Vegan Strawberry Ice Cream

Published: Jul 16, 2024

Vegan strawberry ice cream - this delicious roasted strawberry ice cream is easy to make, smooth, creamy and so refreshing! It is packed with strawberries in both the ice cream and the strawberry swirl and can be made with either fresh or frozen ones.

It also contains NO coconut! The secret ingredient to it's wonderful creamy texture is oats!

Vegan strawberry ice cream in a grey bowl with a bowl of fresh strawberries.

This vegan strawberry 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.

It is also a great base recipe which can easily be adapted to create all sorts of different flavours.

This strawberry version is rich, creamy and bursting with fresh strawberry flavour. I added a strawberry swirl as well just to really pack in the fruity flavour.

Because strawberries have a very high water content they need to be cooked in order to remove some of the liquid and intensify the flavour so that you end up with ice cream that isn't icy and actually tastes of strawberry. I choose to roast them but you could also chop them up and cook them down in a pan instead.

A labelled photo of the ingredients needed to make vegan strawberry ice cream.

What Do I Need To Make Vegan Stawberry Ice Cream?:

Strawberries: you can use either fresh or frozen ones. Because strawberries contain a lot of water, you need to cook them first to reduce the amount of liquid; this concentrates the flavour and stops the ice cream from becoming too icy.

Cashews: Unroasted cashews provide creaminess to this vegan strawberry 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.

Caster sugar: I use white caster sugar (granulated is fine too) as it has a neutral flavour, I want the strawberry to be the star here!

Don't reduce the amount of sugar by much or the ice cream won't be as creamy and it won't taste as good.

Golden syrup: Adding a syrup to ice cream can help to stop it from becoming too hard in the freezer. While I prefer to use golden syrup, corn syrup, agave or maple syrup would be ok as well.

Lemon juice: Adding some lemon juice helps to bring out the tang of the strawberry.

Balsamic vinegar: This is optional but it helps to intensify the strawberry flavour.

Vanilla: Vanilla extract enhances the strawberry flavour.

Vodka: This is entirely optional but adding a little alcohol to homemade ice cream can help to stop it from freezing too solid.

Close up of scoops of vegan strawberry ice cream.

How To Make Vegan Strawberry Ice Cream:

Step 1: Roast the strawberries with the golden syrup and balsamic vinegar until syrupy.

Step 2: Soak the cashews in boiling water to soften.

Step 3: Place the oats in a saucepan with the milk and bring to a gentle simmer, cook for about 5 minutes until the oats are soft.

Step 3, a two image collage of cooking the oats and milk.

Step 4: Place the roasted strawberries, oat mixture and drained cashews in a blender along with the milk, sugar, vanilla, lemon juice, salt and vodka and blend until smooth.

Step 5: Pour the mixture through a fine mesh sieve. Then cover and refrigerate until cold.

Step 5, pouring the ice cream base through a sieve.

Step 6: To make the strawberry swirl, cook the chopped strawberries, golden syrup and lemon juice in a pan until softened and reduced slightly.

Step 6, the strawberry compote in a pan.

Step 7: Churn the chilled ice cream base in an ice cream maker until frozen.

Step 7, the churned ice cream in an ice cream maker.

Vegan strawberry ice cream in a glass container with an ice cream scoop.

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.

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.

If you want the ice cream to have more of a pink colour, whisk in a couple of drops of red or pink food colouring before churning it.

I have a 2 litre ice cream maker (this one by Cuisinart).

I recommend placing the container that you are going to put the ice cream in in the freezer to chill while the ice cream is churning. This will help stop the ice cream from getting too melty while you transfer it to the container.

Don't skimp on the sugar! Sugar is important in ice cream not only for the flavour but also for the creamy texture. Things also taste less sweet when they are cold, so bear in mind that you want the unfrozen base to taste a bit sweeter than you want the finished ice cream to taste.

Variations:

Instead of the strawberry swirl, this ice cream would be great with the chocolate fudge swirl from this coffee ice cream recipe.

You could also use strawberry jam rather than making your own strawberry swirl.

As for mix-ins, chocolate chunks or roughly crushed Oreo cookies would work really well! Add them to the ice cream maker in the last minute of churning.

More Vegan Ice Cream Recipes:

A glass container of vegan strawberry ice cream, some of it scooped into balls, with an ice cream scoop and a bowl of fresh strawberries.

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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