Strawberries & Cream Vegan Ice Cream with Aquafaba Meringues

Strawberries & Cream Vegan Ice Cream with Aquafaba Meringues 

Strawberries and Cream is a quintessentially British treat, and this vegan strawberry ice cream is also reminiscent of Eton Mess – it’s served with vegan meringues made from aquafaba. 

Strawberry and Cashew Ice Cream Base Recipe

Ingredients for Strawberries and Cream Ice Cream

500ml Plenish Cashew milk

150g Agave Syrup

2 tbsp Maple Syrup

250g Cashew Butter

½ tsp Vanilla Extract

1 tsp Sea salt

180g Strawberries 

How to Make Strawberries and Cream Ice Cream

1. Heat the cashew milk, maple syrup and sugar in a pan until all sugar is dissolved.
2. Add the cashew butter, vanilla extract and sea salt, then stir the ingredients together.
3. Blend the mixture using either a stick blender or a jug blender until smooth.
4. Chill the mixture for at least 4 hours.
5. Add the ingredients to the ice cream maker and churn. We used a Sage Ice Cream Maker and churned the ice cream using gelato setting 1.
6. Chop the strawberries roughly and fold them through the ice cream mixture. (Turn the machine for 15 mins to fold in.)
7. Freeze for at least 2 hours. 

This delicious strawberry and cream ice cream works best served with vegan meringues and fresh strawberries.  Here’s the recipe for the aquafaba meringues – you could make these while the ice cream is freezing and serve with your strawberries.

Aquafaba Meringues 

Aquafaba Meringue Ingredients

120 ml aquafaba – chickpea brine, chilled 

½ tsp white wine vinegar 

125 g fine caster sugar

How to Make Aquafaba Meringues

1. Line a baking tray with a sheet of baking paper.
2. In a large, clean bowl, beat chickpea water with an electric whisk until you get stiff peaks. Add ½ tsp of vinegar to stabilise the mixture and mix again.
3. To test if whipped chickpea water is ready, gently turn the bowl upside down. If the mixture does not start sliding down, you can start adding sugar. Otherwise, keep on whipping until the mixture stays in the bowl when inverted.
4. Start adding sugar very slowly, tablespoon by tablespoon, whipping well after each addition. Continue until all the sugar has been added. By now, the mixture should become beautifully glossy, thick and sticky. 
5. Pre-heat the oven to 100º C / 210º F.
6. Pipe mini meringues onto the prepared tray.
7. Bake for about 75 minutes, then turn the oven off but leave the tray with meringue drops inside with the oven’s door slightly open for another 45-60 minutes for the meringues to dry out thoroughly.

This ice cream accompanied by crunchy meringues is good enough to share with any guests coming over for a summer garden party, although you might just want to keep it all to yourself.