Healthy Ice Cream

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.

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.

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