If you’re on a diet:
You will love this recipe because it makes a gigantic serving for only 40 calories. (Seriously, the serving is huge.) Who eats a 1/2 cup serving of ice cream anyways? 😕
If you’re not on a diet:
You will love this recipe because you can up the calories by making it into a brownie sundae, by pouring on chocolate syrup, or by opting for the peanut butter version. Yes, there is a peanut butter version.
Above: a sundae with a Chocolate Workout Brownie.
Highly recommend those brownies. As for the ice cream: it could not be easier to make, and there are unlimited variations—you can add coffee, mint extract, fruit, chocolate chips… I haven’t even begun to try out all the combinations I’ve dreamed up for this incredibly versatile recipe.
Volume Ice Cream
(Makes 1 huge serving)
- 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract (or about 1/4 of a vanilla bean, sliced lengthwise and scraped out)
- 1/16 tsp salt (trust me)
- sweetener (such as 1-2 stevia packets or 1-2 tbsp sugar)
- 1 cup almond milk (I used unsweetened Silk. See below for substitution notes.)
- optional: add-ins such as fruit, peanut butter, or extracts
Mix the ingredients together in 1 or 2 shallow plastic containers. Freeze. (You could also use an ice cube tray.) Once frozen, pop the blocks out of the container (I thaw for 30 seconds in the microwave first) and blend in your Vita-Mix. (If you don’t have a vita-mix, you’ll probably have to thaw longer, but you can still get a yummy ice milk.)
This ice cream—when made with almond milk—has a very light texture (perfect for summer). For a creamier texture that’s more like real ice cream, try using at least 1/4c canned coconut milk (or maybe even creamer?). You can, of course, also sub other non-dairy milks for the almond. But if you do this, play around with the amount of vanilla extract, sweetener, and add-ins. (For example, an already-sweetened milk will probably need less added sweetener.) To make it look like real ice cream, scoop out with an ice-cream scoop.
Warning:
This is an extremely voluminous recipe, so if you’re like me and need to watch that you don’t get full before you’ve taken in enough calories, I recommend eating this as part of a sundae or adding some extras to the basic recipe. ‘Cause it will fill you right up!
Recipe of The Day:
Deep Dish Cookie Pie (Vegan, GF)
Mmmm ice creammm 🙂 I am so going to try and make a PB ice cream and a cookie dough ice cream!! Oooh and a snickerdoodle one!
Wow, and I have thought that the only voluminious thing possible were oats :)) AI love this, thanks for the recipe 🙂
My fave ice-cream? Cinnamon, vanilla, pistacchio – three favourite flavours for me:)
PHEW i am SO glad theres no oce cream maker involved!! I’ve ne’er been able to make it cos of that! Aah I can’t WAIT to make this!! Mmm I’m thinknig chocolate soymilk and peanut butter…drool… Seriously I am SO excited about this!!
Fave flavour? Cookie dough. I haven’t had that since becoming a vegan so I think thisneeds to change now! 😀
had to jump on this one because 1) i too have never tried to make ice cream myself because i haven’t ever been able to use one of those actual ice cream makers and thus don’t own one and 2) chocolate chip cookie dough is my fav kind of ice cream! actually, that Ben & Jerry’s Half Baked….ya, i’ll power through a whole pint. just like u said, katie, who the heck is satisfied with a measly 1/2 cup?!?! so i’m gonna have to try and make my own and hope i don’t muck it up somehow with my kitchen lameness. i have a question though and this may sound dumb: do u think the best way to go about the cookie dough part would be to make the ice cream, make a bunch of your cookie dough balls separately, and then add them in? or do u think there is a way to try working in that cookie dough dip with the ice cream step? again, sorry if this sounds like a really obvious question! one again, thanks for the recipes!
I’d definitely add them later. Otherwise, when you pulverize, the cookie dough bits will be pulverized too and you won’t have separate chunks of cookie dough. But then again, that might taste delicious! It wouldn’t be cookie dough ice cream because there’d be no separate cookie dough pieces… but it might taste even better!
okay, duh, that should have been obvious. sorry! but thanks so much for letting me know anyways!! 😛
Yay for big portion sizes! My favorite ice cream flavor (like many other commenters) is chocolate chip cookie dough. But I was also a big fan of Phish Food before I went vegan.
Phish food was my all time favorite Ben & Jerry’s flavor back in the day. 😉
Thanks for the recipe, Katie! I’ve been making banana ice cream for years (recipe: 1 frozen banana) and it’s never even occurred to me to try blending frozen soy milk instead of pure frozen fruit. I’ve just put a batch of soon to be peppermint ice cream in the freezer (using an ice cube tray).
I need to buy a proper ice cream scoop, though, so it’ll be pretty when it comes out 😀
I hope you like it! I really need to try the peppermint version!
If it turns out well, I’ll be sure to blog about it (linking back to you, of course). 🙂 But I’ve just realized you already did do a peppermint version (sort of) with the bananas & spinach.
Such a good idea! I would totally eat all of this myself- huge portion for only 80 calories, whoop whoop! I love the fact that you post in the morning because then I always have an idea of what to eat the rest of the day 🙂
LOL you will get REALLY cold!
I get cold just eating 1/2! 🙂
Very COOL 🙂 I will have to get some Vanilla Milk or something to give this a try!! I love Mint Choc ice cream ( so all your spinach ice cream and mint recipes are a definete fav of mine)
Katie what a great recipe! I’ve thought of making something simple like this with almond milk~so it works! 😀
This looks so good! Too bad my Magic Bullet is awful at these sorts of recipes 🙁
Favorite ice cream: I love strawberry but my absolute favorite is cookies n cream!
I bet it could manage a sorta Wendy’s-frosty type texture!
ik . . . my only thing sort of like a food processor is a magic bullet!
My favorite Ice cream flavor probably has to be chocolate peanut butter or cake batter. I think your idea of adding mint and chocolate sound divine though!
I have an idea for a cake batter version… no idea if it’ll work, but I’m excited to experiment!
Since I’ve been trying to get on the wagon of veganism lately, I’ve found that So Delicious Chocolate Peanut Butter ice cream is AMAZING!!
YUM! Delicious and easy! 😀
There’s nothing better than ice cream in the summer, and this looks amazing. My favourite flavour is mint chocolate chip, but I haven’t had any for years because there aren’t a lot of vegan ice cream flavours in the UK. I think I’ll have to remedy that soon by making my own. I bet that chocolate sauce would be amazing with mint chocolate chip ice cream. I’m really excited to learn more about it – I was wondering why you were using something so sugar laden and it never occurred to me that there could be a healthy version!
Yup, lol this chocolate syrup is (I think) sugar free!
Mmm that looks yum! Perfect to store until an ice cream craving hits!
Yum! Ice cream is my favorite!
THIS IS AMAZING! And so simple! I never need to buy icecream ever again….not that I buy it that much anyways LOL! I am gonna add some carob powder and frozen cherries when I make this!!!!
I can’t wait to try this! Simple as can be and a whole bowl of ice cream for only 40 cals! I want to try almond extract and matcha green tea powder!