Dairy Free Vegan Pistachio Ice Cream (Paleo, GF, ACD)

2012 June 24

Ice creaaaaaam! How much do you love the stuff? I do. Bigtime. I’ve noticed this summer a plethora of dairy-free ice cream recipes popping up, and I thought, well its time for a new one over here. Ever made ice cream with coonut milk before? No? You need to try my vanilla ice cream with rhubarb ginger ribbon, or my tipsy soft serve amaretto ice cream. Dreamy.

Today’s goal was to pull off a pistachio recipe. After some hunting around and comparing different recipes, I finally mashed a bunch of ideas together to see how this would turn out, and, I must say I lurvs it. :)

You might think its a bit odd to have lemon juice in this recipe, but it really lightens and brightens the coconut milk- a general rule of thumb is, whenever you have fat in a recipe, add an acid to balance the flavour. (Just like whenever you have alot of sugar in a recipe, add a little salt to balance it).

MyRealFoodLife.com

Dairy Free Pistachio Ice Cream

NOTE: Want to experiment more? Throw in a mashed banana or avocado and blend it into the mix!

Here we go- no dallying, on to the recipe!

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups blanched pistachios (if you can’t find those, use regular unshelled pistachios, soaked overnight, and rub their skins off. If you have a Middle Eastern or Indian grocer around, you are likely to find the blanched pistachios there) ALSO: for a stronger pistachio flavour, after soaking and rubbing off the skins, roast them in the oven at 350 for a few minutes till they have a few gold edges.
3 3/4 cups coconut milk (full fat- approx 3 cans)
1 vanilla bean
Sweetener- Paleo: 1/4 cup honey. Regular: 1/2 cup honey Vegan: 1/2 cup agave nectar ACD: stevia drops/powder to taste
Juice of 1/2 to 1 whole lemon (you want about 2 tbsp)
1/4 to 1/2 tsp almond extract

Directions

If you can’t find blanched pistachios, pour hot water over unshelled pistachios, let sit 10 min. Drain, and slip off the skins. Let the wet pistachios dry in the oven about an hour or so on a cookie sheet at 200 degrees. (for stronger flavour, roast them at 350 for about 5-10 min)
Blend the pistachios as finely as you can- (almost into a paste) I don’t have a Vitamix so I use a coffee grinder – works decently.
Split and scrape the seeds of the vanilla bean.
Add the bean seeds and pod, pistachios, your choice of sweetener, and coconut milk to a deep sauce pan.
Over medium-high heat, bring to a boil, and then turn down to a simmer (medium low heat). Simmer at least 10-15 min, stir to prevent sticking at the bottom.
Let cool. Remove the vanilla bean pod. Stir in juice of 1/2 the lemon and 1/4 tsp almond extract. Give the mix a taste, see if you want to use more (I like it strong tasting, so I use the whole lemon and 1/2 tsp almond extract but thats not for everyone ;) )
Pour into ice cream maker, or into popsicle moulds, or into loaf pans. Freeze. You’re done!