Mango-Passion Fruit Gelato

There is no better time to make homemade vegan ice cream than summer. The past couple years, I took the easy way out and stirred add-ins into commercial vegan ice cream, for brand new flavors like Strawberry Cheesecake, Maple-Bourbon, and Mocha. This year, I took the slightly longer route, and used my ice cream maker to churn up ice cream from scratch. This is a rich recipe, closer to Italian gelato than to American ice cream.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup vegan sugar
• 1 cup water
• 3 cups peeled and chopped mango
• 2 cups passion fruit nectar
• 1 and 1/2 cups plain non-dairy creamer

1. In a saucepan, combine the sugar and water.  Bring to a boil, stirring at the beginning until the sugar dissolves.

2. Once boiling, transfer to a blender, along with the mango.  Process until smooth.  Pour the mango mixture into a large bowl and cool completely.

3. Once cool, stir in the nectar and the creamer.  Pour the mango mixture into the freezer can of an ice-cream freezer, and process according to the manufacturer's instructions. Pardon the blurry photos, as these were taken in motion, but your mixture will go from this:

to this:

Once fully frozen, scoop into bowls, or serve in vegan wafer cones (try Let's Do Organic), for an extra-fun summer treat. 

Nutrition Info:
14 servings (1/2 cup), Calories 130

Tasting Notes:
A fruity blend of the mango and passion fruit, and not overly sweet, which I was pleased to find. I wondered how the juice and the creamer (I used Silk) would mix, but the result is a consistency that tastes somewhat between an ice cream and a sorbet.  The consistency of this is definitely best if you let it sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes. Icy cold and refreshing!

Rating:
3.5