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This Vegan Mint Chip Ice Cream is naturally dairy-free and made with coconut milk. The mint flavoring covers the coconut taste completely, so it feels like you’re eating the real thing!
Ingredients You’ll Need
What is mint ice cream made of? All you need is 3 simple ingredients.
- Coconut Milk (full-fat canned coconut milk)
- Granulated sugar (I use coconut sugar)
- Peppermint flavoring
When making vegan desserts, be sure to use organic sugar if you’re concerned about the sugar cane processing methods. Organic sugar is always vegan, according to PETA.
For a mint chocolate flavor, you can add in either mini chocolate chips, or cacao nibs to keep this ice cream free of any refined sugar. The cacao nibs add a nice crunch, too!
How to Make It
How do you make vegan ice cream? It’s important that you start by placing the bowl insert of your ice cream maker in the freezer at least 24 hours in advance. (This is the ice cream maker I own.)
Blend together the coconut milk, sugar, and mint flavoring. This will help the sugar dissolve in the milk quickly, without heating anything up.
Note: Alternatively, you could heat the milk, sugar, and mint on the stove top and whisk until the sugar is dissolved. However, in that case, you’d need to refrigerate the mixture until it’s cold again, before you can move on to the ice cream maker step. You wouldn’t want to thaw the ice cream bowl by adding in hot liquid!
Once the mixture is blended together, pour it into the frozen bowl of your ice cream maker. Run the machine according to the manufacturer directions. Mine needs to run for about 35 minutes to thicken up, so be patient!
The ice cream should have a thick, soft serve consistency when it’s done.
At this point, you can add the mini chocolate chips or cacao nibs, and process for 3 to 5 more minutes, just to mix them in.
Serve right away for a soft-serve consistency, or transfer the ice cream to a container that you can store in the freezer. It will firm up into a scoop-able consistency in about 2 hours in the freezer.
I find this ice cream is the easiest to scoop the same day you make it.
This ice cream will harden further if you freeze it overnight. I recommend letting it sit at room temperature for at least 15 minutes before scooping it again the next day.
Don’t Have an Ice Cream Maker?
I have a feeling you could freeze this mixture into ice cube trays, and once they’re frozen, you could run the mixture through a food processor, similar to making banana ice cream.
This would prevent you from having rock-hard ice cream from pouring the mixture directly into a dish to freeze.
You could also freeze this mixture in ice pop molds, to make a frozen pop instead!
Substitutions
Need to make a swap? Here are some ideas to help.
Coconut Milk. I have only tested this recipe with coconut milk, so I don’t have perfect swap for that yet, but I do have plans to test ice creams made with other non-dairy milks soon! I also have an old avocado ice cream recipe here on the website, so you can experiment with that if you’d like less coconut flavor.
Granulated sugar. I use granulated sugar to help minimize the ice crystals that can form on dairy-free ice cream. If you’d prefer to use honey or maple syrup, I’d start with just half the amount, because they taste sweeter than coconut sugar. You can always add more to to taste.
Peppermint extract. I use this for convenience, but if you have a high-speed blender, you can also use fresh mint leaves for the mint flavoring. I’d start with a 1/4 cup of fresh mint leaves, without their stems.
Want more vegan ice cream recipes? Try Vegan Cookie Dough Ice Cream, Watermelon Sorbet, or Instant Peach Ice Cream for more dairy-free variations.
Ingredients
- 2 (14.5 oz.) cans Coconut Milk (Full-fat; not light)
- 1/2 cup coconut sugar (92 grams)
- 1 1/4 teaspoons peppermint extract (6 grams)
- 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips (64 grams; optional)
Instructions
- Be sure to freeze the bowl of your ice cream maker at least 24 hours in advance, before getting started. (If your machine requires this; some don't!) In a blender, combine the coconut milk, sugar, and mint flavoring, then blend until smooth.
- Pour the mixture into the frozen bowl, then run the machine according the manufacturer directions. My machine usually needs to run for 35 minutes to thicken up.
- Once the ice cream is thick, with a soft-serve consistency, add in the chocolate chips and let the machine run again for 3-5 minutes, to stir them in.
- Serve right away for a soft-serve consistency. For a firmer ice cream, transfer the mixture to a container and store in the freezer for 2 hours. This ice cream is easiest to scoop the same day you make it. It will harden further overnight in the freezer, so you might want to let it sit at room temperature for at least 15 minutes before attempting to scoop again.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
If you try this Vegan Mint Ice Cream, please leave a comment below and let me know what you think! And if you make any modifications, I’d love to hear about those, too! We can all benefit from each others’ experiences.
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Reader Feedback: Which ice cream flavor would you like to see next?
I’ve been making your ice cream recipes all summer- this Vegan Mint Chip is so easy and delicious!
Very good! And the leftovers keep well, better than I expected.
I attempted to make this ice cream but the consistency was off. Should there have been salt added to the recipe? The flavor was amazing but more like chuncky ice crystals.
I love this ice cream! I don’t own an ice cream maker, so I just blended it all up and poured it into a container to store in the freezer. Still turned out great the next day, in case any one was curious.
Would it be possible to replace the peppermint with vanilla?
Strawberry
Love your site. I have all your books and ebooks 🙂 Keep it up!
Chocolate.
Banana
Strawberry
If I don’t have an ice cream maker, will a blender do the trick?