This Lavender Nice Cream is light and delicate yet refreshing and delicious! Made from just a few simple ingredients and free of added sugar, it’s absolutely delightful and easy to make.
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Hey Internet, is it still hot out (at least in North America)? Then you can bet I’m still making nice cream.
I’ve already made a yummy toasted coconut nice cream and tropical mango nice cream for the blog, but I wanted to try a more unique flavor.
I have been playing around with edible dried lavender buds for herbal tea and bath / body products (more on this soon!) and I decided one day that I should throw them in my nice cream!
I could have steeped the lavender and used a tea or syrup concentrate to make this nice cream, but I didn’t want it to be too sweet or runny, so I took the buds and ground them up in my spice grinder (mortar and pestle would also work). Perfect!
But how to get that perfect purple color?
Even though my buds were nice and purple-y, neither the tea nor the nice cream turned out purple on its own. I did some research and it seems like most lavender recipes on the internet do add a little food coloring.
I used something else, but to talk about that, we might as well get into the discussion of what ingredients you’ll need to recreate this beautiful lavender nice cream.
What You’ll Need
Obviously frozen bananas are a good starting point. :) See the freezing bananas section below if you haven’t frozen bananas before.
You’ll also need a little non-dairy milk to get it to blend. This was sweet enough on its own so I used unsweetened original flavor (not vanilla) for this project.
Any non-dairy milk will work--I think coconut or oat milk would be especially good here since they’re very creamy.
The lavender you buy doesn’t matter as long as you buy dried lavender specifically marked as edible.
Some edible lavenders are higher quality than others and will produce a better taste. I love (and use) the lavender from The Spice House.
Finally, to make it purple, you could absolutely use food coloring (here’s a vegan food coloring you could try), but we try to keep things whole food plant based here, so I just added a few blueberries.
If using blueberries, you can add as many or as few to create the purple you’d like. I love how the flavors offset each other, and the blueberry isn’t a super strong flavor in this recipe.
I topped my nice cream with a little shredded coconut, but you could also do more blueberries, fresh edible lavender petals (I couldn’t find any in my area unfortunately), chocolate chips, hemp seeds (which are soft and give a nice protein and omega-3 fatty acids boost) or anything else you’d like!
How to Freeze Bananas
I highly recommend having bananas in your freezer at all times, but if you’ve never frozen bananas before, here’s a couple of tips:
I like to freeze my peeled spotty (ripe) bananas in a single layer on a parchment lined baking tray. When frozen, I add them to a large freezer safe container of banana pieces for nice creams, smoothies, etc.
Frozen bananas stay good for a few months if in a proper container, though they might darken a little bit from oxidation. That doesn’t happen to us much though since we go through so many of them!
How to Make Lavender Nice Cream
I recommend getting your blender or food processor ready along with your bowl(s), spoon(s), and any toppings before you start making the nice cream so you won’t have to worry about it melting quickly.
If grinding you lavender buds, I recommend doing this ahead of time as well. I use this spice grinder but you can also use a mortar and pestle.
First add the bananas and then add the non-dairy milk on top. I like to blend up the bananas mostly, then add the lavender so it gets evenly distributed.
After that, I like to blend and add the blueberries one or two at a time while it’s blending to control the purple color.
How much non-dairy milk you’ll need depends on both how many bananas you have and how powerful your blender or food processor is.
If you don’t have a high powered blender or food processor, you may need to add more liquid, but only add it a little at a time.
If you’re having trouble getting the mixture to blend, here’s a few ideas to get it moving: chop your bananas into smaller pieces, add a little bit more liquid, stop and scrape down the sides or stir the mixture (use your tamper if you have a Vitamix), or even try letting the bananas and blueberries defrost a little, blend, and then stick it back in the freezer for 10-15 minutes.
Finally, plop it in a bowl, top it with desired toppings, and enjoy!
Any leftover nice cream (foreign concept to me, I must admit) may be stored in a freezer safe container in your, duh, freezer.
Which Type of Lavender is Edible?
Many species and hybrids of lavender are edible, just ensure that any package you buy is clearly marked “edible” or “for consumption” or “baking.”
English lavender is the most popular edible lavender as it is one of the most sweet and fragrant (so you get that nice light floral essence). It is often sold as Lavandula angustifolia or Lavandula officinalis or Lavandula vera.
If you are purchasing fresh lavender, make sure it was grown organically and not sprayed with anything other than water, since whatever it was sprayed with you will also be ingesting.
If you are looking for a lavender syrup, it’s easy to make. I didn’t make it for this as it uses a lot of sugar and my nice cream was already sweet from the bananas. Here’s a nice recipe from another blogger on how to make a lavender simple syrup.
Anything Else?
As always, I hope you love this recipe–I know I do because ice cream is one of my faves! This lavender nice cream is light and airy but still sweet, creamy, and delicious.
Let me know in the comments below if you make this recipe or tag me @Zardyplants on Instagram so I can see your beautiful recreations! If you tag me on IG, I will share your post in my stories :)
Also, one quick request: if you love how this recipe looks or tastes, please leave me a 5-star rating and a nice comment–ratings help more people find my recipes which helps me keep providing them! Thank you!
<3 Liz
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Lavender Nice Cream
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 4 cups 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This Lavender nice cream is light, delicate and yet refreshing and delicious! Made from just a few ingredients and free of added sugar, it’s delightful!
Ingredients
- 3 cups frozen bananas
- 1-2 teaspoon edible dried lavender (see note 1), crushed
- ¼-½ cup frozen blueberries (or can use vegan food coloring)
- ¼ cup non-dairy milk, less or more as needed
Instructions
- First add the bananas to your blender or food processor. Add some of the non-dairy milk (add more as you blend, but it’s always easier to add more). If you’re having trouble getting the mixture to blend, here’s a few ideas to get it moving: chop your bananas into smaller pieces, add a little bit more liquid, stop and scrape down the sides or stir the mixture (use your tamper if you have a Vitamix), or even try letting the bananas defrost a little, blend, and then stick it back in the freezer for 10-15 minutes.
- I like to blend the bananas and milk to a smooth consistency before adding the crushed lavender and blueberries. Blend in the lavender, then add the blueberries while it’s blending a few at a time until desired purple has been reached.
- Finally, add it to a bowl, top it with desired toppings (I used shredded coconut), and enjoy!
- Freeze leftovers in an airtight container up to one week, but the texture does become slightly less creamy.
Notes
- Note 1: The lavender you buy doesn’t matter as long as you buy dried lavender specifically marked as edible. The most common edible lavender is English lavender. Some edible lavenders are higher quality than others and will produce a better taste. I love (and use) the lavender from The Spice House.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Category: Dessert, Snack
- Method: Blender, Food Processor
- Cuisine: American, Health
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