This homemade Matcha Chip Vegan Green Tea Ice Cream is a healthy and dairy free dessert recipe that can be made without any special equipment!
Coming back at you with another green recipe for St. Patrick's Day today.
This ice cream is a cool creamy concoction that fits in perfectly with the day of all things green.
I am always the worst at remembering to wear green on St. Patrick's Day. As I kid, to avoid the pinches that came along with the forgetfulness, I would tell all my friends I was wearing green underwear. Even though it might save my arms a few pinches, I can no longer feign green underwear as an adult. So this St. Pat's, I will be dishing out this green ice cream.
The best part about this ice cream, is that it requires no special equipment whatsoever. An ice cream machine is the one kitchen appliance that I am still lacking, and I wasn't about to let that hold us back today. All that stands between you and this ice cream are a handful of ingredients and a little bit of elbow grease. If you do have an ice cream machine or are in the market for one, feel free to use it here for ease.
Once the ice cream base has been mixed (with either a whisk or a blender), it goes into the freezer and gets stirred at 30 minute intervals to get things good and creamy.
For the beautiful chocolate pieces, we actually treat this Vegan Green Tea Ice Cream like stracciatella gelato. To make straccciatella, they swirl in melted chocolate into the cold ice cream. This forms perfect little flecks of chocolate that are small enough that they immediately melt in your mouth. Le sigh.
In terms of healthy deserts, this Matcha Chip Vegan Green Tea Ice Cream ranks towards the top.
The base of the ice cream is coconut cream. This rich cream not only gives us a crazy creamy texture sans ice cream machine, but it is also healthy to boot. There are no added preservatives or fillers, just pure coconut cream.
The only sweetener we add to this Vegan Green Tea Ice Cream is raw honey. The honey pairs perfectly with the earthy matcha flavor and is a key structural component to the ice cream. Honey keeps the ice cream from freezing into a solid ice cube. It keeps it slightly soft ultra creamy.
Matcha gives us great flavor, beautiful color without food dies, but it also helps us get our greens! Yep, that's right, greens. Matcha is the entire tea leaf ground into a fine powder, which means we are getting all of the vitamins and nutrients into the ice cream.
One last strange ingredient is sunflower lecithin. This ingredient works to emulsify the ice cream. It amps up the creamy texture and keeps the ice cream from separating into layers while freezing. You can find other forms of lecithin, but sunflower is by far the healthiest I have found.
Pinch free ice cream.
Matcha Chip Vegan Green Tea Ice Cream
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 240 minutes
- Total Time: 245 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
- Category: Dessert
Description
This homemade Matcha Chip Vegan Green Tea Ice Cream is a healthy and dairy free dessert recipe that can be made without any special equipment!
Ingredients
For the ice cream base:
- 3 cups coconut cream
- ½ cup honey
- 2 teaspoons liquid sunflower lecithin
- 2 teaspoons matcha green tea powder
For the chocolate chips:
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- ¼ cup cacao powder
- 2 teaspoons honey
Instructions
- Add the coconut cream, honey, lecithin, and matcha to a blender. Blend until well combined. Pour the ice cream into a freezer safe dish and place in the freezer to chill. Stirring every 30 minutes until firm.
- Just before your 3rd stir (right around 1 hour 15 minutes), heat the coconut oil in a small sauce pan. Once melted, remove from the heat and whisk in the honey and cacao powder. Remove the ice cream from the freezer and give it a stir. Pour over ⅓ of the chocolate and gently swirl it through the ice cream. Repeat with the last two additions of the chocolate being careful not to fully stir it in. You want the chocolate to be distinct in the ice cream.
- Return the ice cream to the freezer, and after 30 minutes, stir once more. Once you have reached your desired consistency, transfer the ice cream to a lidded freezer container and store it in the freezer until you are ready to serve.
Notes
- If you don't have a blender, you can whisk all the ingredients together in a bowl before freezing.
- If you own an ice cream machine , add the base into the machine after blending and let 'er freeze.
Bethany @ athletic avocado says
I love mint chip ice cream, so this recipe is super eye-catching to me! I'm also a huge fan of matcha and the fact that this ice cream doesn't require any special equipment. Is there anything this ice cream doesn't have? Nope, it's complete!
Laurel says
Thank you Bethany! You are so stinkin sweet!
Matcha Tea says
Thanks for sharing such a useful information about Tea. You can also mention about Green Matcha Tea which have lots of health benefits.
Karlie says
This looks amazing! Can't wait to try it!