#vegan desserts

I remember when I was a kid, we would have those powdered ‘instant’ puddings in a packet. They were never instant, of course. You mixed the powder with water and put it in the fridge for half an hour or so and THEN you had a sort of cross between mousse and jelly.

I have no idea if those were vegan friendly or not, but they weren’t exactly a culinary delight, they had sugar, so as kids, we liked them. I haven’t had one of those puddings in a long time. We’re talking maybe more than two decades (damn… now I feel old).

Anyway, this is a base that I usually use to make chocolate pudding, but it could be flavoured in a bunch of other ways too. The texture depends a lot on what you use out of the options. A blender is very helpful for this recipe but it isn’t critical. 

Automatically dairy, gelatine, and egg free. Can be nut free, soy free, sugar free, low fodmap, or just about anything else depending on your choices. The recipe is raw too, for those interested in that.

It stores fine overnight in the fridge. It’s never made it past that point without being devoured so I don’t know about storing it any longer than that.

This much should be two decent sized bowlfuls. If you serve it with fruit or nuts, or whatever it would make desssert for four easily.

Ingredients

• 2 bananas or 2 ripe avocadoes - You can do without these if you want, but you’ll need to use a lot more of something else to thicken it and the texture will be a lot less smooth and silky.
• Chia seeds, Ground linseed (flaxseed) - I find chia seeds work really well (and fast) for this, but they create quite a lumpy texture. They’re also expensive. I typically add four tablespoons of chia seeds and four of ground linseed. Alternatively, you could use agar (a quarter teaspoon). Other thickeners might work too but I haven’t tried them uncooked, so you’d need to experiment.
• Non dairy milk - I usually use almond milk, but any non dairy milk will do, you could even use water, just add a little more of whatever flavourings you choose. I usually use about half a cup of almond milk and add another half cup of water.
• Sugar - Not essential. I usually add two tablespoons.
• Flavourings - What you add here really depends on your tastes. My usual preference is two tablespoons of cocoa, and a splash of vanilla essence. You could skip the cocoa and have vanilla, or skip the vanilla and have a strong banana flavour, or have mint chocolate, or blueberry. Whatever you want.
  

Method

Put everything except half the liquid in the blender (or bowl if you’re mixing and mashing by hand). Blend it all up.

Leave it for a few minutes to thicken (if you’re using agar it’ll take a bit longer), add more liquid to get to your desired consistency.

Eat.

I thought I’d miss ice cream when I went vegan. But I didn’t, which surprised me at the time, but maybe that says something about dairy not being necessary for noms.

This base uses bananas. Just bananas. You can add whatever you want to it though.

Method

Chop up bananas - if you use older bananas the flavour will be stronger.

Freeze them

Put the pieces in a blender. Blend till smooth.

Serve.

Different flavours

Chocolate - Add some cocoa and vanilla essence.

Nuts - Add some nuts. Cashew nuts and pistachio nuts are good. Depending on how you want the texture, add at the start or finish.

Coconut - Add some coconut cream or melted coconut oil (I won’t be doing this myself until I can find a source that isn’t linked to animal cruelty. Don’t add too much or it’ll go runny.

Vanilla - Add a little non dairy milk and some vanilla essence.

Berries - Nom.

Caramel - Blend up some dates soaked in water to make a thick caramel flavoured sauce, and stir it through, or just add it to the blender with the bananas.

Storing

If you want to store the ice cream in the freezer, but aware that it melts faster than dairy ice cream, but reacts in much the same way - let it melt and freeze it again, it goes like ice. So put it in the freezer quickly. You can just blend it again though for the same result.