Healthier Lilac Vanilla Vegan Ice Cream

I’ve always loved lilacs. Their smell is heavenly and they look so beautiful. When I discovered they were edible, I knew I had to try making something with lilac. So I decided to make Healthier Lilac Vanilla Vegan Ice cream. This healthier vegan ice cream has a really lovely delicate lilac flavour balanced beautifully with vanilla. This is such a simple yet decadent dessert, perfect for any special occasion this season. Top the ice cream with flowers for beautiful garnish when serving and you will surely wow any guest. I mean how beautiful is this ice cream??

The process to make this healthier lilac vegan ice cream is very simple. It takes a bit of patience but wow is it ever worth it. First you have to prepare the flowers and steep them in the vegan cream. Then you can add the rest of the ingredients and then churn the ice cream. But it is absolutely worth the extra effort because this ice cream is special. It is the perfect treat to surprise any guests with at social gatherings this spring, or for personal enjoyment of course! I’ve found that not a lot of people are even aware that lilacs are edible! If you serve the ice cream with lilac blooms as decorations, it is truly a showstopping dessert. So go ahead and try this delicious ice cream with a delicate lilac and vanilla flavour. So refreshing!

This Healthier Lilac Vanilla Vegan Ice Cream can be made as the recipe suggests, but it can also be made using my homemade lilac syrup and any vegan vanilla ice cream. You can simply drizzle the syrup on some vanilla ice cream, or make this ice cream but skip the lilac steeping part. I’ve tried this method before as you can see in the photo below there is a pool of lilac syrup. It’s also delicious! Let me know what you think!

More lilac recipes on my blog:

Healthier Lilac Vanilla Vegan Ice Cream

by Baking Me Healthy

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 45 minutes mins

Cook Time 5 minutes mins

Steeping Time 12 hours hrs

Total Time 12 hours hrs 50 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine Vegan

Equipment

• Ice Cream Machine
• High Speed Blender

Ingredients

  

• 2 cups freshly picked lilac flowers, lightly packed cups rinsed and with stems removed*
• 2 cups vegan cream I used Oatly's Creamy Oat with lower fat
• 100 ml raw sugar
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• pinch of sea salt
• ½ cup raw cashews soaked for about 5 hours  rinsed and drained

Instructions

 

• Pick lilac flowers. Lightly shake them to get rid of any critters.
• Remove all of the stems from the lilac blooms so only the actual little purple blooms remain. Rinse the flowers to remove dirt etc.
• Cook the vegan cream over medium heat with sugar until the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat. Stir in the vanilla and sea salt.
• Prepare the cashews. Soak cashews in water for roughly 5 hours or overnight in the fridge.
• Once the cream and sugar mixture has cooled to a lukewarm temperature, add the flowers. It's very important the cream has cooled because otherwise you can burn the flowers and ruin their flavour. Let the flowers steep at room temperature until the cream has cooled and then place it in the fridge to steep further. This can take about 12 hours, but it's a personal preference thing so if you find it has gained loads of flavour before then you can move onto the next step when you're ready.
• Strain the flowers from the mixture.
• Mix the cashews in a high speed blender with the cream mixture until smooth.
• Once cool, pour the mixture into your ice cream machine and follow the instructions for your machine.
• Once the ice cream has finished churning, either enjoy immediately or place in your freezer.
• Enjoy!! 🙂

Notes

*Removing the stems is very important because otherwise the ice cream might have a bitter taste!
However if you are using lilac syrup instead, simply skip all the lilac steps and just pour the syrup over the ice cream instead! 

Keyword dairy free ice cream, dessert, fika, foraging, ice cream, lilac, plant based, vanilla, vegan