This refreshing vegan blueberry gelato is made from ingredients that are easy to buy in Australia–even in Tasmania! You will be surprised by how easy it is to make, too.
This time last year we hosted a HelpX volunteer from Germany. Swantje eats plant foods, only (vegan diet). So, for the six weeks of her stay with us our family followed a vegan diet. Swantje would be proud of me finally making a smooth delicious vegan gelato! Because, although we had tried making vegan frozen desserts, our attempts were less than great.
We may have liked frozen banana with peanut paste and chocolate sauce. But you can only eat this in small amounts. Our problem was we didn’t have an effective food processor. So, making vegan ice-cream from cashews was a dismal failure…and very messy too!
Vegan Blueberry Gelato Recipe
Then I discovered some convenient ingredients in our local superamarket! And I started experimenting with vegan ice cream again. This recipe uses ingredients purchased from Coles and the blueberries we picked from a local orchard.
Of course, I forgot to mention that I also purchased a small ice-cream maker– an Apuro DM067-A. I bought it online. It was one of those COVID lock-down impulses. But, I have had so much fun with this ice-cream machine!
Ingredients
- 300mL Sanitarium cashew milk
- 1/2 cup Coles cashew butter
- 1/2 cup Queens liquid glucose
- 1/4 teaspoon Macro xanthan gum
- 3 cups fresh/frozen blueberries
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
Method
Blueberry jam
Add the blueberries and lemon juice to a saucepan over gentle heat. Pour in the glucose. (hint: microwave heat the bottle of glucose for 10 – 20 secs, so that it pours easily) Continue to stir the berries, till the glucose has dissolved and the mixture starts to simmer. Carefully sprinkle in the xanthan gum and continue stirring till the mixture becomes thick. (~20 mins)
Cashew cream
Blend the cashew milk and cashew butter together in a 1L bowl or jug. I used a simple stick blender. You need to blend the mixture till it is creamy (i.e. no lumps).
Putting it together
The final volume of the blueberry jam is about 1 1/2 cups. Take 1 cup of the jam and add it to the cashew cream mixture. Again, you need to blend this well. You will have about 600mL of mixture.
Freezing the blueberry gelato
Pour the mixture into the bowl of the ice-cream maker, then turn the timer as far as you can. This is about 60mins on the Apuro dial. I let the churning continue till it stops (30 – 50 mins). You will notice that the frozen mixture is more brittle than a gelato made with milk. Use the spatula provided with the Apuro to scrape the mixture into a 1L freezer container.
A note about the Apuro DM067-A: The online desciptions call this a 1.5L icecream machine. However, I have found that liquid volumes greater than 600mL tend to start lifting the lid of the machine before it finishes churning. So I can make about 800 to 1000mL of frozen dessert. The final volume depends on the amount of air churned into the mixture. Of course, the mixture expands as it freezes, too.
Serving the vegan blueberry gelato
After allowing the gelato to freeze for several hours, it bcomes firm. But it isn’t too hard to scoup. Serve the gelato with some of the blueberry jam. You’ll love it!
By the way, this is a healthy dessert, too! Cashew nuts with fibre and minerals and blueberries with antioxidants are good for your health. In addition, the gelato contains a moderate amount of glucose rather than sucrose, so there is no added fructose!
