Tony got me a wonderful ice cream maker for my birthday last December and I finally put it to good use with this absolutely amazing vegan wild blueberry lavender coconut ice cream.
The first time I ever had lavender ice cream was at Jeni’s here in Chicago. It was a marvelous wildberry lavender flavor that was bright purple, sweet, floral and uber creamy. Probably one of my favorite ice creams that I’ve ever had. During the summertime, fruity ice creams are where it’s at.
I used to think that adding lavender to sweets was a little weird, but now I’m completely addicted and want to add it to EVERYTHING. I purchased culinary lavender from a local spice shop a few weeks ago and I’m so happy I did. (You can also buy it online here.) I’ve added it to homemade teas, muffins, breads and now ice cream.
Oh yes, ice cream that just so happens to be vegan & naturally sweetened. How, you ask?
Well, we use full fat coconut milk, an ultra creamy and naturally sweet milk paired with Almond Breeze AlmondMilk CoconutMilk, which adds a lovely sweetness. Uhhh huhhhh honey, this is gonna be goooooddd.
This ice cream is EASY to make too! You’d think ice cream making would be complicated but once you begin, you become quickly addicted. You’ll need an ice cream maker, but I think you’ll find yourself using it over and over again!
So, how do we make it?
First you’ll warm some of your ingredients up and blend, then stick in the fridge for a few hours to chill. The trick to this vegan ice cream is to making sure that the coconut milk is COLD before actually putting it into your ice cream maker. It makes all the difference.
While the mixture is chilling, you’ll make a blueberry compote on the stove top. I enjoy using wild blueberries because of their unique and bright flavor, but regular blueberries will work just fine. Once the compote is done, you’ll swirl it in the ice cream and freeze everything until ready to eat!
This recipe does require some patience as ice cream making requires some time, however the result is more than worth it.
I hope you love this ice cream as much as we did. Tony and I chomped down on it after watching Game of Thrones last night.
Just too dang good.
If you make this, I’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment below or tag #ambitiouskitchen on Instagram!
P.S. Have you joined the Summer Sweat Series yet? It’s a FREE 30 day fitness & nutrition program and I’d love for you to join us! More info here + check out our FB group.
Ambitious Kitchen
Cookbook
125 Ridiculously Good For You, Sometimes Indulgent, and Absolutely Never Boring Recipes for Every Meal of the Day
Wild Blueberry Lavender Coconut Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 2 (15 0z) cans full fat coconut milk (coconut cream also works)
- 1/2 cup Almond Breeze AlmondMilk CoconutMilk Blend
- 1/3 cup coconut palm syrup (honey works if not vegan)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons dried culinary lavender
- 1 1/2 cups wild blueberries or wild berry mix
- 2 tablespoons coconut sugar
Instructions
- Place a medium saucepan over medium heat and add coconut milk, almondmilk coconutmilk and coconut palm syrup (or honey); whisk until smooth and well combined and mixture comes to a slight simmer (this should only take a few minutes). DO NOT BRING MIXTURE TO A FULL BOIL.
- After mixture comes to a slight simmer, whisk once more, then transfer to a blender, add in lavender and vanilla and blend for 30 seconds. Allow to cool for a few minutes, then transfer to a large bowl, cover and refrigerate for 4 hours until very cold. This is an essential step, so please do not skip it!
- While the mixture is chilling, you'll make a blueberry syrup. Add blueberries and coconut sugar to a saucepan and place over medium heat. Mash blueberries up with a fork and continue to stir mixture until it thickens; this should take roughly 15-20 minutes. Once mixture is thick like a syrup, transfer to a bowl, cover and stick in the fridge.
- Once ready to make the ice cream, add the cold coconut milk mixture to your ice cream maker and churn according to manufacturer's directions until it resembles soft serve.
- Transfer half of ice cream to a freezer safe container, then add half of the blueberry mixture, repeat with ice cream and blueberries once more. Swirl mixture a few times with a knife to create layers. Cover ice cream and freeze for 4-6 hours or until ice cream hardens.
- Before ready to serve let the ice cream sit at room temperature for a few minutes. Makes 8 servings; 1/2 cup each.
Nutrition
This post is in partnership with Almond Breeze. Thanks for supporting AK and the brands that help make this site possible!
Absolutely love the drippy ice cream picture above! Must.get.an.ice.cream.maker.
You make me want to order lavender too! I’d love to try it, and ice cream is aaaalways a good idea.
This looks amaaazing!!
Going to make this ASAP! Do you use the whole can of coconut milk, not just the top creamy part?
Yes, you use the whole can, just make sure it is full fat coconut milk or coconut cream. 🙂
Monique – this looks amazing! So drippy and delicious :))
What a gorgeous ice cream!! Perfect flavor combo too!
This ice cream is so pretty!! And now I kind of want to put lavender in all the things too!
Monique, this ice cream is so beautiful and sounds delicious!! I hope there are more ice cream recipes to come 🙂
Oh my goodness this is so beautiful!!! I can’t wait to make this. LOVE blueberries. 🙂
Fruity ice-creams are perfect for summer! This looks so beautiful! Can’t wait to try it!
the first time i wasn’t that impressed with jeni’s, but i just went again this weekend and it was so good! their strawberry buttermilk is hands down the best strawberry i’ve had, and the brown butter almond brittle was so rich.
