are a few ways you can make them, the first of which is ridiculously quick and easy:
Banana Fro Yo
Peel a banana. Slice it up. Freeze it. Put it in the food processor or Vitamix and let it run until it fluffs up and looks creamy. Scoop it into a bowl and enjoy! You can add in vanilla extract, cacao, mint (good with cacao!), frozen strawberries, or anything else you’d like to create your favorite flavor of ice cream.
When whipped, it becomes the texture and feel of frozen yogurt. It’s actually kind of shocking.
The next one has more fat than the banana one, but it’s creamy and delicious:
Creamy Coconut Milk Ice Cream
Ingredients:
- 13 oz. of full-fat coconut milk, refrigerated
- 1-2 frozen bananas (I like to peel them and cut them into pieces—at least in half—before freezing them)
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- Extra sweetener (stevia, xylitol, or coconut nectar), if desired
- Flavorings to taste, like cacao powder or nibs, nuts, berries, more coconut, extracts, etc. You can add a pinch of high-quality sea salt to bring out the sweet flavor, though it’s not necessary.
Mix the coconut milk, bananas, sweetener, vanilla, and fruit or extracts in the blender. Do a taste test to see if you need to add anything before you put it in the freezer or ice cream maker.
Chill the mixture in the refrigerator and then run it through your ice cream maker, if you have one. At the end, you can mix in the dry ingredients (cacao nibs, nuts, etc). Put the ice cream in an airtight container and store it in the freezer.
If you don’t have an ice cream maker, you don’t even have to go out and buy one! The texture won’t be exactly the same (a little slushier, less creamy), but you can pour your mixture into a freezer-safe container and then whisk it every 30 to 60 minutes so it doesn’t turn into one big frozen block, until it’s ready (about three hours). This is what I do, because I do not own an ice cream maker.
Here are some combinations to try:
- Strawberries (fresh or frozen) and fresh basil
- Almond butter and cacao
- Coconut and almonds
- Cacao nibs and mint leaves (add some spirulina for color!)
- A mix of your favorite berries
- Coconut and a splash of lime juice
You could also just keep it simple and choose one fruit, like peaches or cherries, and add another splash of vanilla. Don’t mix all these combos together at the same time of course— pick on option and stick with it. Keep it simple, always!
Hempseed Ice Cream
If you’re not a big fan of coconut, you can make something similar by mixing ½ cup of hemp seeds with two cups of water in the blender (add the water slowly and stop when the mixture becomes creamy), then using that in place of the coconut milk in the recipe above.
Fruit Sorbet
I have one more amazing summer dessert option for you—sorbet.
You’ll need:
- 2-3 cups of fruit
- Half cup of liquid, your choice, for flavor (or water for extra moisture if you just want to keep it simple)
- Your choice of sweetener, like stevia or coconut nectar (optional)
Choose your favorite fruit, chop it up (you need about three cups), and put it in the freezer for a couple of hours. Freezing the fruit beforehand isn’t necessary, but it speeds the process up so you can dig in a little sooner. If you don’t think your blender can handle that much frozen fruit, don’t freeze it first.
Once you’re ready, take the fruit out and put it into the blender or food processor with half a cup of liquid (water, lemon juice, coconut milk, etc) and some liquid stevia or some coconut nectar.
Another option is to dump the ingredients into a big bowl and use a hand blender to whip it up to the right texture (this is so fast and so easy, and you can eat it right out of the bowl when you’re done!).
Depending on the type of fruit you use, you may need to add extra water, but only add a couple of tablespoons at a time as you go, and watch the texture. It’s always easier to add more than to fix it if you put too much in.
You can stop the blender once it gets to the sorbet texture and eat it immediately, but if you accidentally let it go too long and it gets too runny (or if you didn’t start with frozen fruit), all you have to do is put it into a freezer-safe container and whisk it every 30 minutes or so until it’s ready.
If you want a smoother texture, you can strain the liquid mixture, then pour it into a container that’s already cold (freeze a baking dish, for example). Pop the mixture into the freezer and then, as before, stir it or whisk it about every 30 minutes until it’s ready.
Get creative and post what kind of ice cream or sorbet you made here! I can’t wait to see what you come up with. For instance, you can learn how is almond milk made and substitute it into any of the recipes.
Enjoying some strawberry vanilla bean sorbet with Lil Bub.
Don’t forget to save your favorite non-dairy recipes on your Pinterest board.
Happy Blending & Mixing!
Love,
Kimberly
Or you can stop by Chloe’s Soft Serve Fruit Co for a delicious cup of soft serve fruit made from three simple, clean ingredients: Fruit, Water, and a touch of organic cane sugar!
Can you make non-dairy ice cream with Chia Seeds?
