Make this healthy cauliflower ice cream with just 4 ingredients, an incredible way to use this nutritious vegetable. Vegan, gluten-free.
Cauliflower ice cream is creamy, sweet and full of nutrition. What a great way to eat your veggies!
It acts as a wonderful thickener in ice cream, just like bananas. As you know, I am a big proponent of ice cream and smoothies without bananas. I love bananas actually, and their intriguing ability to turn into dairy-free ice cream is indeed remarkable, but we have a daughter who can't eat bananas so we have to work out recipes that also include those without bananas.
How to Use Cauliflower to Make Ice Cream
If you are familiar with my recipes, you know I put veggies in ice cream and smoothies quite often.
I use frozen zucchini quite often in smoothies as a thickener. Or coconut in ice cream. Or avocados in chocolate popsicles.
It turns out cauliflower is just a good a thickener as those other tried and true ice cream ingredients.
To make it easy, I didn't boil/steam my own cauliflower and chop and puree. Instead, I bought frozen cauliflower rice and microwaved it to cook it. Then I cooled it and measured out what I need for this recipe. But you totally can use raw and cook and puree from scratch!
It's just ridiculously convenient to use riced cauliflower - be sure to use a brand that has only cauliflower in the ingredients - so I'm quite excited about it.
Can You Boil Fresh Cauliflower for Ice Cream?
Of course, it's a just a few extra steps to boil fresh cauliflower, chop and cool and puree, so don't be deterred if that is the route you want to take.
Plus, the colors of cauliflower - purple and orange - provide a lot of fun color potential, don't you think?
How Does It Taste?
Now, just to re-assure you, this ice cream does not taste like cauliflower, I promise! The cashew butter has a strong influence which proves cauliflower is actually the perfect blank slate. And adding the vanilla and cinnamon and salt further heightens the sweet creamy flavor. Of course, you can also add other flavorings, such as mint extract, or swirl in melted chocolate, or mix in cookies. You can use your imagination and adapt it the way you want.
Your final result with be creamy and delicious, and rich in all the good things cauliflower is known for, including vitamin C, vitamin K, folate, pantothenic acid, vitamin B6, choline, dietary fiber, omega-3 fatty acids, manganese, phosphorus, and biotin. [source]
Ingredients
- cauliflower, pureed and cooled
- dairy-free milk
- maple syrup
- nut butter
- vanilla, cinnamon and salt are optional
Substitutions
Nut butter and maple syrup. Instead of nut butter and maple syrup, use ½ cup of date paste. To make date paste, soak 6-7 dates in just boiled water, pit them and blend them into a paste. A small blender works best, especially a Blendtec wild jar what has arms that allow you to stir it while it's blending. Or a nutribullet might work. If you need to use a larger blender, double the date paste recipe and refrigerate the spare as a sweetener for coffee and smoothies.
How to Make
Step 1. You start by microwaving or steaming the cauliflower - either store-bought cauliflower rice or fresh cauliflower. Chop it up, blend it into a puree with milk, and allow the mixture to cool in the refrigerator.
Step 2. Add all the ingredients to a blender, and blend until smooth.
Step 3. Pour the mixture into ice cube trays or even just a ziplock bag. Freeze overnight.
Step 4. The next day, put the cubes in a blender or break up the ziplock bag mixture into chunks.
Step 5. Reblend the cubes/chunks until soft like soft serve.
Step 6. Either eat now, or pour into a loaf pan lined with parchment paper, cover and freeze another hour or two to make it scoopable.
FAQS
Can You Make Cauliflower Ice Cream in an Ice Cream Maker?
Sure you can. The one I recently purchased is in my Amazon store if you want to check it out.
And if you do intend to use an ice cream maker, remember to put the ice cream machine's tub in the freezer overnight. We keep our tub in there all the time so we are always ready to make ice cream.
Other Healthy Ice Cream Recipes
- Sweet Potato Ice Cream
- Date Raspberry Ice Cream
- Cauliflower Ice Cream
- Blueberry Ice Cream
- Chocolate Ice Cream (with bananas)
If you tried this recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!
📖 Recipe
Cauliflower Ice Cream
Ingredients
Cauliflower Ice Cream (Fills 1 loaf pan)
- 2 cups cauliflower, pureed and cooled Either microwave cauliflower rice, or boil and puree fresh cauliflower
- 1 cup dairy free milk
- ¼ cup nut butter*
- ¼ cup maple syrup*
- 1 teaspoon vanilla optional
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon optional
- ¼ teaspoon salt optional
Useful Equipment
- Covered Ice Cube tray (or use this brand, each tray here holds half a cup)
Instructions
Prep Cauliflower
- Either microwave a bag of riced cauliflower (ingredients must be JUST cauliflower), and throw the bag in the refrigerator to cool off.Or
- Boil your fresh cauliflower until soft, about 30 minutes. Drain it and allow it to cool in the strainer, about 1 hour.
- Blend until pureed - you can add a few tablespoons of milk to help it blend.
Make Cauliflower Ice Cream
- Add all the ingredients to a blender, and blend until smooth.
- Pour the mixture into ice cube trays or even just a ziplock bag. Freeze overnight. Lay the ziplock bag flat so the mixture freezes into a flat chunk.
- The next day, put the cubes in a blender or break up the ziplock bag mixture into chunks.
- Reblend the cubes/chunks until soft like soft serve.
- Either eat now, or pour into a loaf pan lined with parchment paper, cover and freeze another hour or two to make it scoopable.
Storage
- Store this ice cream as you would any ice cream.
Caroline
Hi! Could I omit the nut butter or sub with canned pumpkin and truvia liquid?
Dee Dine
You could def replace the nut butter with canned pumpkin although the ice cream will turn orange and be a bit icy. I don't know about Truvia. Here is a Sweet Potato Ice Cream recipe you might prefer, you can make it with canned pumpkin instead.
Tracy
Do you have a cauliflower smoothie recipe?
Dee Dine
Tracy, you find my cauliflower smoothie recipe here.