Vegan Strawberry Ice Cream

Whenever I think about strawberry ice cream, I always think about my grandpa. He passed away last year, but I'll always remember how his ice cream preference never faltered. I myself have never been that big on fruit flavored ice cream until I tried Franklin Fountain's version a few weeks ago.

A week after discovering my newfound love for strawberry ice cream, Lauren and I received a massive amount of strawberries in our weekly CSA box. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to bring out the ice cream machine!

Makes about 6 servings
Ingredients:
- 1 3/4 cups raw cashews (soaked overnight)
- 1 15 oz. can coconut milk
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup soy milk
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 2 1/2 cups cut up strawberries (1 1/2 cups cooked)

Day Before:
24 hours in advance, freeze your ice cream machine bowl. Place the cashews in a bowl of water, cover, and soak overnight.

Day Of:
Rinse and drain the cashews. Place cashews and coconut milk in the food processor (or blender), and blend until completely smooth.


Add the sugar, soy milk, vanilla extract, and salt to the food processor and blend once more. Taste your mixture and adjust accordingly. This recipe isn't super sweet, so you may need to add extra sweetener if that's your preference. Once you achieve your desired taste, pour the mixture into a large bowl and cover. Refrigerate for an hour.

Wash, core, and cut your strawberries. You'll be mashing the strawberries next, so the smaller you chop your strawberries, the easier it will be.

Put the strawberries in a small sauce pan and place on the stove on medium heat. Mash the strawberries so that it creates a sauce. I like bites of strawberries in my ice cream, so I left my strawberries slightly chunky. It's going to look like you've made strawberry jam at this point. I found a bean/potato masher to be the most efficient mashing tool versus a whisk or fork. Pour the liquified strawberries into a bowl and refrigerate.

Now it's time to actually make ice cream. Pour the ice cream mixture into the machine's bowl and let run for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, slowly pour the now cold strawberry mixture into the bowl while letting the ice cream machine continue to run.

Once your ice cream has reached your desired consistency, turn off the machine, and enjoy! I let my ice cream machine run for 10 minutes after adding the strawberries.

Just to prove that I've always enjoyed the occasional ice cream binge, feast your eyes on my toddler self indulging in the wondrous frozen treat!