All you need to know about Vegan Ice Cream

Many non-vegans will often utter the phrase “I’d love to go vegan, but I couldn’t live without ice cream” but the truth is, you don’t have to!

There are so many delicious plant-based ice creams on the market which are just as delicious as their dairy equivalents, whilst being so much better for the environment, the animals, and you!

What vegan ice cream is made of

Vegan ice cream obviously doesn’t contain any dairy, which traditional ice cream relies on. Instead, many plant-based ice creams opt to use coconut oil, or coconut butter instead! This helps add some fats to the ice cream and helps slow down the melting process – meaning your plant-based ice cream stays nice and firm for a good amount of time. The thickness of coconut butter and oil is a very close replication of full fat milk produced by dairy cows.

As well as being used to mimic the taste and texture of dairy milk, coconut oil and syrup is also commonly used, along with raw sugar cane as a natural sweetener in dairy-free ice cream.

Another common replacement for dairy in vegan ice cream is cashew nuts! These nuts are beaten, soaked and ground down to a thick consistency which closely resembles dairy – without all the added nastiness!

Rice milk, oat milk and soy milk are also very common bases for vegan ice cream!

Is vegan ice cream better for you?

The old question of ‘is it better for you?’ is a bit of a loaded question, so we will break it down into sections.

In terms of the health benefits of plant-based ice cream to humans, compared to dairy alternatives – plant-based ice-creams are often healthier and lower in saturated fat than dairy versions, however that doesn’t necessarily make them ‘healthy’. For example, 100 grams of Booja Booja - Organic Hazelnut Chocolate Truffle Dairy Free Ice Cream contains 174Kcal, and 7.4g of fat – of which 1.1g are saturates - which is quite a lot. However, a similar dairy-based ice cream from a large UK supermarket retailer contains 257Kcal and 16.3g of fat – of which a whopping 10.4g are saturates. This is quite an evident difference in favour of plant-based ice cream!

As well as this, the vegan Booja Booja ice cream contains only five ingredients, all of which are natural - Water, Agave Syrup, Cashew Nuts, Hazelnuts, and 6%, Cocoa Powder. Whereas the dairy version contains many more ingredients, including Maltodextrin – a food preservative.

Not only can vegan ice cream be a better choice for you, but it’s also a much, much better choice for the environment, and the animals. Animal agriculture is one of the biggest human-caused factors that contribute to climate change. Cows release a greenhouse gas called methane, which is more than 25 times as powerful at heating the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, and it is estimated that cattle farmed for dairy, and meat, contribute to over 60% of overall greenhouse gas emissions.

However, plant-based alternatives to meat and dairy emit up to 90% less greenhouse gas emissions, so it’s clear that in order to save the planet, cutting down on meat and dairy is essential. This was backed up by the CEO of the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), Chris Stark who told BBC News in 2020 “We can’t meet the government’s 2050 Net Zero target without major changes in the way we use the land, the way we farm, and what we eat.”

Best Vegan ice creams

Now that it’s clear that plant-based ice creams are the way forward, we might as well dive into the best ones to try!

Thankfully, you can buy vegan ice cream online straight from The Vegan Kind, and have it delivered frozen straight to your doorstep!

If you’re a fan of salted caramel, then the Booja Booja - Organic Chocolate Salted Caramel Dairy Free Ice Cream is the one for you, or how about a classic mint ice cream instead? The Beau's Gelato - Mint Choc Chip Gelato is so delicious that it’s almost impossible to put down!

You can browse The Vegan Kind’s full range of delicious dairy-free ice cream here!