Strawberry & Vanilla Bean Nice Cream (Vegan, No Refined Sugar)

Name: Strawberry & Vanilla Bean Nice Cream
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: vegan
Ingredients: 1 cup unsweetened soy milk; 1 cup canned coconut milk; 1 1/2 cups pitted Medjool dates; 1 pint fresh or frozen strawberries (about 10 medium-sized berries); 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; seeds of 1 vanilla bean

June 24, 2018 / By Carrie Forrest, MPH in Nutrition / 48 Comments

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Here’s a dairy-free, vegan Strawberry & Vanilla Bean Ice Cream recipe that is perfect for clean-eating diets. This is a healthy and delicious treat with no refined sugar!

Hi there and welcome to summer! Is it time for dessert yet? I hope so because I’m sharing this Strawberry & Vanilla Bean Nice Cream and it’s starting to melt already, ha ha! I originally shared this recipe going back to 2013, but I’ve updated it with some commonly asked questions and answers about making nice cream (see below).

Okay, so I suppose you want to know how I made my vegan ice cream, right? You ideally need an ice cream maker, I use the Cuisinart version (here’s a similar one from Amazon) that I got at my bridal shower 15 years ago <—-(wow, am I really that old?).

There are many ways to make a vegan ice cream base, but my favorite method is to blend soy milk with coconut milk for optimal creaminess. When I first went dairy-free, not eating yogurt and ice cream was most definitely the hardest change. Fortunately, it’s gotten so much easier to find easy recipes to make dairy-free treats like these. I even went to a class at my local library to learn the basics of making vegan ice creams. I sure do love my library (nerd alert).

Here are some commonly-asked questions about making homemade vegan ice cream.

Why is it called nice cream?

Nice cream is a play on words. Since it’s dairy-free, it’s not made from animals. Many people consider it to be kinder to animals not to take their milk for consumption. Not to mention, the majority of adults are intolerant or allergic to dairy, resulting in unpleasant symptoms. Factory farming and large-scale milking facilities are most definitely not nice, so I highly suggest making educated choices about where you purchase animal products or dairy, if you consume them. Dr. Mercola has an excellent article here discussing the dangers of CAFO-raised animals, which applies to both meat and dairy. So, ice cream + dairy-free = nice cream.

Can I leave out the soy milk to make it paleo-friendly?

Most definitely! Just make sure you use about two cups in total of dairy-free milk. For this recipe, you can make it paleo by using two full cups of coconut milk with no soy milk. As I mentioned above, I like the combination of coconut milk and soy milk for dairy-free ice creams, but please feel free to make whatever adaptions you need. I don’t eat a lot of soy foods, but I make a special exception for cases like this.

Can I keep this recipe in the freezer for a long time?

My experience with dairy-free ice creams is that they are best consumed on the same day you make them. Otherwise, they freeze very hard. That said, if you freeze this recipe more than a few hours, you’ll just need to let it warm up a bit before you try to scoop it. 15 minutes on the countertop before serving should do it.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask them in the comments. Here’s the recipe for this incredible Strawberry & Vanilla Bean version of vegan ice cream, I hope you enjoy it!

Vegan Strawberry & Vanilla Bean Ice Cream printable recipe (give it a starred review if you’ve tried it):