A decadent chocolate gelato made with just 5 ingredients, and prepped in just 5 minutes! Dairy-free, nut-free, sugar-free, and vegan.
If you know my work, you know ice cream is my favorite treat. Favorite.
If there is another dessert to be had – cake, pie, cookies – it better be paired with ice cream!
In my early cooking days I watched a lot of Bobby Flay cooking episodes. I’ve heard him express a similar sentiment about ice cream, that he would choose ice cream anytime over any other dessert.
Yes. Exactly.
There’s something special about making your own ice cream, though. It tastes – well – homemade. You can customize to your sweetness and ingredient preferences, and you can taste the love!
Tricky thing is most homemade ice cream recipes require an ice cream maker, and many of us don’t have this appliance (or we may not want to pull it out any given day)! I have a full ice cream chapter in LTEV, but most of those recipes do use the ice cream maker.
This Chocolate Gelato needs no ice cream maker. It benefits from a high-speed blender, but more of us in the vegan and plant-based world have a rambo blender!
This is also one of those gem recipes that just “came together”. I tested it one day as a pudding, throwing a few ingredients together, and using dates as the sweetener (with my chocolate chia pudding in mind). It literally took 5 minutes to make. I decided to freeze it, just to see how it would turn out. To my delight it froze beautifully. With 5 simple ingredients, and 5 minutes of prep (excepting freezing time), I was happy to retest. And retest. And retest this chocolate gelato. 😉
I think I’ve said enough. Time to make the ice cream! Happy scooping…
Vegan Chocolate Gelato Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup refrigerated coconut cream (from can of regular coconut milk, see note)
- 1 cup (packed) pitted dates (see note)
- 1 cup frozen overripe sliced banana
- 3 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 – 1/2 tsp vanilla bean powder or seeds from one vanilla bean or 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (see note) optional
Instructions
- In a high-speed blender (I use Blendtec and the twister jar), combine all ingredients (see note if using a standard blender).
- Puree until very smooth.
- Transfer to a container to freeze (see note for mousse/pudding ideas). It will take 4-5 hours to freeze to a firm set, but will soft-set like a gelato in less time (about 2-3 hours). Makes about 2 1/2 cups.
Notes
- Coconut Milk Note: Use regular coconut milk (rather than light) from a can in this recipe. Before using refrigerate it overnight, or for a few days. The thick cream will rise to the top and be easy to scoop and measure. Use only the thick cream.
- Date Note: Dates must be soft to easily puree. Some pitted dates can be old and dry. If your dates aren’t soft, try presoaking them in non-dairy milk for a half-hour or so until they soften. Vanilla Note: I prefer the flavor of vanilla seeds or pure ground vanilla bean, but you can also use vanilla extract if you want to add that touch of flavor.
- Blender Note: A standard blender may have difficulty churning the dates and frozen bananas into a smooth mix. You might want to first process the bananas and dates in a food processor, adding a small amount of the milk and then transferring to a blender to achieve a smoother puree.
- Idea: As a mousse, try serving topped with fresh fruit or layered in a parfait glass with Vanilla Cashew Yogurt!
Share your feedback anytime about this recipe, love to hear from you!
rose says
Jenifer, is it still the same taste/quality after a day or two in the freezer?
Jenifer says
I’ve used frozen avocado as a substitute or in addition to the bananas. It makes things a lot ‘fattier’ but it does work. just add a few more dates, and you should be good to go.
Claudia Earhart says
Hi, Dreena, and thanks for the super website. The chocolate gelato sounds amazing, and I wish that I could eat it.
Like many folks, I have an extreme latex allergy, which means that I cannot eat bananas. This makes a LOT of vegan deserts and smoothies impossible, since they rely on bananas for creamy texture and sweetness. Have you found any reliable subsititutes?
Thanks!
Dreena says
Hi Claudia, that’s true, many healthy ice creams contain bananas. Are you able to eat mango? I wouldn’t sub it in this recipe, but I do use frozen mangoes in place of bananas in smoothies and other blends. Also, sometimes you can use soaked cashews with additional sweetener, and also extra coconut milk. If other ideas come to me, I’ll add another note!
Amy says
I’m with you. Latex allergy not extreme but anaphylacticreation to banana. Can’t eat avocado either.
Michelle says
Thank you for this delicious recipe! It is yummy! I used Trader Joe’s Coconut Cream, which worked well.
Karen says
I made this per the recipe and it turned out fantastic. My first vegan ice cream! Thank you for your work to develop recipes!!