Among my favorite treats is the soft serve dairy-free ice cream I make at home using my blender. It’s refreshing, delicious, and loaded with nutrients. This dessert has fewer calories than you might expect. I’ve included two recipes below, including a video. The first flavor is key lime; the second flavor is peach-pecan. The base flavor in each is banana.
Why My Kitchen Blender Is One of My Favorite Gadgets
When I decided I wanted to start eating better, one of the first things I did was to replace less-healthy desserts with more-healthy desserts.
I started making soft serve dairy-free ice cream. My blender proved to be unexpectedly helpful for this purpose.
I started with a $20 blender from a big-box discount store. That was fine for basic protein shakes, but I soon realized I wanted a better blender with a more powerful motor to make soft serve.
Today, I use my upgraded kitchen blender to make protein lattes (black tea, green tea, coffee – I have 3 protein lattes daily), smoothies, and frozen desserts. You can also use your blender to puree soups, make sauces and dressings, crush ice, grind grains and nuts, and more. There are other advantages as well:
Nutrient retention: Blending fruits and vegetables can help retain the nutrients lost during other cooking methods. Blending also breaks down tough fibers in fruits and vegetables, making them easier to digest.
This is no small thing. A longevity-based, anti-inflammatory diet requires up to 9 loose cups of multi-colored vegetables daily. Your blender makes hitting that target that much easier.
Time-saving: Blenders are designed to blend ingredients quickly and efficiently, saving you time in the kitchen. Chopping ingredients by hand takes a long time. You can throw items into the blender and let it work for you.
Consistency: Blenders can create consistent blends, which can be challenging to achieve by hand. This is especially useful when you want a smooth and even texture.
Easy to clean: Most blenders are designed to be easy to clean with dishwasher-safe parts.
Overall, a good blender is a versatile and time-saving tool that can help you create soft serve dairy-free ice cream and other recipes in your home kitchen while retaining nutrients and producing consistent blends.
If you want to get healthier – add muscle tone while shrinking surplus fat cells – then I can’t recommend a quality blender highly enough.
High-Protein Snack! Soft Serve Ice Cream Recipe at Home
Here’s how I do it.
First, I make my base. This is the equivalent of plain soft serve dairy-free ice cream.
As my final touch, I then add my flavor combination, depending on what I’m in the mood for. Two of my favorite flavor combinations are key lime-and-mint, and, peaches-and-pecans:
Soft Serve Dairy-Free Ice Cream – Blender Recipe
You can use your kitchen blender to make healthy soft-serve dairy-free ice cream in a variety of tasty flavors. Here is how to make the base for your frozen dessert, with some additional flavor ideas for your finishing touches.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup rice milk
- 1/4 cup coconut milk
- 1 Tablespoon unsweetened plant protein powder
- 1 Tablespoon unsweetened why protein isolate powder (this is optional and can be skipped if you want strictly dairy-free)
- 4 large, peeled frozen bananas
- 3 ice cubes
- 3 dashes of cinnamon
- (You just made your base. Now, see instructions for final flavor-combination options.)
Instructions
- Pour liquids into blender.
- Add powders.
- Add frozen bananas.
Pause to blend. If ingredients freeze inside carafe, replace blender lid and shake and "burp" carafe, then continue blending.
You just made your base.
Next, add ice, and choose your flavor combos:
Flavor Combination 1: Add this to the base from before. Squeeze the juice of a key lime, add 5 macadamia nuts, a 1/8 teaspoon of spirulina powder, a cup of frozen spinach, a cup of fresh parsley, and 3 mint leaves. Blend until you have the desired consistency.
Flavor Combination 2: Add this to the base from before. 1 and 1/4 cups of frozen peach slices, 5 pecans, a dash of nutmeg. Blend until you have the desired consistency.
TIP: If the ice cream is too thick to blend, add one teaspoon of water at a time until you're able to get it moving again.
Pour into parfait glasses or small ramekins.
See video.
Notes
Whey protein isolate is whey protein that has been well-filtered and so has little to almost no lactose. It's usually a good alternative for people with lactose intolerance. Even so, it's an optional ingredient and vegans can easily omit it.
Why This Soft Serve Dairy-Free Ice Cream Is Healthier
In this recipe, the sweetness in the soft-serve dairy-free ice cream comes from fruit, not added sugar. The key lime version even includes dark leafy vegetables – spinach, parsley, and mint.
Of course, you still have to make sure that you have enough room in your daily allotment of calories to enjoy this treat. And it helps if you exercise because physical movement is highly effective at reducing excess glucose from your blood.
Still – all in all – this dessert is far healthier than other standard dessert choices because this one has no added sucrose, no flour, and you get the fiber and micronutrients from its whole food ingredients.
This soft serve is good as a post-workout snack, too, because of the higher protein content. A heaping tablespoon of hemp/rice protein powder together with a heaping tablespoon of whey protein isolate equals almost 20 grams of quality protein.
Conclusion: Soft Serve Might be a Healthier Snack Alternative
You can use your kitchen blender to make wholesome, soft-serve, dairy-free ice cream in a variety of tasty flavors. Try these healthier recipes.
I encourage you to keep in mind that incorporating more whole foods – particularly fruits and vegetables – into your diet can have health benefits and may help reduce the risk of chronic diseases.
In whole-food recipes, micronutrients, fiber, and antioxidants can help protect the body against damage from free radicals, inflammation, and other factors that contribute to the development of chronic diseases – such as heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and certain types of cancer.
I invite you to ask your medical doctor if increasing your intake of vegetables and fruits is a wise idea for you.