O M G this looks absolutely amazing and delicious, you made me really crave ice cream now hahaha as soon as I’m done with exams I’m totally making this recipe! x
Ariadna || RAWR BOWS
All I needed to see was that sweet cream dripping down the side of the cone to be convinced this is 100% delicious!!
THIS IS A DREAM.
I absolutely LOVE the flavors in this and homemade ice cream is the vest! And I am swooning over the lavender!
WOW this ice cream is truly incredible! I am OBSESSED with the flavor combo! I’ve never even thought of adding lavender to ice cream, but it sounds amazing!
omg! yum! Is there a way to make this without an icecream maker?
I froze the blueberries and just put it in my food processor with one can of coconut milk and the lavender. Worked fairly well but probably not stuff enough to put in a cone. Maybe if you freeze it a bit and stir it would stiffen up for you!
This is GORG. I’m obsessed with you.
How do you tell if your lavender is culinary?
Culinary lavender should be labeled as such; you CAN use other varieties, but ‘Munstead’ is among the cultivars that are most common/recommended for use in cooking as they have a sweeter, and somewhat citrusy flavour.
This looks AMAZING! I’m totally obsessed with lavender-everything. Can we turn this into a body scrub, too?? Lol 😉
Wow this is one of the most beautiful ice creams I’ve ever seen! Such a beautiful blue color!!
Ice Cream and Game of Thrones sounds like a perfect night to me! Looks delicious!!
Wow! Everything about this sounds amazing! I love all the chunks of blueberry in it! Those flavors all go together so well too!
is the boiling part a must? can I just pour chilled coconut milk and almond milk altogether in blender? what difference does the shimmer make?
Yes, because it warms the fats so they don’t separate.
Where did you get the container to store your ice cream? Does it have a lid or cover?
I would love to know the answer to this as well!
This is absolutely gorgeous! Blueberries are a huge favorite of mine…love that you’ve paired them with lavender! This is on my “must make” list!
This sounds so delicious! And I have culinary lavendar. Question, can you use plain almond milk, or does it have to be almond coconut milk? I have almond milk on hand and you use such a small amount.
Regular almond milk will work just fine! 🙂
I am not a fan of lavender~~any suggestions on a substitute or just leave it out of the recipe? Thank you.
I HATE coconut. What can I substitute for the coconut milk?
Where do you find coconut sugar?
I followed all the steps to a T but after chilling my milk mixture overnight it has separated with the fat on top. What should I do? If I leave it as-is I fear that I will end up with chunky ice cream (which wouldn’t be the worst thing, but still).
Just blend it up in your blender!
I made this recipe today and it was DELICIOUS!!! Thank you for sharing!
Whoo hoo!
This looks incredible!! Love blueberry and lavender together! Yum!
Followed recipe, exactly as written, 20-25 minutes in the ice cream maker and it’s still as runny as when I put it in. Too bad, it smells wonderful.
I think this is actually the most beautiful/photogenic ice cream I’ve seen in my life, it’s so pretty! It looks ridiculously tasty as well.
Julia // The Sunday Mode
Thank you so much! It tastes just as delicious as it looks 🙂
Can lavender extract be used instead???
I haven’t tried it but a bit of that should work!
What brand of icecream maker do you recommend. I plan on purchasing one soon! Love your blueberry recipe can’t wait to make ir!
I have one like this! Hope you enjoy this recipe 🙂
I have a sister who is gluten/dairy free, but she also can’t have almonds. Would this work with rice milk, if just adding extra coconut milk? Any suggestions?
Rice milk should work in place of the almond milk!
Made the base today and it is chilling away overnight. One note of caution – do not put the warm/hot mixture in the blender. Hot stuff explodes out of the blender. I used a quick spin around the pot with an immersion blender instead. Can’t wait to put this in my ice cream maker tomorrow!
Yes great tip! Always be careful with hot things + a blender. Hope you love it once it’s done!!
Going to make this tomorrow!
Hope you loved it!
This looks AMAZING! I’ve always wanted to make my own ice cream, so I’m so excited to try this recipe. Thanks for sharing!
I just got an ice cream maker, so I made this for my girlfriends for girl’s night. Amazing! Everyone loved it! I would love to get more recipes for healthy ice cream!
Love that! I’ll have to make some new recipes next summer 🙂
I tried your ice cream recipe, and this was first-time omake icecream at home every one love it.
This man I would wait for more ice cream recipe. Keep Good work and let me know what will your next icecream recipe.
This are fabulous…recipe..and it looks too delicious, sound more yummy as well…can’t wait make them and we love your info…Thanks for sharing…!
Hope you love this one!
All my guests enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
I’m so glad! You bet 🙂
I’ve made this recipe a ton of times, but what I need to know is if you can use agave instead of honey or coconut palm syrup if I’m trying to make it vegan
I think agave should work totally fine in here!
Hello, can I use agave instead of coconut palm syrup if I want to keep it vegan?
I think that should work fine in here, enjoy!
looks like yummy !! surely going to try, thanks for the recipe.
Enjoy!
This sounds really delicious! Is it okay to use frozen blueberries if fresh blueberries aren’t available?
Thanks,
A
sure!