Roasted Cherry Ice Cream, Deep and Dairy-Free

Roasting the cherries first is the trick that makes this ice cream taste like more than the sum of its parts. The heat concentrates the fruit and draws out its natural sweetness, giving a dairy-free ice cream real depth.

Cherries are a source of vitamin C and anthocyanins, the antioxidant compounds that give them their deep color, studied for a role in the body's everyday oxidative stress. The 2 tablespoons of honey here is a modest amount stretched across the whole batch, so the sweetness stays gentle rather than heavy.

A bowl of this, eaten slowly, gets to be exactly what it is: good, real food made with a little care.

Ingredients

• 1 pound pitted cherries
• 1 teaspoon alcohol-free vanilla (or 1/4 teaspoon vanilla powder)
• 2 cans coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons honey

Swaps made: standard vanilla extract is alcohol-based and excluded on elimination, so alcohol-free vanilla or vanilla powder is used here instead (verify the label).

Method

• Toss the pitted cherries with the vanilla, spread on a baking sheet, and roast at 375 F for 10 minutes, stirring halfway through. Let them cool.
• Add the roasted cherries, coconut milk, and honey to a blender and blend until smooth. Chill the mixture for at least 30 minutes.
• Churn in an ice cream maker per the machine's directions.

No-churn freezer variation

If you do not have an ice cream maker, pour the chilled mixture into a freezer-safe container and freeze, stirring or re-blending every 30 minutes or so until it sets to a scoopable texture. This is an adaptation of the churning step, so treat the timing as untested (verify).

*Adapted from a-clean-plate*