Low Calorie Vegan Ice Cream Recipe
Today we are making a Low Calorie Vegan Ice Cream Recipe – a Watermelon Sorbet! It’s true, the leaves are fluttering in the wind a little more than they were in July. The air is a bit more crisp, the days are beginning to get shorter, and school supplies are the first thing on display when you walk into Walmart. But is summer really over until mid-September? When the countdown to Halloween begins and Bewitched starts to play on TV, or when the leaves crunch beneath my feet as I see Pumpkin Spice Lattes make a return at Starbucks (and every lady in front of me wearing boots), I recognize that the hot weather has come to a close.
But until then, I am in FULL SWING over here. By that, I mean eating as many watermelons, mangoes and other summer seasonal fruits! Which led me to realize that I don’t have any watermelon recipes up! Recognizing that, I bought a watermelon and decided to make something with it. Which is why today, I present to you a watermelon sorbet. A sweet, tangy and super healthy dessert for you to eat after dinner (or on a lazy day at 3PM when the sun has you pouring sweat onto your patio deck and you wonder why you don’t go inside to some AC)?
Just Ten Minutes
This recipe is pretty quick, not counting the fact that you will need to freeze the watermelon in advance. You could, of course, also buy a bag of frozen watermelon but it defeats the point of also using up all that fresh summer watermelon, right?! Once frozen, blend it with the lemon juice until it forms a sorbet-like consistency. You can add a splash of water if you need to help it blend, depending on how strong your blender is. Alternatively, let the watermelon thaw for 10-15 minutes and it will be a lot softer to blend.
Another thing you can do is to replace the lemon juice with lime juice for a lime-watermelon sorbet. Or add more water to make it into a slushy instead! This sorbet is soy-free, nut-free, added-sugar-free, raw, gluten-free and vegan (as always).
Banana Nice Cream
Although this simple recipe uses a frozen fruit base of watermelon, other raw vegan ice cream recipes use different fruit bases. For example, frozen banana ice cream is a common base for homemade ice cream to have a creamy texture like soft serve. This is known as ‘nice cream’ – it’s so popular that they even have nice cream ice cream makers on the market!
Personally, this is my favorite healthy ice cream base. Since bananas have a high amount of natural sugar as they become more spotty, it’s perfect for a sweet tooth! The first time I tried to blend a frozen banana, I was shocked how similar the texture became to soft serve ice cream.
More Vegan Ice Cream Flavors
When blending plain frozen bananas, you can add vanilla extract to make plain vanilla ice cream. Add cacao powder for chocolate ice cream, peanut butter with cacao for a chocolate peanut butter flavor (Reese’s peanut butter cup!), or some fresh mint and dark chocolate chunks for a mint chip. You can make the classic flavors of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice cream, but on top of that the flavor options are endless!
There’s no aftertaste of a coconut flavor for those who don’t like the coconut-based ice cream options either. The only problem is that I’ve become so obsessed with frozen banana ice cream that there are now more than fifty bananas in my freezer. I’ve never thrown out a spotty banana after I figured out this trick! I’ve linked some delicious ice cream recipes at the bottom of this post, some of which use frozen banana as a base.
Other Vegan Ice Cream Bases
Full-fat coconut milk or coconut cream (or you can make this milk at home using a fresh coconut), silken tofu, cashews or another plant-based milk such as almond milk, oat milk and soy milk can also be used as ice cream bases. These are all free of animal products unlike a traditional ice cream recipe. It’s also great for those who have lactose intolerance, as there are zero dairy products. Homemade vegan ice cream offers so many options!
Why You’ll Love This Low Calorie Vegan Ice Cream Recipe
Two Ingredients: Today, we will be making a sorbet, rather than a milk-based ice cream. The good thing is that it uses only two simple ingredients! You can easily customize it for another fruit too to make different flavors, aside from watermelon.
Using a frozen fruit such as watermelon or berries makes for a low-calorie ice cream (well, sorbet) alternative as opposed to using frozen bananas, avocados or coconut as the base. I used watermelon here for a good reason! It’s seasonal for summer, needs no ice cream machine, is a delicious fruit all on its own, has a lot of health benefits, fewer calories than other fruit bases and there would be no need for added sugar.
Substitutions
Lemon Juice: Substitute lime juice instead. Use fresh lemons or limes as opposed to bottled juice with preservatives. The flavor is also so much better when fresh!
Watermelon: Substitute with a different fruit for various sorbet flavors. Frozen berries would work well in a 1:1 ratio for the watermelon, since they go well with tangy sorbet flavors.
If you don’t get a sweet watermelon, you could add in pure maple syrup to make it sweeter as well.
More Vegan Dessert Recipes You’ll Love
If you make this Low Calorie Vegan Ice Cream Recipe, then leave a comment and star rating! Don’t forget to tag your photos @peanut_palate on Instagram. Enjoy!
Low Calorie Vegan Ice Cream Recipe (Watermelon)
Equipment
- High-speed blender or food processor
Ingredients
- 4 cups frozen watermelon cubed
- ¼ cup lemon juice freshly squeezed would be best. Substitute can be lime juice.
- Splash water
Instructions
- Blend together the frozen watermelon and lemon juice in a high speed blender, until a sorbet consistency is reached. You may have to scrape down the sides of the blender a few times.
- Add a splash of water if required to help it blend.
- When it is done, add more sugar or lemon juice if you want it sweeter or tangier, and give it another quick blend.
- Serve it right away using an ice cream scooper to get the sorbet into scoops. Enjoy it right away!