In the Creamy Coconut Milk Ice Cream recipe, you have a banana in the main ingredients and then suggest that it’s OK to mix in almond butter and cacao. I thought we weren’t supposed to mix protein (almond butter) with fruit (banana) … ?????
AMAZING !!!!! Great idea. U r the best!!
When I do ice cream with my Vitamix (sorry for the free advertise), it is so good that I scream!!!… :)
Banana is almost the base (then I add other frozen fruits to vary) and I add nuts to have the fat texture… Thanks for this great article and I like the idea of spirulina for coloring.
I so want to try this…. Sounds amazing. Was totally craving ice cream today too.
Oupss!.. ”Banana is usually the base”… correction please.
The coconut ice cream looks amazing, I cannot wait to give it a try! Plus milk gives me some issues so I am glad it is left out of that recipe.
Thanks for the post.
-Tom
Hey Kim! So I’ve always wondered if baking kale chips bakes the nutrients out of the kale? I really want an answer, I absolutely love kale chips but stopped making them because I heard this.
Thank you Kimberly. You have such great ideas and this one is awesome for kids of all ages! Blessings, Seija
I’m not sure if this was properly combined, but I took three frozen bananas and I sliced them into small pieces. Then I took organic cherry juice and organic cacao powder. It made the most delicious Chocolate Cherry “Milkshake” ever! :)
Really exciting possibilities for icecream
I found that stevia made my ice
Cream bitter…am I using the wrong brand?
Try using Kal brand Stevia. It is super sweet so you only need a tiny bit.
I can’t wait to try the coconut milk ice cream recipe – it looks so smooth and flavorful. We always have bananas stashed in the freezer, and I love making them into ice cream.
I have made these many times since starting my detox way of eating. I have a Nutribullet that wroks great with these. I like frozen pineapple, frozen bananas with unsweetened coconut flakes, almond milk and a little water to help it blend if it’s too thick. They taste great and a healthier choice than sherbert or ice cream.
As I kept reading this piece, one question keeps flashing through my head: how did you do it? Even though I have read it all and I still enjoy it, I still imagine how you managed to come up with such creative recipes! Let us take one for instance: the creamy coconut milk ice cream.
Ordinarily, even if I was handed all the ingredients, there is absolutely no way I would have come up with something as fantastic as this! I guess reading your recipes has challenged the culinary part of me! Thank you so very much for this! I look forward to seeing even more of it!
I live in The Bahamas and have been using some of the glowing skin fresh juice smoothies – absolutely amazing! Thank you for the alternative ice cream options – great timing!
can’t find the recipe for the orange sherbet
Hi Kimberly! We have been discussing this on Facebook in the beauty detox food group & I’m so glad you sent out this blog! I tried the banana fro yo. It’s amazing!!! And super easy! The only thing was that it got kinda stuck in the vitamix and the motor wouldn’t turn. Should I try adding liquid next time?
I don’t know if you got an answer, but when I make my banana “ice cream” I add just a little non-gmo verified unsweetened almond milk to it before I mix it. I also use a food processor instead of the blender, but I’m sure either would work! I also sometimes let the banana pieces thaw just a little before blending, and sometimes I have to add a bit more “milk” or mix it up a bit and then blend/process again. It really is an amazing trick and so good for the kids! We add all sorts of stuff to ours to change the flavors, and we’ve never had a bad batch!
Try Coconut Water with bananas and strawberries.
my 12 years old son, inspired by you, made the sorbeto of watermelon, peaches and apricots. i have never eaten anything more refreshing :)
hi kimberly ,
were can i buy smooth green juice,im from philippines
You say to have this for dessert but does that not go against the rule of eating fruit only on an empty stomach? I usualy have this as part of breakfast but if it works for dessert that would be good too. Is it the blending that makes a difference? Thanks:)
Kim:
Your book is awesome and offers, by far, the easiest healthy eating plan my husband and I have ever tried. We are definitely growing lean!
The banana froyo is unreal! The idea of pureed bananas didn’t sound appetizing to me, but it literally tastes like frozen yogurt. We added vanilla to it and it barely tasted like a banana. We also added raw cacao to another bowl and it literally tasted like chocolate ice cream. I know you don’t like peanuts, but we added peanut butter powder (PB2) to another bowl and it tasted like peanut butter ice cream. I can’t believe this works/ it is too good to be true!
When using the coconut milk, do we use the entire can, the solid and water together? I’ve seen recipes use only the solid matter and I didn’t know if it was a given to follow this practice. Wonderful recipes!
Hey Kim, I just bought your book on kindle so am visiting your blog. love your recipes. but just wanted to let you know, you spelled “dessert” wrong in your category listing under blogs. it is spelled “desert”. just thought u would like to know. keep up the amazing work!
I don’t have a vitamix, can I use my nutribullet for the banana ice cream?
Thank you sooo much for these ice-cream recipes!!! They sound and look really delicious and il surely try them :-)