A healthy chocolate ice cream made with wholesome and natural ingredients (no added/unnatural sugars) and withOUT frozen bananas! Vegan, vegetarian, gluten free
Can you make healthy ice cream that actually tastes good? a big, fat yes.
And it’s crazy easy to do! This is honestly the best healthy chocolate ice cream ever and it’s made with natural, wholesome ingredients and free of artificial sugars. AND you just need a microwave + a blender to make it 🙂 (An ice cream maker helps, but it’s not required.)
So you might already be thinking that this ice cream is loaded with frozen bananas because isn’t that how all healthy ice cream starts out?
While banana ice cream is all fine and good, it’s actually not my favorite. It still TASTES overwhelmingly like bananas to me and the consistency is all wrong. So, no frozen bananas in this recipe and I promise you won’t miss them one bit! This is the healthy ice cream alternative that will change everything for you!
So what is replacing the banana?
Sweet potato. But trust me, you can not taste it! I had no short of a dozen people try this ice cream and first off, they didn’t even know it was a healthy alternative (no joke!) and second not a single person could guess the hidden veggie.
Other than the base being a sweet potato, the rest of the “base” ingredients are quite healthy:
- Dark chocolate (hello healthy fats and antioxidants!)
- Coconut milk (lactose free, rich in fiber, tons of vitamins and minerals)
- The other three ingredients are just for flavoring — vanilla bean, sea salt, and a little bit of coconut sugar.
A healthy chocolate ice cream made with wholesome and natural ingredients (no added/unnatural sugars) and withOUT frozen bananas! Vegan, vegetarian, gluten free
- 1 large orange yam/sweet potato
- 1 bag (10 ounces) dark chocolate chunks/chips (I use 62% Cacoa; use vegan chocolate chips to keep vegan)
- 1 vanilla bean (seeded) or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/4 cup coconut sugar (can use brown sugar; just be aware it's not a "natural" sugar)
- 1 can (13.66 ounces) LITE coconut milk (I use Thai Kitchen)
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Wash and scrub the yam or sweet potato. Piece with a fork several times over the potato. Place on a microwave safe plate and microwave for 5 minutes, flip and microwave for another 5 minutes.
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Remove and allow to cool. Meanwhile, place the bag of chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl and microwave in increments of 20 seconds, stirring in between each increment for 15 seconds until smooth and melted. Set aside.
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The sweet potato should be cool enough to touch now. Remove the skins and then THOROUGHLY mash the potato. Pack into a measuring cup to get exactly 3/4ths a cup. Place in a large blender.
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Add the melted chocolate to the blender (use a spatula to scrape every bit of chocolate from that bowl!) along with the vanilla, sea salt, coconut sugar, and canned coconut milk.
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Place the lid on the blender and blend on high for at least 1 minute or until ingredients are completely smooth and incorporated.
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Transfer to an ice cream maker and prepare according to manufacturer's directions (I have a Cuisinart and it took about 30 minutes to get to soft serve consistency) then transfer to an airtight container and place in the freezer to continue firming up.
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If you don't have an ice cream maker, it will still work just a little more effort 🙂 Place the mixture in an airtight container in the freezer. Stir every half hour for 2-3 hours or until the mixture is ice cream consistency.
*Cook time refers to freezing time
Adapted from The Vegan 8
More Healthy Dessert Recipes:
No Bake Healthy Breakfast Cookies
The BEST Healthy Oatmeal Cookies
T3Treats says
February 4, 2014 at 6:17 amOMG They look so creamy, Cant believe that is a Healthy Dessert. Neeed to try it some day!
chelseamessyapron says
February 5, 2014 at 7:39 pmThank you 🙂
Joanne says
February 4, 2014 at 7:10 amI love that this is pretty good for you AND it will satisfy my raging sweet tooth!!
chelseamessyapron says
February 5, 2014 at 7:39 pmThanks Joanne! 🙂
Mimi @ Culinary Couture says
February 4, 2014 at 4:14 pmNo words. No words. I just want to dive in face first.
chelseamessyapron says
February 5, 2014 at 7:33 pmHaha 🙂 Thanks Mimi!
Beth @ bethcakes says
February 4, 2014 at 10:11 pmYeahhh, this doesn’t look skinny at all. It looks creamy and rich and heavenly. 🙂 It definitely looks just like regular ice cream. And I love these photos! They’re so bright and colorful!
Erin | The Emerging Foodie says
February 4, 2014 at 10:21 pmUh, yes please! Serve me up a huge helping of this ASAP! Love it, Chelsea! 🙂
chelseamessyapron says
February 5, 2014 at 7:27 pmHaha! Thanks Erin 🙂
Ashley says
February 5, 2014 at 10:45 amIce cream for an after-workout snack? Yessssss! I love that this actually looks like regular ice cream! I love sneaky healthier desserts like that!
chelseamessyapron says
February 5, 2014 at 7:28 pmThank you Megan!
chelseamessyapron says
February 5, 2014 at 7:36 pmThanks so much Mary! Yeah the protein powder does a lot for the coloring and taste, I love it!
chelseamessyapron says
February 5, 2014 at 7:38 pmI know! Best idea ever 🙂 Now I need to try your nutella version 🙂 Especially seeing as today is national nutella day or something like that!
Kelly @ The Pretty Bee: Cooking + Creating says
February 6, 2014 at 2:40 pmYum! I love desserts that are a little bit healthy, too! And it’s chocolate, so even better! 🙂
chelseamessyapron says
February 9, 2014 at 11:54 pmThank you Kelly! Haha, I can never get enough chocolate 🙂
Jodee Weiland says
February 8, 2014 at 9:33 pmI love when I see the word skinny, especially on a dessert, and if it’s chocolate, better yet! This looks delicious…thanks for sharing!
chelseamessyapron says
February 9, 2014 at 11:38 pmThat’s one of my favorite things to see too 🙂 Thanks so much Jodee!
Colleen Schneider says
September 2, 2018 at 3:18 pmThank you for sharing this great recipe.I just made this and it’s fantastic. Made a second ice cream recipe with avocado as the healthy base ingredient. We had a blind taste test just for fun. This one won hands down! Everyone loved it!
chelseamessyapron says
September 10, 2018 at 9:34 pmAHHHH!! This makes me so happy to hear! Thank you Colleen! 🙂
Jane Eccles says
November 26, 2018 at 9:25 amnooo.,.could this really taste like choc ice cream? i guess ya never know till ya try? it might be good?
Trycia says
March 26, 2019 at 6:17 pmDoes it taste like coconut? I’ll be making it tomorrow. Thanks!!
Sabrina says
April 3, 2019 at 1:23 amHi! This looks really good and I cant wait to try it. Just a qn though, is it possible to substitute coconut milk with normal milk?
Beth says
July 9, 2019 at 2:22 pmWhat could be a good replacement for sugar? Honey or maple syrup? What amount? Thank you?
Chelsea Lords says
July 9, 2019 at 4:34 pmI can’t say for sure without personally testing substitutes, but my concern is that a liquid sweetener could make the mixture too wet.