This lower-fat, vegan cranberry ice cream has a tart and refreshing flavor that tastes like frozen yogurt! Easy homemade cranberry sauce is blended into a non-dairy base of milk, cashews, maple syrup, plus a small amount of oatmeal for that extra creamy element! FREE from coconut, bananas, oil, gluten, soy, and refined sugar.
As soon as the weather started cooling off this fall I started making loads of ice cream. Strange timing, I know. But that's when I came across Miyoko Schinner's low-fat vanilla gelato recipe in The Homemade Vegan Pantry that kicked things off.
First, there was this healthy Pumpkin Oat Ice Cream that made me fall in love with using oatmeal to make extra creamy vegan ice cream. So I just HAD to follow that up with another flavor, this Vanilla-Maple Oat Ice Cream.
And that leads us to today's pretty-in-pink cranberry ice cream! Or gelato. Either is fine, really. Technically, gelato is lower in fat than ice cream, so it's a more appropriate term for all three of these recipes. But most of us don't Google "vegan gelato recipes," right?
What does cranberry ice cream taste like?
If you're a fan of foods like yogurt, cream cheese, and cheesecake, I think you'll LOVE this vegan ice cream. The natural tartness of cranberries creates a flavor that reminds me so much of frozen yogurt, and since this is a lower fat ice cream, it feels light and refreshing like frozen yogurt in that way, too.
The flavor is almost exactly like the filling in this Vegan Cranberry Cream Pie, except that this gelato is made without any refined sugar!
This cranberry vegan gelato is:
- Perfectly sweet and tart
- Citrusy and refreshing
- Light yet so creamy
- Filled with nutritious cranberries, orange zest, cashews and oats
- And 100% maple sweetened
How to Make Lower-Fat Oat Ice Cream
As with any homemade ice cream, even though it's not difficult, there is some planning involved.
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So here's a summary to help you with the timeline...
- Place your ice cream maker's canister in the freezer at least one day before you plan to make ice cream.
- The cranberry sauce needs time to completely chill before blending it into the ice cream base. The easiest way to go about this is to make it the day before. (You can also jump ahead to the next steps and make the ice cream base the night before so that it has plenty of time to chill.)
When you're ready to make the ice cream mixture:
- Following the full instructions in the recipe card below, make the oatmeal. Transfer it to a bowl to cool.
- Blend milk and cashews until smooth, then add in the maple syrup, vanilla, salt, orange zest, and oatmeal, and blend.
- And now for the colorful part! Add about 1 cup of cranberry sauce to the blender, and blend again. Taste and add more cranberry sauce, if desired.
- Place the mixture in the refrigerator until cold. This will take about 2 hours but can be refrigerated overnight, too.
- Churn the ice cream. It will be similar to soft serve at this point.
- Transfer it to a freezer-safe container, and freeze for 3 to 4 hours.
- Let the ice cream soften at room temperature for about 15 minutes, then scoop and enjoy!
We're big fans of cranberry sauce in this house, so I dolloped some of the leftover sauce on top and even added a few frozen cranberries. So good!
And check out that creamy, melty, goodness below. Pretty amazing for a vegan ice cream that has just 6 grams of fat per serving and NO coconut milk, oil, or gums like you find in store-bought varieties.
Now dig out the ice cream maker and get ready for some frozen goodness!
If you try this Vegan Cranberry Oat Gelato I would love to hear from you. You can leave a comment and a star rating below to let everyone know how it turned out. And don't be shy on facebook or insta! Tag me with @myquietkitchen to show off your gorgeous vegan ice cream.
Enjoy!
You might also like these frozen sweet treats:
Lemon Oat Ice Cream
Butter Pecan Oat Ice Cream
Pumpkin Oat Ice Cream
Vanilla-Maple Oat Milk Ice Cream
Banana Nice Cream with Wet Walnuts
Sunbutter Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches
Recipe
Vegan Cranberry Oat Gelato
Ingredients
- 1 batch Easy Vegan Cranberry Sauce, chilled - You'll need 1 to 1¼ cups cranberry sauce. Reserve leftover sauce for garnish or another use.
- 3 cups unsweetened non-dairy milk, such as almond or oat, divided
- ¼ cup rolled oats - Ensure certified gluten-free, if needed.
- ¾ cup raw cashews - If not using a high speed blender, sub ⅓ to ½ cup raw cashew butter.
- ½ cup maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅛ teaspoon fine sea salt
- zest from half an orange
Instructions
Prep/Planning Notes:
- Be sure to put the canister of your ice cream maker in the freezer at least 1 day before you plan to churn the ice cream. NOTE: I haven't tested this with the standard no-churn method, so I'm not sure what kind of results you would get.The cranberry sauce needs time to completely chill before blending it into the ice cream base. The easiest way to go about this is to make it the day before. (You can also jump ahead to the next steps and make the ice cream base the night before so that it also has plenty of time to chill.)
