Homemade Vegan Chocolate Ice Cream is so creamy and delicious. It’s easy to make with a Ninja Creami machine, too. I made this mainly with silken tofu, just a touch of brown sugar, and a bit of cocoa powder. It really does rival any commercial plant-based ice cream while also having a lot less sugar and no preservatives.
Look below for a link to an amazing NEW ebook on using this incredible machine!
Get Kathy Hester’s Whole Food Plant Based Ninja Creami Eook 2 HERE
This is a NEW ebook with over 50 brand new, delicious, delectable recipes for your Creami machine. As always, Kathy has created an amazing book with her own recipes as well as those from other plant-based bloggers. I’m happy to have some of my recipes included! Get this new resource at the link above. You’ll be glad you did!
The Original Ultimate Ninja Creami Experience with Kathy Hester Course is Still Available HERE
Homemade Vegan Chocolate Ice Cream using Soft Tofu
The base of this recipe gets a lot of its creaminess from silken tofu. One of the very first vegetarian/vegan recipes I ever tried was one I found in a PETA brochure about 30 years ago. The recipe was for a chocolate cream pie that used just silken tofu, sugar, and cocoa powder in a graham cracker crust. It was delicious and became a favorite. I must have made it once a week for months.
This ice cream is basically the filling from that super delicious chocolate cream pie made into a frozen treat.
Why I Like the Ninja Creami
I really like this appliance. (And here’s an affiliate link to get one of your own.) The Ninja Creami takes frozen fruit or yogurt or, in this case, tofu and spins it into a super creamy pint of ice cream. It’s really amazing. I made a batch today that was made of fruit, fruit juice, and vegan yogurt. Technically, it was about 90% water and was a solid block of ice coming out of the freezer. Yet in just a few minutes, the Creami spun it into what could easily be mistaken for regular ice cream made with loads of fat and sugar. It’s like magic.
Firm Homemade Chocolate Vegan Ice Cream in the Creami
Vegan soft serve made in the Vitamix or a food processor is delicious and I love it. But those appliances can only make ice cream that’s so thick. The Creami has a super powerful blade that basically shaves tiny layers and that’s what makes this so creamy.
How Does the Ninja Creami Work?
Check out this video by Kathy where she explains some of the basics of the Creami.
Ingredients in Vegan Chocolate Ice Cream
Tofu: This chocolate ice cream recipe starts with silken tofu. It’s creamy but has no real flavor so it takes on the flavor of whatever you add to it. It’s also high in protein and low in fat.
Cocoa Powder: I used cocoa power here. It’s full of antioxidants and all the health benefits of dark chocolate.
Sugar: I added just a little bit of brown sugar for some sweetness. If you only have white sugar that’s fine, too. And if you’d rather stay away from regular sugar, just swap it out for coconut sugar, dates, or agave.
Almond Milk: A little bit of plant-based milk adds some volume. I like almond milk although I’m also a fan of coconut milk. Use your favorite milk, they all work basically the same.
Stevia: This plant-based sweetener can add a bit more sweetness if that’s what you like. I do, so I usually add some stevia to ice creams and smoothies. It lets me cut down on sugar.
Homemade Vegan Chocolate Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 1 cup silken tofu
- 3 tablespoons cocoa powder or to taste (if you really like cocoa use 1/4 cup)
- 1/4 cup brown sugar (or white)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup almond milk
- pinch salt
- stevia o taste
Instructions
- Puree all ingredients in a high-speed blender until very smooth and creamy.
- Pour the mixture into the Creami pint and freeze for at least 24 hours.
- Once completely frozen, process in the Creami machine according to the appliance instructions. Also watch the video in this post for how to use the Creami.
- Scoop and enjoy!
XOXO
Hello! I’m Lisa, a vegan artist, photographer, author, Vegan Life Coach Educator, and RYT 200 yoga teacher. I love showing others how simple and delicious a plant-based diet can be. I draw and paint, cook, write, take lots of pics, eat lots of chocolate, and practice gratitude daily.
The Vegan Chocolate Ice Cream was just fabulous. I made 3 different recipes from 3 other sites and this was the winner. All of the other Vegan Ninja creamie recipes were duds.
The whole family wants to see more of this again.
I accidentally doubled the recipe, which no one in the family complained about 🙂
Hi Stacey, glad you all liked it!!
Absolutely delicious! My whole family loved it including our picky toddler. I didn’t even bother with the stevia. It was perfectly sweet without it in our opinion. 10/10 must try recipe!
Yay, so glad to hear! I love the Creami for sure. Glad your toddler was pleased 😊
I found the consistency powdery, I may have done something wrong
Hi Casey, you likely didn’t do anything wrong. Sometimes it’s just really cold and it will take a respin to make it sufficiently creamy.
@Casey, mine too and I respun it still powdery. Tasted good though.i wonder if I use coconut cream it would solve this?
Just respinning usually solves any powdery issues. Letting your pint sit on the counter for a few minutes before spinning can also help.
will try this tomorrow when the 24 hours wait is over. could anyone please tell me what setting you used in the machine? and also anyone tried mix in nuts and chocolate chips?
thanks
Hi Alejandro … I used the ice cream setting and then did a respin. Mix in nuts and chocolate chips by hand when it’s finished spinning or add in at the end and spin one more time on the mix ins settings. Let me know how it turns out!
@Lisa Viger Gotte, thanks
😊
I should have proofread before I sent my comment but I used oat milk for my milk.
I really enjoy this nice cream. I’m not a big chocolate nice cream eater but I really enjoyed this. I actually eat the whole container😳 are used cacao powder instead of cocoa powder and milk and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar and a tablespoon of date paste. It’s not too sweet but has a great creamy chocolate flavor. Thank you for a wonderful vegan recipe to use with my creami!
You’re welcome! Glad you like it!
If adding date syrup any guess how much? This looks really good!
Hi Don, I would substitute an amount equal to the sugar and use 1/4 cup of date syrup. You can also taste as you go and adjust the sweetener to get the perfect amount for you. Thanks for commenting!
@Don,
I used 2 tablespoons of brown sugar and about a tablespoon or so of date syrup.
That sounds good!
This is absolutely amazing and delicious Vegan Chocolate Ice cream, great recipe and an awesome Ninja Creami machine.
TY 🙂
Looks great. Will be making this tomorrow. Thank you,
Hi! Thanks for saying! Let me know how it turns out 🙂
I would like to try this recipe but I don’t see an amount listed for the cocoa powder?
@Jackie, Hey Jackie, thanks for saying. I’ve updated the post with the correct amount!