Rich and creamy vegan pistachio ice cream made with a combination of cashews and coconut for a decadent vegan dessert. Made with just 6 ingredients.
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links.
Spring is finally here!
Early last week Eden, Nash, and I walked to the park, E and I wearing tank tops and sunglasses, breathing in the first of this spring's air and letting it wash away the long winter silence that has been following us around like rainclouds over our heads. Eden's young spirit came alive in a way I haven't seen for a long time. She skipped along the sidewalk stopping to hug every tree. With her face buried in it's bark she would say, "I love you" before moving on to the next. At each blooming flower she would lean in and inhale the fresh scents. And every once in awhile she would sprawl herself out on the sidewalk to soak in the warm sun and clear skies. As you can imagine it took quite awhile to get to the park.
At the park children were playing in the fountain and on the playgrounds. I heard the collective (playful) scream of relief that winter has lifted and the sun has taken her rightful place in the skies. We played at the park for about an hour, Eden finally old enough to climb around the playground by herself, nervous at first but quickly learning the wonder of toddlerhood. Nash peered his head over the baby wrap that held him in, eyes wide open at this new world he is just discovering. When we finally headed home, we talked about the oranges we would eat when we finally got there (she was still taking her time as she now had to tell all the trees on the other side of the street about her undying love). My mind wandered and soon I dreaming up all kinds of summertime recipes.
And this cashew and coconut based vegan pistachio ice cream was born.
If you've been reading my blog for awhile you know I'm a lover of iherb.com. I have a great thing going with them where if you buy from their online store using my code you save 10 dollars off your purchase. Meanwhile I get a small commission that I use to do my own iherb shopping once in awhile. I usually wait until those special spending sprees to buy the more pricing things in life like cashews, cacao nibs, and pistachios.
Last week I got all three of those things in my iherb shipment and I wasted no time. Within minutes of tearing into the package I got the cashews soaking and the Vegan Pistachio Ice Cream bowl freezing. The next day I was digging into the delicious, nutty, and oh-so-creamy ice cream so thankful that warmer days are upon us.
Pistachio Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 2 cups cashews, soaked 4-6 hours
- 1 can full-fat coconut milk
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup coconut oil, melted
- 2 teaspoon almond extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted pistachios, shelled
Instructions
- Place your ice cream churning bowl in the freezer overnight.
- Drain and rinse the soaked cashews. Place in a high-speed blender along with coconut milk, sugar, coconut oil, almond extract, and salt. Blend on high until completely smooth (3-5 minutes).
- Place ¾ cup of pistachios in a coffee grinder or food processor and blend until they are a fine powder. Add pistachios to ice cream base and mix again until completely incorporated (another 2-3 minutes).
- Add the chilled ice cream to your ice cream maker and process according to manufacturer’s instructions. Once the ice cream is thick, frozen, and resembles soft serve, add remaining ¼ cup pistachios and transfer to it to a loaf pan, smooth top, and cover. Place in freezer for 2-3 hours until the ice cream has harden.
- Pull out and let thaw 15 minutes before serving.
Nutrition
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Hi, I’m Sarah. I’m a 14-year (and counting) vegan, professionally trained photographer, former pastry chef, founder of My Darling Vegan, and author of the
thothep says
I love this recipe. I'm not actually vegan, but I am very lactose-intolerant, and there's very few satisfying dairy-free ice creams. This comes out with a lovely, creamy texture. I've now made it to recipe twice, and played once with changing up the flavour (no pistachios, half a cup of cocoa powder, a dollop of peanut butter, vanilla instead of almond extract , and the crumbs from a couple packages of cookies). This is the best recipe I've used since getting my ice cream maker.
Ari says
Hi, is there anything I can substitute granulated sugar with, without changing the richness or texture of the ice cream?
Sarah says
Not without changing the texture or richness, no. But you could do some experimenting with coconut sugar or a liquid sweetener like maple syrup. It will, however, definitely change the texture and taste.
Grant says
Can I substitute sugar with honey
Sarah says
I've never tried substituting with honey so I'm not sure the ratio you'd want or how that would affect the consistency.
Sabina says
Hi! Thanks for sharing your recipe. However, coconut milk and coconut oil contain a lot of saturated fat and can clog the arteries.
:() dry or fresh coconut is ok. I'm going to try the ice cream with bananas and soy yogurt. I hope it will work.
sharon k billings says
Why does my ice cream come out brown?
Mariah says
I tried it and the flavor was fabulous but the texture was terrible. I wonder what I did wrong? It was too airy/foamy, sorry it's hard to describe. Any advice?
Marie dimitri says
How many ml in your coconut milk can ? Because I want to do this recipe thanks
Sarah says
It's a 14 oz can, so about 415 ml
Heather says
What a great walk to the park and one compassionate little lady! I have yet to perfect vegan ice cream other than the standard banana "ice cream" you on the other hand totally have!
Ellen says
Looks delicious! What do you do with the other 1/4C pistachios? Did I miss something?
Thanks, can't wait to make this!
E
Sarah says
Oops! Thanks for pointing that out. I just fixed it. They are meant to be added into the ice cream before the final freeze.
Crystal says
Would coconut sugar wrk in this recipe
Sarah says
It should be fine. I'm not all that familiar with coconut oil and I could imagine it might have a hard time dissolving completely, but it should alter the taste and texture too much.
Annie says
For some reason, I stopped getting emails when you post - and I'm afraid my mind is so scattered that if I don't get a reminder, I...forget. Thank goodness I didn't miss this luscious ice cream :-)! I'm also feeling a little giddy from spring's arrival and with this dish you've captured that beautiful, soft green of new leaves.
Sarah says
Hey Annie, among the handful of difficulties I have been dealing with on my site, my emails have not been reaching all of my followers, depending on when you signed up. I would recommend re-subscribing since I can seem to get to the bottom of the problem (which I think is plugin related).
And thanks for your kind words about my ice cream!
Ashley says
I love the story about Eden skipping along the street hugging the trees--what a beautiful, sweet image! It's amazing how children are so naturally in tune with nature and the change of the seasons.
I find myself in a similar state of dreaming up summertime recipes, and of course there's nothing better than ice cream! The combination of coconut and pistachios in this one sounds divine.
Emma says
Spring really does bring out the best in all of us I think! I'm in Geneva this month and we popped across to France this past weekend and had a glorious time basking in the sun and wandering the markets. I got an amazing dark chocolate and berry sorbet cone but definitely looked longingly at the pistachio wishing it was vegan. Lovely recipe.
Sarah says
"Popped across to France" man, I wish I lived in europe and could pop on over to other countries 🙂
The Vegan Cookie Fairy says
Pistachio has always been my number one favourite ice cream flavour, not to mention it's got the prettiest colour. Dying to make some now!
Joy // For the Love of Leaves says
No joke I was just thinking about 15 minutes ago that I wanted to make a coconut milk based pistachio ice cream, I open up Bloglovin' and voila! Now I don't have to take up the time coming up with the recipe myself. Can't wait to try it!
Sarah says
Great minds 😉
Caitlin says
yesterday was a similar day for us! 80 degrees, sunny, and lightly breezy. it was miraculous. this ice cream looks like the things dreams are made of. i just loveeeee pistachios!
Sarah says
So glad you're getting Spring weather after the horrible winter you had. Enjoy the sun!