Sugar Free Vegan Ice Cream Recipe (Neapolitan)

Sugar Free Vegan Ice Cream Recipe

Today we are making a Neapolitan Sugar Free Vegan Ice Cream Recipe! If you don’t know, neapolitan is an ice cream flavor that originated in Italy. The original colors were green, red and white to honor the Italian flag – pistachio, strawberry and vanilla flavors respectively. But when this dessert was brought to the U.S., pistachio turned to chocolate to honor the “big 3” ice cream flavors in the U.S. So it’s an Italian flavor, but Americanized with the chocolate portion!

But was it only me, or was Chapman’s Neapolitan Ice Cream your jam growing up? Or at least, for the Canadians out there? You see the vanilla and your mouth starts watering … then you see the chocolate … and then the strawberry! You never had to choose just favorite flavor, there was no next time – you had to choose them all in each scoop, PRONTO. That was the best part! When it comes to ice cream flavors, I’m as indecisive as you get.

Childhood Ice Cream Parlours

I remember lining up at ice cream parlours, staring at the menu and any flavors that remotely had anything to do with Oreos, cookies, fudge, chocolate or caramel. Jamocha Almond Fudge, Cookies n’ Cream, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Fudge Ripple, Caramel Swirl … I couldn’t (and still can’t) get enough! Now, I did have to make a decision on what ice cream flavor to choose every time I went. But … I kind of ended up always choosing the largest sundae. It was complete with three different flavors with sauces in between, whipped cream, nuts and a cherry on top!

I can’t eat nearly as much sugar now as I used to be able to down in one go, but I’m still a huge fan of mixing all the best flavors together. Indecisive as always! Which is why neapolitan is perfect. I don’t have to do any work to create a new combination flavor, because it includes three of the best, basic ones in one go.

What’s in Vegan Ice Cream?

Many vegan ice creams in store now use many different bases, ranging from coconut milk, avocado, any combination of nuts and seeds or even frozen bananas (I noticed a new brand that popped up on the shelves of my local grocery stores that packages frozen banana ice cream, pretty much exactly what we’re making today)!

These ice creams are great, but they also are pretty expensive or have a ton of random added ingredients. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I do love being able to control what I put into my food, especially if I want to eat it on the daily (hello, midnight dessert …)

Why You’ll Love This Sugar Free Vegan Ice Cream Recipe

One Simple Recipe, Multiple Flavors: Frozen bananas make a soft serve, fully raw and sugar-free ice cream recipe with only one ingredient and a creamy texture. Also, no ice cream maker or heavy cream! Using this base, you can add any flavor into it.

I’ve used this base to make pistachio, matcha, peanut butter, Reese’s flavor, you name it! In this recipe, we make a chocolate flavor and a strawberry flavor using cacao powder and frozen strawberries.

In my opinion, bananas are one of the best ice cream bases because (a) it’s raw, just fruit! The banana itself is like a sugar substitute because of all the natural sugars (b) it’s super healthy! Again, it’s just bananas as the base (c) it’s cheap! Bananas are one of the least expensive fruits you can find (d) you can make multiple flavors with just bananas and a few whole foods, simple ingredients!

The only downside is that is does have a banana undertone. If you really hate bananas, you might not love banana ice cream (also known on the world wide web as nice cream). Don’t ask me why someone decided to start calling banana ice cream “nice cream!”

Let’s get onto the recipe! Strawberry, Chocolate and creamy Vanilla ice cream: Blend each flavor separately, then combine in one bowl for one large serving.

Substitutions

Frozen Strawberries: Neapolitan specifically uses strawberry as a flavor. However, you can use frozen raspberries or cherries for the purpose of having an ice cream with a similar color.

Frozen Bananas: These make the base of this recipe. I do not recommend to use any other fruit as the base. Raw cashews or almond milk are the base of other dairy-free ice cream recipes, but they would not work as replacements here without changing the proportions of other ingredients and adding in extra sweetener.

For example, almond milk is low in fat and will form usually ice crystals in the ice cream without other added ingredients. Usually, store bought ice creams use guar gum as a stabilizer and xanthan gum as a thickener, but with bananas we don’t need any of that!

Vanilla Extract: I use a Madagascar, alcohol-free vanilla extract. It has a stronger vanilla flavor versus a cheaper, diluted vanilla. You can also use a freshly scraped vanilla bean for best results (and to keep it completely raw).

Cacao Powder: Cacao powder is the raw form of cocoa powder, which is commonly used in baking. You can buy cacao powder online, in the natural section of grocery stores or in health food stores to make a fully raw recipe. Alternatively, replace it with regular cocoa powder (which is not fully raw).

Sugar Free Vegan Ice Cream Recipe Notes

• If you don’t have a high-speed blender or food processor, let the fruits thaw on the counter at room temperature for 10 minutes. This will soften it up to help them blend without needing extra liquid.
• There is no added sugar in this recipe. However, if you prefer a sweeter ice cream, then drizzle in some pure maple syrup, agave syrup or another liquid sweetener of choice. I do not recommend using a dry sweetener (eg. coconut sugar), as this can leave granules of sugar in the ice cream.
• For even more creaminess (and healthy fats!), add in 1-2 spoons of coconut cream or coconut meat! Coconut cream specifically is the fat that rises to the top after refrigerating a can of full-fat coconut milk overnight. Alternatively, you can also buy cans of pure coconut cream. This will make it a “coconut ice cream” flavor.
• If using coconut meat, make sure the blender is very high-speed so that there are no chunks of coconut remaining.
• Top the chocolate layer with vegan dark chocolate chips or raw cacao nibs (to keep it fully raw) for an added crunch and chocolate flavor! To bring out the flavor even more, top the chocolate side with a bit of sea salt.

More Vegan Ice Cream Recipes You’ll Love

Strawberry Kiwi Sorbet: There are only three ingredients here! Frozen kiwi, pineapple and strawberry pack in a load of vitamin C while making a creamy sorbet recipe.

Chocolate Sorbet: Six ingredients and an ice cream machine churn this recipe into a take on David Lebovitz’s chocolate sorbet! The basic sorbet ingredients include dark chocolate for the fat of the cocoa butter and the chocolate flavor, coconut sugar, cocoa powder for more intense, deeper chocolate, vanilla, maple syrup for more sweetness and cornstarch to stabilize it.

Banana Ice Cream Parfait: Frozen bananas make a cinnamon ice cream, tropical fruit like mango and pineapple and then frozen berries make up three layers of this parfait recipe. It’s like digging into ice cream mixed with layers of a slushie on a hot summer day!

Pink Pitaya Ice Cream: This ice cream is made with dragonfruit, otherwise known as pink pitaya, which has a bright pink color! It uses frozen mango, frozen dragonfruit, vanilla and coconut cream (for keeping it ever so creamy!)

Banana Mango Ice Cream

Roasted Pistachio Ice Cream

Peach Banana Ice Cream

If you make this Sugar Free Vegan Ice Cream Recipe, then leave a comment and star rating! Don’t forget to tag your photos @peanut_palate on Instagram. Enjoy!

Video

Check out how to make this recipe using the TikTok video below! Each layer is blended separately before combining them in one bowl or small loaf pan.

@peanutpalate

Let’s make Raw Vegan Neapolitan Ice Cream Bowls! #vegan #healthy #plantbased #plantbasedvegan #healthyrecipes #smoothiebowls #banana #nicecream #fyp

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