Cashew Ice Cream
Let’s sweeten up these hot summer days with the creamiest homemade ice cream recipe! This delicious cashew ice cream is naturally vegan and insanely easy to make.
Made with only three basic ingredients and some optional extras, this creamy vegan cashew ice cream is the perfect go-to for the summer. It is super quick and easy to make in a blender, and tastes heavenly.
Ingredients for the cashew ice cream
To make this easy and delicious vegan cashew ice cream, you will need:
- Cashews – no need to soak them if you have a high-speed blender, but in case you don’t, I will cover three different options for softening cashews to make the texture of this ice cream suuuper smooth.
- Full-fat coconut milk – it is really important to use the fattiest coconut milk you can find. The one with 70-80% coconut would be ideal. That way, the ice cream will be creamy and easy to scoop even straight from the freezer.
- Maple syrup or agave nectar – besides adding sweetness to this recipe, agave or maple syrup will help you achieve a nice consistency that doesn’t get too hard to scoop when it’s been in the freezer for a while.
- Vanilla extract or ground vanilla bean – optional, but it goes really well with the taste of cashews.
- Cacao butter – also optional, but I often add a few tablespoons to make the ice cream taste a bit of white chocolate. It fits great in this combination.
How to make the cashew ice cream
This tasty cashew ice cream is beyond easy to make. All you need to do is
- put all the ingredients into a high-speed blender and blend until smooth;
- transfer it to a container and close it;
- chill in a freezer for a couple of hours.
In case you don’t have a high-speed blender, you might want to choose a bit alternative method to get your ice cream to be really smooth (if that is important for you, otherwise you can ignore what I am just about to write).
These are my three favourite methods to make a cashew ice cream, so you can choose which one works best for you.
1. Dry (“raw”) cashews
Cashews are quite tender even in their dry form, that is why I don’t bother soaking them before using them for making creamy sweets. But, if your blender is not very strong, your ice cream might have a bit of a texture no matter how long you blend it.
That doesn’t have to be a bad thing, so feel free to just follow the same steps even without a high-speed blender.
If, however, you want to get the most from cashews in terms of both flavour and texture, there are two easy ways to achieve it.
2. Soaked cashews
Soaking cashews in water for five to six hours will soften them and make them much easier to blend in any kind of food processor or blender. It will also make them more watery, so you can use a bit less of coconut milk in the recipe, up to ⅔ cup.
3. Cashew butter
Using cashew butter instead of cashews is the perfect hack for getting a super creamy cashew ice cream without any hassle. I sometimes do it even though I do have a high-speed blender.
Check out this easy homemade nut butter recipe – you can follow the exact same steps to make your own cashew butter at home.
Working with cashew butter instead of cashews does give you a bit different consistency but in a good way! It will still be super creamy and smooth.
I like to use around ⅔ cup of cashew butter per cup of coconut milk, but it works with a bit less cashew butter as well.
Ideas for serving
There are many cool ways to serve this tasty homemade cashew ice cream. These are some of my favourites:
- Frost the ice cream with some toasted cashews or other nuts
- Mix ¾ cup of berries with three tablespoons of maple syrup and let it sit for half an hour. Add it to your ice cream when it is half-frozen, or simply drizzle over ice cream scoops while serving.
- Serve the ice cream with some of this delicious oven-baked plum jam without added sugar, or some of this amazing homemade grapefruit marmalade.
- Drizzle the cashew ice cream with some homemade nut butter to make it extra rich and nougaty.
- Chop up some homemade chocolate and garnish for an extra crunch and flavour.
This time I decided to serve it with delicious organic blackcurrants from my friend Ivan’s permaculture orchard Šumski Vrt. They were the perfect fit!
Cashew Ice Cream Recipe (Vegan)
Make the best homemade cashew ice cream with this easy recipe. You will need three basic ingredients and a blender to get super creamy and delicious vegan ice cream.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups cashews
- 1 cup full-fat coconut milk
- ½ cup agave nectar
- A few drops of vanilla extract or a pinch of ground vanilla bean (optional)
- 2 tbsp cacao butter (optional)
Instructions
- Put all the ingredients into a high-speed blender and blend until smooth.
- Pour the mixture into a container and close it.
- Put it into a freezer for about four hours.
- Serve with some toasted nuts or berries on top.
Notes
If you don’t have a high-speed blender, you can soak the cashews for five to six hours prior to blending to get smoother ice cream. In that case, use only about ⅔ cup of coconut milk.
Using cashew butter instead of cashews is another great option for the smoothest result. Read more about it in the article above.
If the ice cream is really well-blended, it will be easy to scoop for the first day or two. The longer it stays in the freezer, the harder it will be to scoop it out (also depends on the temperature in your freezer). If it freezes too much, you can let it defrost in the fridge for about twenty minutes before serving, so as to get the perfect scoops.
