Homemade Aquafaba Strawberry Ice Cream Recipe With No Ice Cream Maker- Dairy and Egg Free, Allergy Friendly, Vegan Option

Have you ever heard of aquafaba? I hadn't until recently. It's all the rage in vegan circles, and essentially, what it is is bean water, as in the water used to boil beans. I have no idea who figured it out in the first place, but if you take the water in which your beans were boiled- the standard to use is the water from cooking chickpeas or white beans though kidney beans and other beans also work- you can use it as an egg replacer. It is even able to be whipped up to make vegan meringues!

I don't have a mixer, so even though I'd wanted to try out aquafaba recipes when I first heard about it, I only tried it out for the first time a few days ago, when I went to my friend's house to borrow her mixer. I'd said that if it worked nicely, I'd want to buy my own mixer, and she was shocked- why just for this? Well, it isn't just for this, but even if it were, there are just sooo many desserts you can make with aquafaba, from ice creams to meringues to marshmallow fluff to nougat to mousse... and since we're a gluten free household and I can't either eat eggs or dairy, it limits my dessert making capabilities, but aquafaba widens them.

And so, here's how I made my aquafaba strawberry ice cream. It isn't vegan, but can easily be if you replace the honey with a vegan sweetener. It is allergy friendly, and if you buy your strawberries in season it can be super cheap as well. And just like with my other dairy free strawberry ice cream recipe, you can make this with whatever fruit you like and can get cheaply and/or in season, such as pineapple, mango, raspberries, blueberries, peaches, nectarines, etc...

I used the water that I used to cook my dried chickpeas in, but you can also strain a can of chickpeas and use that liquid.
If you want to keep this GAPS diet legal, use the water from cooking navy beans for this.
This is not Paleo, so if you're 100% off all legumes, you can't use this recipe. But I found that even though most legumes give me stomach issues, I don't really get stomach issues from aquafaba ice cream. I wouldn't overdo it, but some here and there isn't a problem for me.

And if you're wondering about the taste... Well, my friend (who's house I made this at) and her kids aren't into weird tasting things, and her verdict was that it smelled funny but tasted great, and her kids who were raised on pretty junky food thought it was delicious. So I'll take that as success. You don't taste the bean at all.

Homemade Aquafaba Strawberry Ice Cream Recipe- Dairy and Egg Free, Allergy Friendly, Vegan Option

Ingredients:
2 cups (unsalted/unseasoned) chickpea water/aquafaba- whipped 20 minutes or so
2 cups frozen strawberries or other alternative fruit
1/2 cup honey or alternative sweetener to taste

Instructions:
1. Beat your aquafaba on medium speed for a long time. You'll think nothing is happening, but eventually it'll get there. Officially for one cup of aquafaba to whip it takes about 10 minutes, and I found that with the two cups in this recipe it took over 20 minutes to get nice stiff peaks. But keep on going and going- if you're not sure if they're still enough, whip them some more. Better over-whip than under-whip here.

2. Blend up your strawberries or other fruit until smooth. Mix in your sweetener to taste.

3. Gently fold the frozen fruit mixture into your whipped aquafaba so it is evenly distributed.

4. Freeze until solid. The fruit might sink a little bit, leaving the top of the ice cream more mildly flavored and the bottom part of it more concentrated in flavor (and color), so midway through the freezing period you may want to mix it to redistribute the fruit mixture.

Enjoy!

Have you ever heard of aquafaba before? Ever made anything with it or eaten anything made from it? What was it? 
Does this seem like a recipe you'd try?