Healthy Ice Cream made with sweet potatoes instead of bananas! You won’t even taste them. This recipe can be dairy-free, vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free.
Top this creamy chocolate ice cream with healthy caramel sauce and chopped dark chocolate. Try other flavors like blueberry or cashew next!
Healthy Ice Cream
This isn’t your usual banana “nice cream.” Most versions just blend frozen bananas into something more like a smoothie. But this healthy chocolate ice cream is thick, creamy, and actually tastes like real ice cream—without any bananas.
It’s rich, full of chocolate flavor, made with six simple ingredients, and has no fake sweeteners. You don’t need any special items—everything is easy to find at any grocery store. It also comes together fast: just blend and pour into an ice cream maker!
So what’s the secret if there are no bananas? Stick with me… it’s sweet potato. More on that below!
Healthy Ice Cream Ingredients
- Sweet potato. It might sound strange, but no one ever notices it. The chocolate covers the flavor, and the sweet potato makes the ice cream thick and smooth.
- Dark chocolate chips. I like Nestle’s® 53% cacao chips but any chocolate chips will work.
- Coconut milk. I use lite coconut milk because it tastes more like chocolate and less like coconut.
- Coconut sugar. You can leave it out, use brown sugar, or try liquid stevia (start with 1/4 teaspoon). Want it sweeter? Just add more.
- Vanilla and sea salt. These two help bring out the flavor.
Quick Tip
Unsure which coconut milk to get? Look for unrefrigerated cans in the international aisle with Latin or Asian foods. I use Lite Thai Kitchen® Coconut Milk for this ice cream.
Let’s Talk More About Sweet Potatoes
- Red and orange sweet potatoes are sometimes labeled “yams” at the store, but that’s not right. Real yams are starchier, drier, and hard to find in U.S. stores.
- Go for orange or red-skinned sweet potatoes (like Red Garnet or Jewel)—they’re sweeter and creamier. Skip tan or purple-skinned ones since they’re drier.
- Pick firm sweet potatoes without soft spots or weird spots.
- Want to learn more? Try my roasted sweet potatoes, or skip the microwave with this baked sweet potatoes method.
Recipe Tips
- Freeze the ice cream insert ahead of time. It needs to be fully frozen or the ice cream won’t set properly.
- If your blender warms the mixture, chill it for 30–60 minutes before using the ice cream maker.
Ice Cream Maker
- For this healthy ice cream recipe, you’ll need an ice cream maker. Here’s the one I use and love.
- If you’re determined to try this recipe without an ice cream maker, here’s the method for that. The consistency isn’t quite the same, and it’s a lot of extra work, but you’ll arrive at a similar outcome.
Quick Tip
In my ice cream maker, it takes about 25–30 minutes to churn. If it’s still too soft, transfer it to an airtight container and freeze for 2–3 more hours.
Can I Substitute Ingredients In This Recipe?
Of course, you can always experiment and try any substitutions you’d like, but I likely won’t be able to tell you if your specific substitution will work out. I’ve only tested this recipe as written and can’t say how recipe substitutions will work out.
The most common question on this recipe is how to replace the chocolate chips. There is no substitute I know of that will work for chocolate chips. Cocoa powder won’t work the same in this recipe.
Healthy Ice Cream Dietary Concerns
- Gluten-free: While the ingredients in this ice cream are naturally gluten-free, make sure to check all your ingredient labels to verify they weren’t processed in a facility with gluten.
- Dairy-free: Use dairy-free dark chocolate chips.
- Vegan: Use dairy-free dark chocolate chips.
- Vegetarian: As written, this healthy chocolate ice cream is vegetarian.
More Nutritious Treats
- Healthy Zucchini Muffins made with Greek yogurt
- Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding creamy pudding made with chia seeds
- Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cake with chocolate chips
- Healthy Cookie Dough Cups with a cashew “cookie dough”
- Healthy No-Bake Cookies chocolate oat cookies
Healthy Chocolate Ice Cream
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 large sweet potato about 1 pound
- 1 (10-ounce) bag dark chocolate chips I use Nestle’s 53% cacao dark chocolate morsels, see note 1
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt or 1/4 teaspoon table salt
- 1/4 cup coconut sugar or light brown sugar
- 1 (13.66-ounce) can lite coconut milk I use Thai Kitchen
Instructions
- Wash and scrub the sweet potato. Pierce several times with a fork. Place on a microwave-safe plate and cook for 5 minutes; flip and microwave for another 5 minutes or until very tender. Set aside and allow to cool.
- Meanwhile, place the bag of chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl and heat in increments of 20 seconds, stirring between each increment for 15 seconds until smooth and melted. Add the melted chocolate to a large blender (use a spatula to scrape every bit of chocolate from the bowl). Add in coconut sugar, vanilla, and sea salt.
- When the sweet potato is cool enough to touch, remove the skins and thoroughly mash the potato with a fork. Pack into a measuring cup to get exactly 3/4 cup (180g). Add to the blender along with the canned coconut milk.
- Place the lid on the blender and blend on high for at least 1 minute or until ingredients are completely smooth and incorporated. If the mixture is warm, put in the fridge for 20–30 minutes.
- Use a spatula to scrape every bit of the mixture from the blender into an ice cream maker and prepare according to the manufacturer’s directions. (I have a Cuisinart, and it took about 30 minutes to get to a soft-serve consistency.) Transfer and smooth into an even layer in an airtight container. Place in the freezer to continue firming up, about 2–3 hours or overnight. (I like it best the next day!)
- No Ice Cream Maker: If you don’t have an ice cream maker, it will still work with just a little more effort. Place the mixture in an airtight container in the freezer. Stir every half hour for 3–4 hours or until the mixture is ice cream consistency.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
The sweet potato is genius. I have a simple Cuisinart ice cream maker, and have been making too much of the regular stuff. I’m branching out now to healthier versions. I only had full fat coconut milk, so I used that. I leaned into the potential coconut taste with chocolate chips with coconut in it (just made them at home). I will probably add small chopped up bits of an Almond Joy bar one day. As an alternative to the regular cream and sugar, it’s a little unbelievable. We got no sweet potato flavor, just a little coconut from the full fat can of coconut milk. Texture is good, got very thick fast, I had to take probably 7 minutes off the regular churn time. This hack is as good as using Tahini instead of oil in brownies. Thank you very much for sharing! Another great hack recipe included cottage cheese in place of the cream. I am going to try that WITH the sweet potato one day for an almost plain base. Thank you for the inspiration and the great new recipe!!!!
I am so thrilled to hear this! Thank you so much for taking the time to write this comment!
This ice cream is sooo delicious….you
would never know it has a sweet potato in it. A great alternative with no compromise
I am so thrilled to hear you loved this! Thanks so much Sarah!
I don’t comment on recipes very often but I had to for this one. AMAZING!!! I just sampled after churning it, can’t wait to have it tomorrow. The perfect ice cream for celebrating my husband’s birthday. My recommendation if you’re on the fence is that you make it immediately!! Thank you Chelsea!
YAY! I am so thrilled to hear this, thanks so much Kristen! 🙂
Verrry nice recipe!!! I love healthy ice cream!
Thanks so much Richard! 🙂