Raw Vegan Cashew Banana Ice Cream

I am going to warn you straight off the bat before I proceed any further - this raw vegan banana ice cream is hard to quit eating!

So if you are prepared for a few extra calories on the lips and hips and get excited by bananas, then look no further than this delectable vegan cashew ice cream, that can literally be blended up in 5 minutes. Well, half an hour if you include the time churning in the ice cream maker. But you can walk around the house doing other things while the machine is working it’s magic! I will say, that you will need a high speed blender such as Vitamix in order to make a vegan cashew ice cream with a really creamy texture. A regular blender will yield a more grainy result.

I came up with the recipe for this raw vegan banana ice cream when I mournfully realized I had run out of my last stash of frozen coconut meat that I had so lovingly collected from my last coconut smashing exercise. I usually make raw vegan coconut ice cream. As the ends of my snout started to droop as I developed a rather childish snout pout, I recalled a vegan ice cream recipe I had from years ago that utilized raw cashews and fruit. I once again turned to my blender for inspiration, and set about throwing things in to taste. The results were a hit on the first blend, and I have not changed this raw vegan banana ice cream recipe since. Everyone loves this vegan cashew ice cream -- even the most devout cream dreamers and dairy devotees. This raw banana ice cream is so rich and creamy that it really is hard to believe that there is absolutely nothing bad in it! The secret to this ice cream’s success is to use extremely ripe bananas to capitalize on the natural sweetness.

I have used agave nectar in this recipe. But I catered a lunch for 20 people for Dr Carter’s lunch and lecture, and a lot of the guests were on the Sugar Circuit Diet. I used “Just Like Sugar” to sweeten the ice cream, and used equal quantities. It was absolutely delicious, and a huge hit. This sweetener is absolutely fantastic. I must admit, I have only just discovered it. Dr Carter put me onto it, and I have been substituting recipes with it with great success. It is made from Chicory Root, Calcium, Vitamin C, and natural flavours from the peel of oranges. It is gluten free, dairy free, with no yeast, soy, or animal derivatives. Check out their website for more information on this fantastic natural sweetener.

This raw vegan banana ice cream recipe is really fool proof and is literally child’s play. Actually, this would be a fantastic recipe to make with children to introduce them to natural raw vegan ice cream making. You could add 1 ripe banana, and substitute berries for berry ice cream. You could try other fruit. You could add in coconut and chocolate. The sky is the limit. I would keep one of the bananas for some sweetness and texture. One thing I will say is to keep the mixture in the ice cream maker for a full 30 minutes. You will yield a much creamier product, more closely resembling conventional dairy ice cream if you just take an extra 10 minutes to churn it for the full half an hour.

As I have mentioned with some of my other vegan ice cream recipes, my experience has been that vegan ice creams never really churn beyond the consistency of frozen yoghurt. And whilst this mixture can easily be consumed straight out of the ice cream maker as banana frozen yoghurt, if you want to serve up a more traditional ice cream, place the mixture in a container and place in the freezer for a couple of hours and it will firm up further.

You will just not believe something so easy can taste so good! This raw vegan ice cream is gluten free, dairy free, egg free, soy free and refined sugar free. I am going to have to plead with you to make this vegan cashew ice cream. It is a show stopper, and not to be missed!