Maybe you’ve never heard of nice cream. Until immersing my vegan-curious self in the Instagram feeds of vegans, I hadn’t either. But that’s all changed for the better.
I used to be a person who would say, “Yeah, the vegetarian thing, I get. But: CHEESE!” As if I was actually incapable of living without something my body wasn’t designed to digest in the first place. (Does any other species drink the milk of another species? No. But then along came dairy lobbyists…)
Anyway, since dropping dairy from my diet, the few times I have had it, I feel gross. It coats my mouth, bloats my stomach, and makes me sluggish. But I still have sense memory around some dairy products, like ice cream. When I was in high school, my mom and I would often go to Baskin&Robbins to get ice cream that we would eat while watching Friends and Seinfeld. And few things are as evocative of summer as an ice cream cone melting over your hand. Thus, ice cream, for me, is synonymous with close companionship, relaxation, and the best season of all: SUMMER.
Nice cream is just as satisfying as the dairy version, but better for you, and certainly better for animals. Plus you get the satisfaction—and flavor flexibility—of making it yourself.
This version was inspired by the choco-bananas we ate on a trip to Sayulita, Mexico (choco-banana=frozen bananas dipped in chocolate, and maybe nuts or sprinkles). Once you get used to nice cream, I know it will be as is as common around your house as choco-bananas are among the Sayulita tourists.
Chococo banana nice cream
Prep
Total
Yield 2 cups
Ingredients
- 1 cup cashew cream
- 2 frozen bananas
- 4 dates
- 2 T cocoa powder
- ¼ cup coconut cream
- ¼ cup cashew milk
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- pinch salt
- cacao nibs (for garnish)
Instructions
- Begin by pulsing the ingredients together.
- Blend on low speed, using a spatula to scrape the sides of your blender every 20 seconds or so.
- Continue blending the mixture, increasing the speed, until it sounds and looks like the ingredients are pulling down evenly. The mixture should look like chocolate soft serve when it's ready.
- Put the mixture into a Tupperware and freeze for up to up to half an hour. If you eat it right away, the mixture will have a more pudding-like consistency. Freeze it and it becomes nice cream!
- Garnish with cacao nibs, or fresh fruit.
Notes
Instead of freezing a whole banana, peel it and cut it into four or five pieces, then seal the pieces in a Tupperware or Ziplock. Way easier than trying to get a frozen banana out of it's frozen peel!
If you do not have a high speed blender, replace the dates with 2 T of agave and mix in a regular blender or with an electric mixer.
You can refreeze any leftovers...just remember to pull the nice cream out of the freezer 20-30 minutes before you plan to serve it again.