Pistachio Gelato

It’s a quick one today, as i’ve been working on a project that’s been keeping me super busy. Life has been feeling full as ever these past few months and while i’m happy to be a busy we have managed to take breaks and do a bit of post pandemic travel. I’m also looking forward to taking some much needed time this summer to work on our home & garden + be a little more zen.   

Summer is just a little away but not that far, we’ll be having a house full of guests starting in mid May with my kids, Im super excited to spend those precious times with them, cooking a lot, working on creating new recipes and some revisiting old favorites. My kids and guests are always excited to see what I feed them. And that puts a little pressure on me to be creative and show them a good time. It’s all in a good happy way so I love to oblige. Now lets talk about this ice cream or should I say gelato.

Surely you’re no stranger to ice cream – this one today is pistachio +coconut milk based gelato. Gelato is a more milk rather than cream based ice cream + no egg yolks. In that respect to make plant based gelato is rather easy, nuts, coconut milk, nut milk, coconut cream are excellent to give that rich, creamy texture. There’s a couple added steps other than just throwing coconut milk + accompaniments into your ice cream maker, but it is totally worth the extra step. We first blend everything in blender to form a smooth, creamy, thick smoothie like texture. Next its poured into the ice cream maker and let it do its thing. Read the ingredient list before starting.

INGREDIENTS

• Pistachio: Alongside the coconut milk, the raw pistachio are essential, after all it is pistachio gelato. Nuts also thicken the custard to a creamy texture when you’re making vegan ice cream, that is essential as theres no egg yolk. Be sure to blend in a powerful high speed blender so you end up with perfectly smooth gelato. 
• Maple syrup and Dates: We used a combination of dates and maple syrup for a variation in texture, sweetness and caramel like flavor. Use any sweetener you prefer. A note on sweetness: this recipe is made with fraction of the sweetness normally found in packaged ice creams. If you’re satisfied by the sweetness of the blended custard leave it at that or go ahead and add more sweetness to you’re liking, blend once more before freezing.
• Plant Milk: I go with full fat oat milk specifically Oatly for its rich thick whole milk texture and neutral flavor. Use any milk that you normally have, if you have to go out and buy I highly recommend Oatly. It’s not sponsored just love the product. 
• Coconut cream: Make sure to use coconut cream if not full fat coconut milk. Both are typically canned and can be found in the Asian section of your grocery store. If coconut cream is not available use full fat coconut milk. Simply place the can for a hour or two in the fridge before opening the can, this hardens the cream. You then open the can and drain the water. Use the water in your smoothie or curry, it’s perfectly good. You’ll need one whole cup of coconut cream for this recipe. 
• Vanilla extract: this adds a delicious flavor and masks the flavor of coconut.