Delicious and refreshing raw vegan chocolate ice cream

On a blazing hot sunny day, a bowl of ice cream is the most refreshing treat imaginable.

Now, there is a way to enjoy this dessert without the guilt of eating something unhealthy. LoveWildLiveFree, a vegan recipe and lifestyle blog by Avra Epstein, brings you a vegan ice cream dish that is healthy and satisfying.

The Raw Banana Chocolate Chunk Nice-Cream uses bananas and chocolate as natural sweetners and it tastes like a delicious bowl of ice cream without any unnecessary additives! Bananas can be used in many dessert recipes as a sugar replacement and instead gives vital nutrients such as potassium and dietary fiber. Cacao, which provides the yummy chocolate addition has magnesium and high antioxidants.

You will need:

4 ripe bananas

Raw chocolate sauce (recipe below)

Raw Heirloom Organic Vanilla Bean and Salt Chocolate Bar

Raw cashew pieces, optional

Raw Chocolate Sauce: 

1 tbsp organic unrefined, virgin coconut oil, melted

1 tbsp raw cacao powder

1-2 tbsp lukewarm filtered water, or more if needed

3 dates, soaked for 10 minutes in lukewarm filtered water

Instructions:

1. Peel bananas and cut into coins. Place the bananas in to an airtight container and freeze for a couple of hours until frozen, or ideally, overnight.
2. Place the frozen bananas into a food processor. Pulse until you create a crumble, stoping to scrape down the walls of the food processor as you go.
3. Once you reach an even crumble, blend consistently and stop every so often to scrape down the sides to ensure that you have an even consistency. This will take a little patience, but eventually the mixture will reach a soft-serve ice cream consistency.
4. Roughly chop a couple of squares of the chocolate bar and add to the food processor, pulsing a few times to evenly distribute.
5. Depending on your preference, you can eat the ice-cream immediately as soft-serve, or, transfer to an airtight container and freeze until solid.
6. Top with raw cashews and raw chocolate sauce (recipe below).

 Note: I always use a food processor when making nice-cream, but it can also be made in a high speed blender, just be sure that your blender is powerful enough to handle processing frozen bananas.

Raw Chocolate Sauce

1. Combine all ingredients in a blender. It’s that simple, just make sure to remove the dates from the water they’ve soaked in before adding them to the blender!

Tip: If the sauce is too runny place in refrigerator to thicken; if the sauce is too thick add more lukewarm water and blend.

Original recipe can be found here: Raw Banana Chocolate Chunk Nice-Cream