strawberry nice cream

Today I want to share my favorite quick, vegan strawberry nice cream recipe with you.

strawberry fields forever… 

A song that comes to mind. It is July and I am thinking of the strawberry fields you find everywhere in Germany. You can go there and harvest these delicious summer fruits as fresh as it gets. The German name for strawberry is Erdbeere what means ground berry. When I was still living in Munich, I loved to invite my grandniece to join me for this summer endeavor. Well, you know, on a hot summer day it’s always good to have 2 more hands to harvest and fill a big bucket of strawberries.

How to pick strawberries?

We made up a rule how we want to approach this. You mindfully and gently harvest these delicate fruits and make sure the stem and greens are still attached. And just those berries are good enough to go in the bucket! But every time you picked one without the green and stem, well, these have to go in your mouth, pretty simple! You get the concept, right? And yes, you are officially allowed to eat while harvesting!

So, if you have a farm in your neighborhood where you can go and harvest, go and try it. It is a delightful activity to do with kids (small and big ones). And it does not go fresher than piking strawberries directly from the fields, or your garden if you are lucky to have one. And the later strawberries are often sweeter and more intense in taste. Just perfect to make strawberry jam, or a strawberry cake topped with a big splash of coconut whipped cream.

While talking about strawberries,

did you know that strawberries are not berries?

What? You might ask. And it gets even stranger. So, strawberries are not berries, but watermelon, pumpkins, bananas, blueberries, and even tomatoes and avocados are! Well, the official definition of a berry is “a fleshy fruit produced from a single ovary with a seed or seeds embedded on the inside.

But a strawberry on the other hand is called an “aggregate accessory fruit”. What does that even mean? It just means that the fleshy part is derived not from the plant’s ovaries but from the receptacle that holds the ovaries. Each apparent ‘seed’ (achene) on the outside of the fruit is actually one of the ovaries of the flower, with a seed inside of it.

But let’s come to strawberry nice cream here.

So, if you got your fresh strawberries, either from a farm or your local grocery store, the most important task is to make sure to immediately gently rinse, then hull and freeze some of the fresh berries to be able to make this refreshing, creamy, deliciously, fruity strawberry nice cream.

What’s nice cream?

Yes, it’s nice cream, not ice cream! I think it is an amazing invention! The basic nice cream is made of just frozen bananas, that’s it! And you know what is even better? You can whip it up in just 10 minutes, no ice cream maker needed, YEAP!  Nice cream is soft and naturally vegan, gluten- and lactose-free. Yes, no dairy or eggs needed to make it creamy and soft and, not to forget, it is sugar-free. And there are hundreds of variations to the theme if you will. You can combine the frozen banana with whatever other frozen fruit you have. Well, in our case for now, it is with frozen strawberries.

Strawberry nice cream

To make sure you are ready at any time to make this delicious strawberry nice cream, just keep bananas and strawberries in your freezer! Voila, now you can make your strawberry nice cream whenever you need a quick and healthy, refreshing vegan dessert. Now, let’s get to the recipe of our strawberry nice cream and whip it up. Remember, it just needs 10 minutes!

If you want to enjoy it as soft serve immediately, go for it! A few fresh mint leaves will enhance the flavors and adds some freshness to the strawberry nice cream

But if you want to serve it later, just fill the soft serve in a freezer-safe glass container and pop it in the freezer for at least 2 hours. (Or longer if you must!)

You prefer ice-pops? Well, fill the soft serve in ice-pop molds, freeze them for about 2 hours and enjoy your strawberry nice-pops. I added a few freeze-dried strawberries at the bottom of the mold  to add even more fruit flavor to the pops. But you can just add fresh strawberry pieces in there too.

If you like this recipe, leave a comment here, like it, share it, pin it on Pinterest or post a picture on Instagram #handfulandapinch.com. I would love to see what you have created.

5 from 1 vote

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strawberry nice cream

fruity, creamy, slightly tart and so refreshing, easy, just 6 ingredients, no ice-cream maker needed!

Course dessert, GF, ice cream, lactose free, paleo, vegan

Keyword nice cream, strawberry nice cream, vegan strawberry nice cream

Prep Time 20 minutes

freezing time 2 hours

Servings 6 people

Ingredients

• 2 ripe bananas sliced and frozen
• 2 C strawberries hulled, cut and frozen
• 1/3 C coconut milk or coconut cream
• 2 Tbsp. maple syrup or any other sweetener you prefer
• 1 Tbsp lime juice
• 1 pinch salt

decoration

• 4 strawberries sliced or freeze-dried strawberry slices
• fresh mint leaves

Instructions

1. Peel and cut ripe bananas, rinse, hull and cut the strawberries in quarters, place on a parchment lined baking sheet and place in the freezer for about 2-3 hours until frozen.

2. In a food processor add the frozen bananas and strawberries and pulse until they resemble coarse snow. 

3. Add coconut milk/cream, maple syrup, salt, and lime juice, and blend until it is creamy like soft serve. Scrape off the sides in-between until all blends well. If you like it a bit sweeter just add 1 tsp. maple syrup or more to taste.

   

4. 1. You can serve it immediately as a soft serve (and I can't blame you for doing just that ;-)). 

   2. Or fill it in a freezer safe glass container, decorate the top with the strawberry slices (fresh or freeze-dried) and a few fresh mint leaves. Now freeze it for 1-2 hours before serving. Let it thaw for a few minutes before scooping out.

   3. Or fill the soft serve in ice pop molds and freeze for about 2 hours before serving

5. Guten Appetit!

Recipe Notes

Variations:

1: you can add 1/4 Tsp. Vanilla bean powder  when adding the cream, salt and milk and mix in together 

2. add 1/3 C of small pieces of fresh strawberries, swirl into the soft serve or before freezing

3. chocolate and strawberries go really well together. So you can add 1/4C of dark chocolate cut in small pieces and swirl into the soft serve or before freezing.