Paleo Vegan Cherry Garcia Ice Cream

Vegan Cherry Garcia Ice Cream made with only 5 ingredients! Creamy and sweet, this chocolate cherry ice cream has no sugar added and is no churn! Easy for a delicious sweet dairy free treat!

Have you ever had Cherry Garcia ice cream? For me, it’s one of my all time favorite flavors. Mainly because it was my papa’s favorite, and he was the one who inspired my die-hard love of ice cream!

My papa was a man of many flavors, a few of his favorites included Rocky Road, Cookie Dough, Double Chocolate Chip, and of course, Cherry Garcia.

One of my favorite memories with my grandparents was when they would take us to this ice cream shop in the summer- it was owned by a town member and always had a 20 minute line to get in, but the ice cream was homemade so it was good. Worth the wait!

It took me a while to like Cherry Garcia ice cream at first (wasn’t a fan of fruit in foods other than just eating it straight haha! Oh how times have changed!), but man. Now every bite just brings me back!

That’s what inspired this vegan Cherry Garcia ice cream 🙂 While it’s dairy free and no sugar added, it tastes so creamy and sweet, just like the classic (which is actually a cool story, by the way! You can read it here!).

Made with only 5 ingredients, no churn, and absolutely delicious, you’re going to fall in love with this vegan Cherry Garcia ice cream over and over again 🙂

Ingredients for Vegan Cherry Garcia Ice Cream

Bananas: yep, this vegan cherry ice cream is made of a banana base! But don’t worry, the banana really does complement the tartness of the cherries and is the reason why this ice cream is no churn!

Black Cherries: this is my favorite part- for this vegan cherry ice cream, you’ll cook the cherries and cool them before swirling them into the ice cream. This creates a sort of jam and really sweetens up the tartness from the raw cherries! It will take about 10 minutes to pit the amount of cherries that you need for this recipe, and let me tell you, it’s so worth it! I’ll go over how to cook them down below, so stay tuned 🙂

Coconut Milk: I prefer coconut milk from a can because it’s way creamier and will yield a nice and scoopable Paleo chocolate cherry ice cream. If you go for reduced fat or the coconut milk you find in stores, your ice cream might come out icy, which…I don’t know about you, but icy ice cream is not exactly my kinda treat! Go for the full fat version and you’ll be very happy 😉

Vanilla Extract: this helps with the banana flavor! You’d be surprised at what just a little vanilla extract can do!

Chocolate Chips: because it just would not be vegan cherry garcia ice cream without some chocolate! Now, you have a few options for your Paleo vegan cherry garcia ice cream- there are many vegan brands out there, but the one vegan and Paleo brand that I like is Pascha Chocolate, and they have a 100% chocolate chip. Trust me, it doesn’t taste bitter when you mix it in with the ice cream! There’s also Lily’s, which is sweetened with stevia, or Enjoy Life is Paleo-friendly and vegan. But if you’re not into following labels (I personally don’t, I think you should do you, booboo!), go with whatever chocolate makes your heart happy 🙂

After all, these recipes are supposed to bring you joy. If something doesn’t resonate with you, you can always swap in an alternative ingredient!

But enough chit chat, let’s get on with making this decadent and creamy chocolate cherry banana ice cream!

How to make a simple cherry sauce

First, let’s prep the simple cherry sauce that gets swirled into your chocolate cherry banana ice cream!

It’s actually quite easy, just takes an extra 10 minutes of actual work, and 15 minutes of cook time! I recommend making this cherry sauce the night before, so as to not melt the banana ice cream when you’re freezing it.

It will result in a longer freeze time and possible inconsistencies in texture from the banana ice cream! Because this is a no churn ice cream, we don’t want to mess with the texture created from blending the bananas!

First begin by chopping about 2 cups of red cherries. This will give you about a cup of pitted and halved red cherries.

Place the cherries into a small saucepan and add about 1/3 cup water. Bring the water to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer. Cover the saucepan and let the cherries cook for about 15-20 minutes, until they’re soft.

Strain a little bit of the water and then jar the rest of the cherries and cover in the fridge overnight. In the morning, you’ll have beautifully cooked and cooled jammy cherries, ready to make your vegan cherry garcia ice cream!

How to make chocolate cherry banana ice cream

If you recall my double chocolate peanut butter swirl ice cream, you’ll remember that we start with a base of just blending the bananas with the coconut milk!

Place the frozen bananas to a large food processor (my absolute favorite kitchen tool ahah! I use it for just about everything from brownies and mac and cheese sauce!). Add in the coconut milk and vanilla, then puree the ingredients until it’s smooth like below.

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Spoon the banana nice cream into a loaf pan that’s been lined with parchment paper. The parchment paper helps you to not scrape the metal or glass sides, and also makes the cleaning process easier!

Add in your chocolate chips or chunks and mix it around, like we did when making the Paleo Vegan Vanilla Ice Cream.

And now we’re ready to add in the cherry sauce!

Add a few dollops of the cherry sauce with big chunks of cherry around the top of the banana ice cream. Then, using a spoon, swirl the cherry chunks into the banana ice cream.

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It’s key to not overdo this though, which can be very easy! A little swirl action goes a long way, so if you want more swirl, just add more cherries! You have a decent amount to work with, so you should be good 🙂

Then place your Paleo chocolate cherry ice cream into the freezer for about an hour to two hours. Let soften on the countertop for about 10 minutes before serving, and there ya have it!

Homemade Paleo vegan Cherry Garcia ice cream that’s creamy, easy, and deliciously sweet!

Putting the cherry on top!

Now for my favorite part: building the sundaes!

I personally love to add a little extra coconut cream (which you can sweeten with some maple syrup or leave as is!) and putting an actual whole cherry- ON TOP!

Talk about a beautiful sundae 🙂 You can go fancy and use goblets for your sundae or classic and go with the big ol’ bowl (my personal- and daily- favorite ha!).

Add a few extra chocolate chips for good measure, and you are set, my friend!

I hope you love this vegan Cherry Garcia ice cream as much as I do! It brings back so many memories to me, so it easily ranks as one of my favorites 🙂 As always, I love to see your creations, so always feel free to tag me on Instagram and Pinterest with how your recipe came out!

If you have the ice cream bug like I do, you might like a few of these other ice cream flavors 😉

Paleo Vegan Vanilla Ice Cream

Vegan Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl Ice Cream

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream

Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches

Happy no-churning! 😉

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