Photography Credit: Megan Gordon

I have a soft spot in my heart for dairy-free ice cream—and not because I can’t have dairy. My family and I eat our fair share of cheese, sour cream, and yes, real ice cream, too.

But I actually prefer ice cream made with coconut milk over ice cream made with eggs and dairy any day of the week. I love the flavor and natural sweetness of coconut milk, and think it really shines when made into ice cream.

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If you’ve never made dairy-free ice cream before, you’re in for a treat: it doesn’t require much in the way of fancy ingredients.

I’ll walk you through making the ice cream base below, but a few things to know first:

1. The recipe calls for full fat coconut milk and there’s really no wiggle room there. Neither light coconut milk nor coconut cream will work here. Other non-dairy alternatives, like nut milks, won’t produce the same results—we need that coconut fat to make sure this ice cream is super creamy.

2. The cornstarch also does some of the heavy lifting in this recipe. It helps thicken the base and keep the ice cream from getting icy or freezer-burned—something that so many homemade ice creams fall victim to. (By the way, if you prefer arrowroot over cornstarch, you can substitute it 1-for-1 here.)

3. I use regular granulated sugar here, but I’ve experimented with both honey and agave. If you like liquid sweeteners, you can substitute those instead (the amount of each ingredient is the same). Surprisingly, the texture and overall flavor of the ice cream is basically the same no matter what sweetener you use.

One caveat: this recipe does take a little advanced planning. When the craving for ice cream strikes, know that you’ll have a few rounds of chilling ahead of you, each a couple hours long. I always make the base the night before, churn the ice cream the next morning, and throw it in the freezer so it’ll be all firm and ready to serve that evening.

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