Sweet and lemony-tart, this dairy-free lemon ice cream with coconut milk is made from canned coconut milk and lemonade concentrate you can buy the freezer section or make at home in your Instant Pot. It’s creamy and flavorful and will bring back memories of a summer day.
Click here for all of the delicious homemade vegan ice cream recipes, sorbets, and other frozen treats from Veggie Fun Kitchen.
I was looking for recipes to that used lemonade concentrate to add to my Lemonade Concentrate Made in the Instant Pot recipe. While I did find some pretty tasty drink recipes, I didn’t see anything else. That’s when I decided to develop a few of my own!
What you’ll love about this lemonade ice cream!
- creamy
- sweet and tart
- dairy-free – and also vegan
- easy to make with lemonade concentrate
For some other tasty frozen plant-based treats try my:
- Watermelon Sorbet
- Fresh Peach Sorbet
- Fresh Orange Sorbet – no churn
- Sweet Cream Ice Cream
- Chocolate Almond Ice Cream
- Strawberry Lemonade Sorbet
- Basil-Infused Strawberry Sorbet
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- What you’ll love about this lemonade ice cream!
- For some other tasty frozen plant-based treats try my:
- Pin now and save for later
- Ingredients needed to make dairy-free lemon ice cream
- How to make dairy-free creamy lemon ice cream
- Serving Suggestions
- The printable recipe card for Lemon Ice Cream with Coconut Milk
Pin now and save for later
Ingredients needed to make dairy-free lemon ice cream
- lemonade concentrate – buy it frozen or make mine!
- two cans of coconut milk, lite and full fat – you will be using the entire can of lite coconut milk and the cream (3/4 cup) from the full fat coconut milk. Make sure you don’t shake up the can of full fat!
- corn starch
- lemon zest
- pinch of salt (not picured)
- You will also need an ice cream maker. I love my Cuisinart compressor ice cream maker.
How to make dairy-free creamy lemon ice cream
Step 1: Prepare the ingredients
Source your lemonade concentrate. You can buy it in the frozen section or make my fresh Lemonade Concentrate (made in the Instant Pot). If you buy it from the grocery store, remember that this is not like a carton of lemonade, but the frozen concentrate you are supposed to add water to. DO NOT ADD WATER! Just use the concentrate.
You will be using a full can of lite coconut milk and the cream scooped from the top of a full-fat can of coconut milk. You will need a total of three-fourths cups of cream from the full fat can. If you do not have that amount then make it up with some of the coconut water left in the can.
Zest the lemon and measure out the cornstarch. You will also need a pinch of salt.
Step 2: Cook the cornstarch with the coconut milk
Add the cornstarch, coconut milk and cream to a non-stick saucepan and whisk together. Then cook on medium/high heat until it comes to a boil. Stir so that it doesn’t burn. Once it comes to a gentle boil, continue to cook and stir for one minute.
Step 3: Add in the other ingredients and cool
Remove from the heat and mix in the lemonade concentrate and lemon zest. Also, add in a pinch of salt.
Cover and allow complete cooling in your refrigerator for 6 hours or your freezer for about 2 hours.
If your ice cream maker requires you to freeze the container, this is the time to do it. If you have a compressor-type of ice cream maker, you won’t need to pre-freeze the container.
Step 3: Freeze the lemon ice cream
Following your manufacturer’s directions, freeze the lemon ice cream. It takes about 60 minutes in my machine. What you will have when it is finished is a “soft-serve” ice cream texture.
Put it in your freezer for a couple of hours to harden the ice cream. If it becomes too hard then let sit on your counter for a couple of minutes to soften before serving.
Serving Suggestions
Scoop it up in an ice cream dish and make it pretty with sprinkles or lemon zest.
Serve as dessert or to cleanse your palate between courses (no, we are not that fancy).
Drizzle some strawberry syrup on top. You can use my Homemade Strawberry Topping or just melt a little strawberry jam and pour it on top.
The printable recipe card for Lemon Ice Cream with Coconut Milk
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Lemon Ice Cream with Coconut Milk, Dairy-Free
Equipment
- ice cream maker
- stove top
Ingredients
- 1 cup lemonade concentrate use my homemade lemonade concentrate
- 13.5 ounce coconut milk lite you will use the full can
- 3/4 cup coconut cream use the top solid layer from a can of full-fat coconut milk
- 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- Zest the lemon and set the zest aside.
- You need two cans of coconut milk. One lite and one full-fat. Add the whole can of lite coconut milk to a heavy-bottomed saucepan. (The can will yield 1¾ cups.) Scoop out the top layer of cream from the can of full-fat coconut milk. You will need a total of 3/4 of coconut cream. If you don't have enough then make up the difference with a little bit of the coconut water left in the can. You will need a total of 2½ cups coconut milk/cream.Whisk in the cornstarch.
- Bring to a gentle boil on med/high heat. This might take up to 10 minutes. You will need to stir the bottom of the pan to keep it from burning. Once it comes to a gentle boil, start timing one minute. Stir constantly. Your stirring might cause the boiling to stop. Just pause for a couple of seconds and then resume.
- Remove from heat and add in the lemon zest, lemonade concentrate, and pinch of salt. Stir well and cover with a lid or plastic wrap.
- This mixture should be well chilled before you attempt to make ice cream. This will take about 6 hours in the refrigerator or 2 hours in your freezer. In addition, if your ice cream maker requires the inner cylinder or bucket to be chilled, please do it now.
- Pour the mixture into your ice cream maker and following the manufacturer's directions, freeze.
- Even after it is "frozen" it still is not fully frozen. It will be like a soft-serve. Eat it that way if that is what you choose. OR put into a container and freeze for a few more hours.
When do you add the corn starch?
Whisk the cornstarch together with the coconut milk/cream before cooking.