Easy Raw Vegan Ice Cream!

In my inaugural Vegan MoFo post, I promised I would fork over the recipe for homemade raw vegan vanilla ice cream, and I am a woman of my word. You need to be willing to hack open a young coconut in order to do this, but beyond that, if you have a blender and a freezer, you’re golden. Why? You will need neither a Vitamix nor an ice cream maker in order to make this in your own kitchen:

Raw Vegan Vanilla Ice Cream

Ingredients:

• 1 cup raw cashews, soaked in filtered water at least 4 hours
• meat of 1 young coconut
• 1/2 cup filtered water, as needed
• scant 1/2 cup agave nectar
• 2 tbsp coconut oil
• 1 3/4 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp sea salt

Directions:

1. Blend all ingredients except for cashews and half the water until smooth. Add water if needed to keep the mixture moving.
2. Add drained cashews and blend until very smooth, almost fluffy.
3. Pour into an airtight container and freeze until solid.
4. Try to make it last more than one day. :)

Makes 2 cups ice cream, or 4 servings (HA!).

As delicious as it was, I should warn you that the texture was not exactly like conventional ice cream. I used only 1/4 cup water because the mixture seemed smooth and liquidy enough at the time, but next time I will add the full 1/2 cup water because once frozen, the ice cream was very dense and required 15-20 minutes of thawing in order to scoop easily. So rich! I adapted this recipe to be easier for me and what I had in the kitchen, but feel free to refer to that instead, as it may be more reliable.

Alright, now that I’ve fulfilled my promise to you, I can backtrack to other highlights of the weekend. There was far more pumpkin going on than a couple pictures of Pumpkin Carob Loaf would suggest!

Behold, very attractive and appetizing pumpkin pie crockpot oats:

I’m thinking it’s not such a good sign when your oatmeal comes out actually looking like a pie, but fortunately, it tasted much better than it looked.

Pumpkin Pie Crockpot Oats

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup steel cut oats
• 2 cups water*
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp each nutmeg, cloves, ginger
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 4 medjool dates, pitted and chopped

Directions:

1. Coat crockpot with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Combine all ingredients in crockpot.
3. Cook on low 6 hours (or less!)
4. Serve and add toppings as desired, such as almond butter, coconut, and/or chocolate chips.

Serves 2

*I have to admit that this was a bit of a fail, but salvaged quite nicely in the end, as you can see from the pictures. It is my experience that my crockpot tends to cook a bit high, and where oatmeal recipes are concerned, it always begins to burn at the edges before the prescribed amount of time has passed. That is why I ended up with a bit of a “pie crust” on top after only 6 hours, when most oatmeal recipes would tell you to cook for 8. Depending on your own crockpot, I recommend either a) adding more water than I used or b) cooking for less time than I did.

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Despite the fact that my oats suffered a bit of crustiness in the crockpot, I was able to restore them to deliciousness by stirring in a couple healthy splashes of unsweetened hemp milk and nuking the mixture until I had the right consistency.

(P.S. are we enjoying my fancy new Windows Live Writer photo effects? I am loving this program so far!)

Time for a little Comeback Tour 2009 for the Cabbage Cookie. I know it’s only a week old, but I made a variation on it over the weekend and figured I’d let it have its moment.

‘Tis a black bean tahini cabbage cookie! This is the dark and brooding cousin of the original Cabbage Cookie. The redux is heartier and doesn’t require that I eat two to be full!

Black Bean Tahini Cabbage Cookies

Ingredients:

• 4 cups-ish shredded cabbage (or half a bag of cole slaw mix)
• 1 cup mashed black beans
• 1/4 cup raw tahini
• sea salt to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450*.
2. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and work together with your fingers until cabbage is well coated and sticky.
3. With wet hands, form cabbage mixture into 4-5 cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
4. Bake for 20-25 minutes, flipping once, until browned on both sides.

In all reality, the cookies will probably break apart a little when you go to flip them, but just arrange it back into a pattie and press together with a spatula. It should hold alright once done baking.

Lest you worry that I spend all my time in the kitchen, have no fear—I take breaks to pee (maybe…) and sleep. KIDDING! Sometimes I go out. :) And when I do, it’s always fun to meet a fellow blogger. Saturday night, the boyf and I attended a housewarming for Megan (of Runner’s Kitchen) and her roommate, Alma (the boyf’s co-teacher). Small world, right?!

Megan made these freaky-fabulous vegan molasses pumpkin cookies, so I had to get a picture of the plate, which was rapidly emptying—they were that good! She posted the recipe, so be sure to check it out. And congratulate her and Alma on their race!

The cookies were most definitely Vegan MoFo AND pumpkin theme-friendly! I’m going to go ahead and roll with all the autumnal pumpkin-y goodies. ‘Tis the season ‘n’ stuff, right?

Obligatory couple shots:

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I like the one on the right—the boyf’s face looks like he tooted by accident or something. :)

Here’s a much better shot—boyf and Alma: professional middle school band butt-kickers.

Are you still with me? This post was a bit gratuitously long, but thank you for humoring me (and my wonky recipes…). I just have so much to get off my chest. Phew!