Make the ice cream:
- In a small sauce pan, simmer the oats in 1 cup of the milk until the oats are soft, about 10 minutes. Immediately transfer oatmeal to a bowl to cool.
- In a blender combine the remaining 2 cups of milk and the cashews. Blend on high until smooth. Add the cooled oatmeal, maple syrup, vanilla, salt, and orange zest, and blend again. Next, add about 1 cup of the cranberry sauce and blend until as smooth as you like. Taste and add more cranberry sauce if desired. Refrigerate mixture until cold (about 2 hours).
- Churn the mixture according to the instructions for your ice cream maker. The ice cream will be a bit softer than soft serve at this point. Transfer it to a freezer-safe container, cover with parchment or plastic wrap, and freeze for 3 to 4 hours.
- Around the 4 hour mark, and definitely if it's been in the freezer longer, the ice cream will be too hard to scoop. It's important to let the ice cream soften at room temperature for about 15 minutes before scooping and serving.
Notes
Estimated Nutrition (per serving)
Nutrition is an estimate and will vary depending on the exact amounts and ingredients used.
Pam says
Hi Lori. We are really loving the oat-based ice creams. The texture is amazing, so much like good gelato! You are an amazing recipe creator.
I'd like to try making oat-based ice cream with other seasonal fruits, like strawberries, peaches or berries. Do you think the proportions of everything in this cranberry recipe would still work, if I simply subbed out the cranberry sauce with the same amount of other fresh fruit puree? Would I still get that creamy delightfulness? BTW: I'm using a Ninja Creami to process it.
Thanks!
Lori Rasmussen says
Hi Pam - First, I have to say it's ridiculous that I haven't done any fresh fruit ice creams yet! I actually have strawberries in the fridge, so maybe tomorrow's the day. 🙂 Anyway, since strawberries have a lot more water content than cranberry sauce, that will affect the texture. You could experiment with a briefly simmered strawberry compote as well as add some fresh strawberries to the blender. Or if you wanted to try using all fresh strawberries, increasing the amount of cashews and sugar wouldn't hurt. If you try it soon do let us know! And of course, I'll share the recipe as soon as I nail it down.
Pam says
Thanks for the advice. Thought I'd tell you how my fruit experiment worked out. Due to the current 105°F plus heat wave here in Northern California, I didn't feel like cooking anything, much less making fruit compote. So, I threw caution to the wind and used fresh, raw fruit. I made the ice cream base per the recipe (I used rum instead of vodka, since that's what I had), and divided it between 3 CREAMi one-pint containers. I topped two of them up to the max-fill pint line with crushed fresh peaches and nectarines (which took a tad over 3/4 cup per container), and the third pint I topped up with a similar amount of frozen sweet cherries. Froze 24 hrs, then processed. (For the Ninja CREAMi crowd reading this, I let the frozen pint sit at room temp for 5-10 min, then spun it on the "lite ice cream" setting. No re-spin required.)
The taste and texture were very good. The ice cream was a tiny bit icier than your vanilla oat ice cream recipe, but really minimally so. I can see how cooking the fruit down would increase the creaminess and probably increase the fruity flaver, so I'll do that next time when it's not so blasted hot. I'm pretty sure strawberries or other similarly "wet" fruit would definitely work better if cooked. The ice cream still had that gelato-y texture. So, all-in-all, a decent and happy experiment.
LouAnn Mallon says
Can date paste or date syrup be subbed for the maple syrup??
Lori Rasmussen says
Hi LouAnn - Yes, either should be fine, though it will alter the color and flavor a bit. I've recently been experimenting more with dates in ice cream and very much enjoying it.
Christine says
Easy method if you don’t have an ice cream churn… pour blended liquid into ice cube trays and freeze. When frozen, tip into a food processor and blend until smooth. It will be soft serve consistency. Spoon into a lidded container and freeze again for an hour or so if firmer consistency is required.
Dana says
This is so refreshing and different! I stumbled across it on Pinterest and took a chance. Very glad I did. Delicious!
Jill says
Have not made your vegan lemon ice cream yet. Can I substitute the raw cashews with walnuts??
Lori says
Hi Jill,
Yes, you definitely can use walnuts. They're a little darker in color and taste slightly different, but overall I don't think it will impact the ice cream too much. Hope you enjoy it!
Jen says
Hi Lori, I absolutely love your recipes- I can’t wait to try them all! Thank you! I do have one question: I see the machine you use is a 2 quart ice cream maker. Mine is a 1 1/2 quart. Do I need to adjust the recipes at all? Thanks!
Lori says
Thanks so much, Jen! No, for a 1.5 quart I don’t think you’ll need to adjust anything. Should work fine. Hope you love it!