I love ice cream.
In high school and early university, I worked at an ice cream shop where I scooped two-storey cones of mint chocolate chip and rocky road for customers on the daily.
I’m also lactose intolerant.
Lactose intolerance isn’t a choice – it’s what happens when your body has an inability to digest lactose (milk sugar), or if you don’t have enough of an enzyme (lactase) to break down all the lactose.
If you’re like me and you love ice cream, this is bad news. I can’t drink milk or eat milk products without suffering from the symptoms of what doctors call “gastrointestinal discomfort”.
So what’s an ice-cream-loving, lactose intolerant girl to do?
Eat dairy free desserts!
I love coconut milk ice cream, which often has a rich taste and silky mouthfeel – two of the best parts of ice cream.
Coconut milk ice cream is usually available at health food stores like Vitahealth, or you can make it at home in any flavour you’d like using an ice cream machine. I really enjoyed the curried peanut butter flavour coconut milk ice cream a friend made (this recipe is similar).
If you’re not a fan of coconut, there’s also soy ice cream or soy frozen yogurt. I’ve had Tofutti soy ice cream and enjoyed that, but I also love Tutti Frutti, a self-serve frozen yogurt chain. They serve soy frozen yogurt in yummy flavours like taro and peanut butter banana. Tutti Frutti is a great place to go for a treat with a friend who isn’t lactose intolerant because they have a wide variety of regular frozen yogurt flavours like toasted marshmallow, birthday cake and red velvet, to pink lemonade and more. (And they have an awesome toppings bar!)
One of my early creations at Tutti Frutti.
One of the things I love to make at home that’s really quick, easy, and healthy when you’re craving ice cream is vegan banana “soft serve”. It doesn’t require many ingredients – unless you want to jazz yours up, of course!
Vegan Banana “Soft Serve” Ice Cream
Ingredients:
2 very ripe bananas
Vanilla extract
Cocoa powder
Cinnamon
Sea salt
Almond, soy, or coconut milk to thin and blend.
Toppings (if you desire).
Peel bananas. Break bananas into chunks and put chunks in a bag or container and freeze for 24 hours. Defrost bananas for 15-20 minutes and blend in a blender until smooth. Add spices of your choice and your milk of choice to thin the mixture. The mixture should be very thick and slide as one unit when you’re pouring it from the blender. If you want more of a “melted” consistency or a milk shake, you can just add more milk until it’s how you like it.
I like to use sweetened almond milk to thin it, and add cocoa powder, cinnamon and a bit of sea salt, too. I also add honey, but then it’s not vegan, so make sure if you’re sharing with vegan friends that you find out if they eat honey.
A “melted” version of vegan banana ice cream in chocolate flavour. I added a bit more almond milk so it was a thinner consistency.
I’ll leave you with this classic scene from Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy that sums up my feelings about milk all the time.
* * * *
Recipe adapted from Pinterest. I don’t own the rights to Anchorman, or I’d be very rich.
* * *
Do you have any dairy-free desserts that you love? Share them with me in the comments 🙂
erika miller 