Vegan Vanilla Ice Cream

A gift just in time for Valentine's Day for all you sweet treat obsessed lovers out there. Way better than a box of chocolates, I say.

I have to admit...I was skeptical this would work. Not only because I didn't have an ice cream maker and had to use the plastic bag method, but because I didn't have (what seemed to me) a key ingredient for thickening up the ice cream. Yet I really wanted to make this so gosh darn badly that I persevered.

Basically, non-dairy greek yogurt replaced the creamer and arrowroot from the original recipe (featured below). And it turned out ok! In fact, it turned out great. The tart from the yogurt played really nicely with the vanilla. I can't even imagine how sweet this would have been if the yogurt was not in there. It's perfect for me (though my girlfriend is slightly less of a fan, but who cares?).

Next time, hopefully soon, I plan on experimenting further with my own homemade oat milk and making that into ice cream. I haven't yet decided on the final ingredients for that - maybe peaches or blackberries. We'll see. Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 cup non-dairy greek style (or strained) yogurt (or greek yogurt)
3 cups unsweetened rice milk (made from brown rice for extra fiber-ness, but any unsweetened non-dairy milk will do)
¾ cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

Mix and heat the rice milk and sugar together in a saucepan. Take off heat when sugar dissolves.
Stir in vanilla extract and let cool.
Add yogurt after it has cooled so as not to kill all those wonderful little probiotics.
Freeze according to your ice cream maker’s instructions, or alternatively, you can use the plastic bag + salt + ice method. Ask me if you're unfamiliar with how that works - it's a cheap, easy way without an ice cream machine.

The original recipe I based mine off of is below. Thanks to Vegan Ice Cream for the inspiration.

Ingredients

2 cups soy creamer (or any non-dairy milk)
2 cups soy milk (or any non-dairy milk)
¾ cup sugar
2 Tablespoon arrowroot
2 tsp vanilla extract (choose a high-quality brand; none of that imitation stuff either!)

Directions

Mix ¼ cup of soy milk with the 2 tablespoons of arrowroot and set aside.
Mix the soy creamer, soy milk, and sugar together in a saucepan. When the mixture has just started to boil, take off the heat and stir in the arrowroot slurry. This should immediately cause the liquid to thicken (not a lot, but a noticeable amount; it will be thicker when it cools).
Stir in vanilla extract.
Set the ice cream mixture aside to cool. Freeze according to your ice cream maker’s instructions.