Creamy Sweet Corn Coconut Ice Cream is a dairy-free and vegan Thai-inspired dessert.
I know this title is intense but hear me out before you think this recipe is too weird to try out at home. I went to Thailand almost a year ago. It’s hard to believe it’s almost been a year (!), but that trip had the most influence in my cooking style thus far.
I’m constantly inspired by Thai culture, cooking techniques, uses of spices, and food combinations. I was wandering the streets in Chiang Rai at a floating market and came across the most amazing assortment of popsicles. I ate one with red beans and rice, another one with mochi, and another one with durian and sweet corn – yeah, I ate a lot of popsicles that day.
The durian and sweet corn popsicle blew my mind though and I had to recreate it some way, and this Creamy Sweet Corn Coconut Ice Cream is my inspiration!
Naturally sweet
It was hard to grasp the creativity behind the use of naturally sweet corn instead of reaching for sugars like we do here in the US, but it totally made sense. In Thai culture, they appreciate and utilize natural whole foods to sweeten desserts and surprisingly many came from veggies like corn, sweet potatoes, purple potatoes, peas, and onions. Genius!
Obviously, I’m missing out on one important ingredient here which is durian…but I’m in Nashville and there’s just no way to get my hands on good quality durian so let’s improvise (and make this more of a crowd pleaser shall we?).
Also, I’ve been on a dessert kick lately and really trying to test my creativity and nutrition skills for offering low sugar desserts that have amazing texture and taste delicious– so get ready for more summer sweet treats coming up all month long!
- 3 cups frozen organic sweet yellow corn
- 2 cups full fat organic canned coconut milk
- 1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- Optional garnishes: bee pollen, toasted coconut, lemon zest
- Using an ice cream maker, place the container in the freezer overnight to completely chill (getting it ready to use the next day!).
- In a blender, combine 2 cups of the corn (reserving 1 cup whole and set to the side) with all ingredients. Blend until smooth. To save from cleaning another dish, simply pour reserved 1 cup of frozen corn into the blender container (do not reblend).
- Adjust to taste, if you prefer your ice cream sweeter, add 1 tablespoon of honey at a time or leave in this naturally sweetened state.
- Run ice cream maker to package directions, since this is a large mixture, you may need to run a couple of batches of the ice cream mixture in maker.
- Serve immediately as a soft serve or place in a glass airtight container and freeze for later.
- Serve with optional garnishes as desired.
Things I used to make this ice cream: full fat canned coconut milk, ice cream maker, bee pollen, shredded unsweetened coconut, coconut oil
If you liked this ice cream, you might also like…
Sparkling Botanical Ice Cream Float
Simply Coconut Milk Ice Cream
BanaNO Cream
Pistachio Ice Cream
Black Sesame Coconut Ice Cream
Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
y/n to sweet corn?
What do you guys think of using a veggie like corn as a natural sweetener? Try this recipe out and let me know what you think! And if you make it at home, share it on Instagram with #nutritionstripped so I can see!
