Frozen plant based treats replace deprivation with comfort

Sept 15, 2020 – This summer gifted us with extraordinarily hot days. Temperatures in the 80s and 90s were the new normal. So what better way could we cool off than with a cool frozen treat?

Some of us lugged out our icecream mixers, gathered our ingredients, decided on a flavor, combined, placed our tried and true results in the freezer and waited to taste them.

Those of us who only wanted plant based ingredients scratched our heads and prayed for a solution. Some of us limited ourselves to restaurant fare. Others opted for store-bought goods like dairy-free icecream bars, icecream sandwiches, popsicles, cheesecake, smoothies and mochi(pounded rice) treats. Websites that list/rate the storebought solutions include www.onegreenplanet.org/vegan-food/store-bought-vegan-ice-cream/ , www.godairyfree.org/food-and-grocery/best-dairy-free-ice-cream-bars and www.peta.org/living/food/vegan-ice-cream-flavors-to-cool-you-down-this-summer/ . All were written before MyMo debuted with reasonably priced, plant based frozen mochi treats: www.mymomochi.com/flavors/ .

And then there were those of us who wanted to create the vegan treats ourselves. We googled frozen vegan or frozen plant based treats/dessert and came up with websites that offered recipes. Besides the recipe sites listed under Resources on this blog, Google offered www.brit.co/living/healthy-eating/frozen-vegan-dessert-recipes/ ,

www.crowdedkitchen.com/best-vegan-frozen-desserts/ and

www.beamingbaker.com/62-unbelievably-good-vegan-frozen-desserts/ .

Those of us who learn best by doing attended online cooking classes like the one Irina, who owns the Purple Sprout in Wheeling, provided for the members of meetup ChicagoVeg on September 6. She demonstrated how to make plant based chocolate icecream bars, and then answered questions about feasible substitutions for the nuts, oil chocolate and coconut products. Her demonstration is now on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE0R6NmhmXY . We also checked vegetarian recipes, written down or remembered, from our older relatives, or we used One Green Planet’s FoodMonster app.

The important thing was we used creamy nondairy alternatives – water, bean products, coconut products, oat products, nut products, rice products, bananas, avocados, etc. We measured the health risks or we spaced them out – only special occasions, monthly or weekly. We accommodated our dietary restrictions – no wheat, gluten, soy, nuts. We obtained the necessary equipment or adapted our use to tools we had.

For example, the Minimalist Baker explains the difference in time between a high speed blender and a food processor to achieve the same result in www.minimalistbaker.com/coffee-chocolate-nice-cream/; she also offers a no-churn method for icecream: www.minimalistbaker.com/29-vegan-ice-cream-recipes-tips/ .

Some desserts we cooked first, put in the freezer to retain their shape and then set out earlier than serving time. Some we soaked, processed raw, froze to set and left on the counter a while before serving. Then we bit into them, savored them and felt less deprived.

How do you obtain your frozen desserts? Are they the one item you allow yourself to cheat by eating dairy? Are you game to attempt making your own plantbased frozen dessert? Are you game to take lessons?