Vegan pumpkin ice cream - This delicious ice cream is perfect for Autumn! It is rich, smooth and creamy, made with real pumpkin puree and warming spices.
It is easy to make and contains NO coconut! The secret ingredient to it's wonderful creamy texture is oats!
I believe that ice cream should be a year-round food, not just reserved for Summer. This vegan pumpkin ice cream is perfect for Autumn, when the temperatures have started to drop a bit.
It is wonderfully rich and creamy, made with seasonal pumpkin puree and warming spices.
It is amazing eaten topped with some crushed Biscoff cookies, or have a scoop on top of apple pie, sticky toffee pudding or brownies instead of the usual vanilla. You could also make incredible ice cream sandwiches with some soft-baked vegan gingerbread cookies!
This vegan pumpkin ice cream is based on my delicious vegan vanilla ice cream recipe, which uses a base of cooked oats and cashews rather than coconut.
This gives it a more neutral flavour, meaning that whatever you decide to flavour your ice cream with doesn't have to compete with the coconut to shine.
What Do I Need To Make Vegan Pumpkin Ice Cream?:
Pumpkin puree: You need to use tinned pumpkin puree, NOT pumpkin pie filling, which already has sugar and spices added. It is available from many larger supermarkets in the UK, or online. You can also make your own by roasting and pureeing pumpkin or butternut squash.
Pumpkin spice: In the UK this is readily available online and in some supermarkets. You can also use individual spices instead.
Cashews: Unroasted cashews provide creaminess to this vegan pumpkin ice cream. They need to be soaked so they are soft enough to blend up to a smooth cream. You can either soak them in boiling water for about an hour, or in cold water overnight.
Porridge oats: regular rolled porridge oats or quick cooking ones are fine. You are going to simmer them with some plant milk until they are soft before blending them.
Plant milk: unsweetened soy milk is the best option here as it has a neutral flavour and creamy texture. (I like Alpro Unsweetened Soya milk the best).
You can use any kind of plant milk you like but bear in mind that the flavour of the milk will affect the flavour of the ice cream.
Maple syrup + brown sugar: A mixture of maple syrup and brown sugar to sweeten the ice cream also adds lots of flavour.
Oil: Adding a bit of extra fat to the ice cream helps keep the texture rich, smooth and creamy.
Xanthan gum: Pretty much all commercial ice creams contain some sort of stabiliser such as guar gum. This helps to stop the ingredients from separating and keeps the ice cream smooth and creamy.
Because guar gum is not so easy to get hold of, I used xanthan gum which is sold in most supermarkets and does the same job. You can just omit it if you can’t get hold of it.
Salt: A little bit of salt really helps to bring out the flavour and balance the sweetness.
How To Make Vegan Pumpkin Ice Cream:
(Full measurements and instructions can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of the page)
Make sure that the bowl of your ice cream maker has been in the freezer for long enough, mine takes 11 hours to fully freeze.
You need to soak the cashews so that they are soft enough to blend to a smooth cream. Either cover them with plenty of boiling water and leave to soak for an hour, or cover with cold water and leave to soak overnight.
Place the porridge oats in a saucepan with half of the soy milk and bring to a gentle simmer, cook for about 10 minutes, stirring often to prevent the bottom from catching, until the oats are soft.
Drain the soaked cashews well then place them in a blender with the other half of the milk and blitz until smooth.
Add the cooked oat mixture to the blender along with the pumpkin puree, maple syrup, sugar, spices, oil, xanthan gum and salt and blend until the mixture is very smooth.
Pour into a bowl, cover and refrigerate until completely cold.
Once the ice cream mixture is thoroughly chilled, give it a good whisk then pour it into your ice cream maker and churn until it reaches soft serve consistency.
Once the ice cream is done churning, transfer it to a freezer-proof container and freeze for about 4 hours, until firm, before serving.
What If I Don’t Own An Ice Cream Maker?:
If you don’t have an ice cream maker you can still make this ice cream, it just takes a bit more work and the texture may be a bit more icy.
Once the base is chilled, pour it into a large freezerproof container and pop it in the freezer. Every 30 minutes or so, remove it from the freezer and give it a quick whisk with an electric mixer to break up any ice crystals then return it to the freezer.
Repeat this until it reaches soft-serve consistency then allow to freeze for a couple of hours before serving.
