Coconut and Lychee Dairy Free Ice-cream
I’m so lucky to live in North Queensland. We have an abundance of local tropical fruit. Lychees are in season at the moment and they were selling them by the kilo. I couldn’t help but buy a bag, especially since Maddy loves them so much. Lychees are great to incorporate into your diet, especially in the summer months. Besides being rich in vitamins and minerals, lychees are also rich in a polyphenol called oligonol, which has been shown to help prevent against influenza (the flu) and protect the skin from harmful UV rays from the sun. As much as we love eating lychees on their own, I thought it would be great to come up with a recipe where I could incorporate them into a dessert. When I was a child, one of the simplest desserts mum used to serve was tinned lychees with vanilla ice cream. Maddy remembers his mum doing the same. So naturally I thought of a lychee flavoured ice cream.
I’m so excited about this ice cream. I have tried many vegan ice cream recipes that use coconut milk as a base and I find them so difficult to defrost. I once left one out for over 30 minutes and it was still rock hard. Considering I live in the tropics and it’s hot here all the time, well that’s just not goof enough for me! The best thing about this ice cream is that you can scoop it up straight away and it melts like real ice cream. It is very rich and creamy and basically tastes like summer. The hardest thing about this recipe is peeling and deseeding the lychees. You can used canned lychees if you cant find fresh ones or if you want to speed up the process, however you will need to reduced the amount of sweetener as canned lychees tend to be sweeter. Hope you enjoy the recipe, tastes even better with a side of raspberries. (Inspired by a recipe put up by the Pure Harvest company, which makes the best soy and almond milk in Australia!)
| Coconut and Lychee Dairy Free Ice-cream | Print |
- ½ cup cashew butter
- 1 ¼ cups coconut milk
- ¼ cup coconut oil
- ¼ cup maple syrup (reduce to 2 TBSP if using canned lychees)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 TBSP lemon or lime juice
- 12- 15 fresh lychees (or canned if you prefer)
- Begin by peeling and deseeding your lychees, or drain your tinned lychees.
- Place the transparent lychee flesh into a blender.
- Add all remaining ingredients to your blender and blend until smooth. About 1 -2 minutes.
- Transfer to container (I used a loaf tin) and set in the freezer for about 4 hours.
- Allow to defrost for 2-5 minutes before serving.
