Nut Free Vegan Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe (Oat Milk Based!)

This deliciously creamy vegan vanilla ice cream is made with oat milk (homemade or store bought!) and sweetened condensed oat or coconut milk. Smooth and custard like, this ice cream is made using no dairy and without nuts. The toughest part about this recipe? Waiting for the ice cream to chill!

You are just going to LOVE this homemade vegan vanilla ice cream recipe. While it takes some patience for everything to chill, the process is so easy and well worth the wait.

It’s the perfect plant-based ice cream recipe to cool off on a hot summer day (you’ll also love my homemade no coconut vegan chocolate ice cream as well!)! You can even customize it with different add-ins and toppings, or use it as the base for a homemade vegan ice cream cake!

No need to soak any cashews nor use a high-speed blender or food processor to process anything. We’re simply churning ice cream the old-fashioned way for the best dairy-free ice cream around!

What is vegan vanilla ice cream?

This might sound like a really basic question, but many people might not know that vanilla ice cream contains more than just dairy in it; it also contains eggs to make the custard base.

Vegan vanilla ice cream, thus, must be completely dairy free and egg free in order to be considered vegan (along with containing absolutely no animal products or byproducts).

How can we achieve that custard-like texture, though, without the eggs? Simple!

Ingredients & substitutions:

• Oat milk: I wanted to offer a different dairy free milk option here by using oat milk rather than a nut milk, like almond milk or cashew milk. This will make this vegan ice cream completely nut-free and perfect for those with nut allergies.
• Coconut cream: If you want a coconut-free vegan vanilla ice cream, you can actually swap in soy milk with similar results!
• Sweetened condensed dairy free milk: There are two options on the market right now; coconut condensed milk and oat condensed milk. You can use either! If you want no coconut flavor, I recommend using the sweetened condensed oat milk by Nature’s Charm.
• Sugar: To help with the overall sweetness. I used organic cane sugar from Florida Crystals, as it’s a vegan sugar. You can also swap in 1/2 cup maple syrup instead.
• Vanilla extract: You can also use vanilla bean seeds as well, but definitely use the extract, as it contains alcohol in it, which will help prevent your ice cream from hardening too much. We want a strong vanilla flavor, so we’ll use a lot of it. Since vanilla beans are so expensive, though, especially for how little you’ll be able to use them, I recommend Anima Mundi Herbals’ vanilla powder as well.
• Sea salt: Just a pinch to balance out the flavor!  
• Arrowroot starch: You can also use cornstarch; this is basically a thickener that we’ll heat before pouring the custard base into our ice cream machine to help thicken the mixture.

Overview: How to Make Vegan Vanilla Ice Cream

1. Heat: You’ll first begin by making the vanilla custard base. Simply heat everything in a saucepan until the arrowroot starch begins to thicken the mixture.
2. Cool: Then you’ll need to FULLY COOL the mixture before using your ice cream machine. This is because the heat from the vanilla custard would immediately warm your ice cream machine, which will then prevent the ice cream from churning and creating ice crystals.
3. Churn: Once the ice cream mixture is fully cooled, you’ll follow the manufacturer’s instructions on your ice cream machine for churning ice cream. They’re typically all the same; it took me about 35 minutes for my ice cream to thicken into a soft serve consistency.
4. Chill: Spoon your churned ice cream into a freezer-safe container, and freeze the ice cream for 2 hours, or until hard. 
5. Scoop & enjoy! Once set, you can serve your vegan vanilla ice cream and enjoy!

Do I need an ice cream maker to make this vegan ice cream?

I would highly recommend investing in an ice cream maker if you can. There is an option to “churn” the ice cream by hand, which involves you mixing the ice cream every hour once in the freezer, but it’s a bit of a pain to remember every hour, and takes longer. For a no churn option, you can also try my vegan cashew milk ice cream!

I used this Cuisinart ice cream machine and it’s my absolute favorite. I’ve made so many dairy free vegan ice creams in this!

Vegan ice cream topping ideas and add-ins:

For this homemade vegan ice cream, I absolutely love topping a bowl with:

• Homemade Vegan Caramel Sauce
• Vegan Toffee Sauce
• 5-minute Vegan Hot Fudge (vegan ganache!)
• Vegan chocolate chips
• Rainbow vegan sprinkles
• Vegan cookie dough
• Raw vegan brownie batter
• Cherries
• Fresh fruit
• Strawberry jam or puree
• If you’re not nut free, cashew butter or peanut butter
• Alongside a slice of vegan vanilla cake or chocolate cake
• Or a la mode with warm apple pie!

Want to save this recipe for later? Add it to your favorite recipe board on Pinterest!

If you make this recipe, please be sure to leave a comment and a rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ below. This helps others to find the recipes! As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there as well!

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