Vegan Pumpkin Ice Cream Add-Ins:
For ripples and sauces, layer them with the churned ice cream as you are transferring it to a freezer safe container. For harder mix-ins like cookies, chocolate or nuts, add them to the ice cream maker during the last minute of churning so they are evenly dispersed.
Here are some mix-ins ideas that would work really well with this vegan pumpkin ice cream:
- Candied pecans or walnuts
- Chocolate chips or stracciatella
- Chopped Biscoff, Oreo, gingersnap, or oatmeal cookies.
- The chocolate fudge swirl from this coffee ice cream recipe.
Top Tips:
As with all of my recipes I really do recommend using the metric measurements with a digital scale rather than the cup conversions. Cups are a wildly inaccurate measuring system and you will get far better, more consistent results using a scale, not to mention that it is also easier and less messy than cups!
This ice cream is quite solid straight out of the freezer so make sure that you take it out at least 15 minutes before serving to allow it to soften up a little.
Ideally you need a power blender (such as Froothie/Vitamix) for the smoothest ice cream. You can still make it with a regular blender, but it might not be quite as smooth and creamy.
I recommend making the ice cream base the day before you churn it so that it has time to properly chill first. It needs to be cold when it goes into the ice cream maker.
I highly, highly recommend serving this ice cream with some roughly broken up Biscoff or gingersnap biscuits on top. It makes it taste like pumpkin pie (but better).
If you want, you can add 2 tablespoons of bourbon to the blender with the rest of the ingredients for extra flavour.
Don't skimp on the sugar! Sugar is important in ice cream not only for the flavour but also for the creamy texture.
Additionally, don't skimp on the fat! You may end up with an icy texture.
I have a 2 litre ice cream maker (this one by Cuisinart). If yours is smaller you may wish to make a half batch or it won't all fit.
More Vegan Ice Cream Recipes:
- Vegan vanilla ice cream
- Vegan malted chocolate ice cream
- Vegan mint choc chip ice cream
- Vegan coffee ice cream with chocolate swirl
- Vegan pistachio ice cream
- Rich and creamy vegan chocolate ice cream
- Vegan peanut butter and cookies ice cream
- Vegan biscoff ice cream
- Vegan chunky monkey ice cream
- Vegan lemon ice cream
If you tried this recipe let me know how it went! Rate it, leave a comment or tag @domestic_gothess on Instagram and hashtag it #domesticgothess
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Vegan Pumpkin Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 160 g (1 slightly heaped cup) unroasted cashews
- 25 g (¼ cup) porridge oats (rolled oats)
- 650 ml (2 + ¾ cups) unsweetened non-dairy milk (soy is best)
- 300 g (1 ¼ cups) pumpkin puree
- 160 ml (⅔ cup) maple syrup
- 40 g (¼ cup) light brown sugar
- 3 Tablespoons neutral oil (I use sunflower)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin spice
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Make sure that the bowl of your ice cream maker has been in the freezer for long enough, mine takes 11 hours to fully freeze. Ideally you should make the ice cream base the day before you want to churn the ice cream.
- You need to soak the cashews so that they are soft enough to blend to a smooth cream. Either cover them with plenty of boiling water and leave to soak for an hour, or cover with cold water and leave to soak overnight.
- Place the porridge oats in a saucepan with half of the soy milk and bring to a gentle simmer, cook for about 10 minutes, stirring often to prevent the bottom from catching, until the oats are soft.
- Drain the soaked cashews well then place them in a blender with the other half of the milk and blitz until smooth.
- Add the cooked oat mixture to the blender along with the pumpkin puree, maple syrup, sugar, spices, oil and salt and blend until the mixture is very smooth. Pour into a bowl, cover and refrigerate until completely cold.
- Once the ice cream mixture is thoroughly chilled, give it a good whisk then pour it into your ice cream maker and churn until it reaches soft serve consistency.
- Once the ice cream is done churning, transfer it to a freezer-proof container and freeze for about 4 hours, until firm, before serving.
Notes
- See post above for instructions if you don't have an ice cream machine, tips, details and step-by-step photos.
- Instead of the pumpkin spice you can add an extra ½ tsp cinnamon, ¾ tsp ginger, ¼ tsp nutmeg, ¼ tsp allspice and ⅛ tsp cloves.
- This ice cream is quite solid straight out of the freezer so make sure that you take it out at least 15 minutes before serving to allow it to soften up a little.
- I have a 2 litre ice cream maker (this one by Cuisinart). If yours is smaller you may wish to make a half batch or it won't all fit.
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