Vegan Strawberry Ice Cream (2024)

If your interest or perhaps confusion peeked around white balsamic vinegar in strawberry ice cream, let's talk about some of the eyebrow-raising ingredients for this vegan strawberry ice cream recipe here (promise, it all makes perfect sense!)

• Raw cashews: you'll need 2 cups of raw cashews for this vegan strawberry ice cream recipe. If you're used to making vegan food, you'll know the magic of cashews and their ability to become a creamy, dreamy texture when blended well.

** You will need a strong blender to accomplish this and about 2-3 hours of soaking your cashews in a jar or container with water to soften them up.

• Strawberries: ah, the star ingredient! For this ice cream, you'll need 6 cups of diced strawberries. The ultimate situation would be to use local, garden-fresh summer strawberries for the most divine berry flavor. Failing that, whatever you can get at the grocery store will absolutely work. You can use frozen strawberries, just be sure to thaw them first before dicing and including them in the recipe.
• Coconut sugar: You will use 4 tablespoons of coconut sugar to coat the strawberries before you spread them out in a single layer on the baking sheet and roast them for 25 minutes. The leftover 2 tablespoons will go into the blender.
• Coconut oil: To help achieve the level of creaminess you've come to expect from ice cream, use coconut oil in place of high-fat cream and high-fat egg yolks that you usually find in a standard, dairy ice cream. Coconut oil helps keep this a dairy-free strawberry ice cream recipe.
• Water: Use 1 ½ cups of water to keep the ingredients moving in the blender so they come together into a silky consistency.
• Agave nectar: ¼ cup of agave syrup will add some sweetness to the recipe. You can substitute it with maple syrup, but the flavor will change. Another alternative is to dissolve granulated sugar in the water (by heating it) and add that instead.
• White balsamic vinegar: White balsamic is quite sweet and just a little bit tangy, kind of like strawberries. When you put the two together something magical happens and the balsamic makes the strawberries taste even more like strawberries. It's a very, very good thing. Have faith. If you don't have any white balsamic vinegar on hand, you can omit. It's purely a flavor enhancer.
• Pure vanilla: 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract is all you need to add some warmth and a sweet floral undertone.
• Sea salt: For balance, you'll add just a bit of sea salt so your mouth isn't completely overwhelmed by the sweet creaminess (although, you might not complain too much about that!)