Raw Chocolate Walnut Ice Cream

I had a dinner party at my apartment last weekend. It was quite challenging with all the food restrictions of my guests. Here's the list:

• Diner #1 does not eat beef.


• Diner #2 does not eat pork.


• Diner #3 is lactose intolerant and cannot eat spicy food.


• Diner #4 eats nothing a.k.a he's vegan and he doesn't eat sugar.


• Diner #5 - #10 eats all the things diners number #1 - #4 do not eat and more. This is a blessing - not restriction.

Here's the menu:

• 2 loaves of no-knead bread


• Homemade hummus


• Petite Basque and Humboldt Fog cheese (two of my favorites)


• Raw beet and apple salad


• Vegan green curry with butternut squash and green beans


• Very very mild chicken massaman curry


• Brown rice


• Sour cream apple pie


• Raw chocolate walnut ice cream

This way everybody can have some appetizer, main food and dessert.



My diner friend #4 suggested that I tried this raw ice cream recipe. It was quite amazing and extremely simple to make. You basically blend raw walnuts with water, liquid sweetener and cocoa powder and some flavoring. Then let the ice cream maker do the work. The only down size is that I couldn't blend the nuts into completely smooth velvety texture. Well, maybe that's not a bad thing. It's textured ice cream. The raw walnuts didn't leave any taste. All you could feel was a nice sweet chocolate nuttiness.

I adapted the recipe a bit to this:

• 2 cups raw walnuts


• 2 cups water


• 1/2 cup Agave nectar


• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract


• 3/4 cup cocoa