Best Mango Cardamom Nice Cream – Healthy and Vegan

This Mango Cardamom nice cream is the perfect healthy dessert to replace your regular heavy ice cream. Relish this simple, easy-to-make recipe when you have those dessert or ice-cream cravings. It’s easy to whip up and you can make it in no time.

Ummm, what’s Nice Cream?

Nice cream is very different from regular ice cream. For starters it’s called nice cream because a) it’s nicer for your health b) it’s made with frozen fruits (not heavy cream) and c) it’s vegan since we’re not adding any animal-based milk. And anything vegan by default tops our charts because caring for the animals and the environment is our utmost priority.

Nice Cream was first used to describe a soft-serve type ice cream, where instead of heavy cream, chunks of frozen fruits were blended and gave it a rich custard-like consistency. Eventually, when people realized the health benefits of having this naturally sweetened dessert, the demand for it has blown up considerably.

This mango cardamom nice cream came out of me discovering a bag of frozen mangoes in my freezer and decided on making this quick-as-a-flash recipe because sometimes I need to chill out.

Also, if you’re wondering about these cute little bowls and spoons in the pictures above, Coconut bowls gifted me their handmade coconut bowl and spoon. Hence, I took that as the perfect excuse to relax and enjoy a nice flavorful nice cream in these beautiful, eco-friendly bowls.

Inspiration for Mango Cardamom Nice Cream

Did you know that India is the number one mango-producing country in the world where we produce over 18 million tonnes or in other words – 50% of the global mango supply. Isn’t that crazy?

Mangoes and I have long-existing chemistry, and there is no way I will give up a chance to incorporate mangoes in my recipes. Mango season is the time when my true love for this fruit overpowers logic and reasoning. Sipping on a good Mango Lassi (viz. a cold blend of yogurt, spices, sweetener, and fruits) on a hot summer’s day is absolute heaven. You would know what I am saying if you have experienced that bliss in a glass. Check out how I make my Mango Lassi.

So, for this particular recipe, I decided to give it a twist of my own – make it into a Mango Cardamom Nice Cream.

Why Nice Cream, you ask?

Well, regular ice cream requires heavy-duty or powerful ice cream machines, long processing hours, and, let’s not forget the sugar overdose in each scoopful. On the flip side, Nice cream needs blending frozen fruit until smooth with a few tablespoons of maple or agave syrup (if you have a sweet-tooth but otherwise the fructose in the fruits is enough to satiate the need). How easy does that sound?
It’s an absolutely no-nonsense dish and ready-to-eat, as long as you have a bunch of fruits frozen in your freezer. Even if you don’t have a stock of frozen fruit, you could always freeze some overnight.

Many prefer having this over regular ice cream due to the ease in whipping this up. The best part is you can experiment with different fruits, depending on how creamy they get after freezing. You can get that soft-serve-like consistency by using and balancing out the thickness with extra plant milk. For example, bananas become really creamy after being frozen and are the perfect partner in making the best smoothies and milkshakes.
Similarly, you can use any fruit that you like, not necessarily mangoes. Here I have chosen mangoes to satisfy my cravings and obsession with these tropical fruits. But it’s up to you to jazz it up with the fruit of your choice.

How to make Mango Cardamom Nice Cream (Tips and tricks)

Fruits

I froze the mangoes in my freezer well before the cooking time. The trick is to keep a batch of frozen fruits – ready to go. An easy way to keep a stock of frozen fruits ready in your freezer would be to cut fresh fruits into chunks and freeze them in airtight containers. Alternatively, you could freeze them in a ziplock bag by pressing out all the air and sealing it shut. Fruits can be stored up to 6-9 months in the freezer if done the right way. Now that you have a stock of frozen fruit ready, all you need to do is find that auspicious day when your Nice Cream cravings are at a peak point.

Spices

My advice would be to keep a stock of cardamom powder if you are a regular consumer like me. It’s easy to prepare, all you have to do is to shell the cardamom, crush them into a fine powder and store it in an air-tight container (so that the powder does not lose the flavour and potency to oxidization). This will last you upto 4 years if stored properly.

Plant-milk for consistency

Frozen milk cubes are the key to incorporating that frothy, ice-cream-like consistency in our Mango cardamom nice cream. Instead of adding chilled plant-milk, we are using milk cubes will make the nice cream colder and creamier. You can keep a batch of frozen plant milk in your freezer, and use them as and when you like. I am using soy milk from @soy for this recipe but you can use any other plant-based milk.

Sweetener

My go-to sweetener in smoothies and nice cream is maple syrup but you can sub it with agave syrup. If you are lucky, you might get a good batch of sweet mangoes then there is no need to add extra sweetener. The mango will do its job perfectly.

Now all you have to do is combine the mango, cardamom powder, frozen plant-milk cubes and maple syrup in a blender until smooth and creamy. Depending on how powerful your blender is, you can adjust the timing from 3-4 minutes or 5-7 minutes. Totally depends.

Do a taste test to check for consistency and sweetness. If required, add some more chilled plant-milk to make it into a soft-serve-type consistency. Serve it in pretty bowls because we are fancy. Enjoy!

If you want a more authentic Indian Ice cream recipe then checkout this Vegan Kulfi recipe to beat the heat 🙂

Don’t foget to tag @beextravegant if you make this and follow for more bomb-ass recipes! Click here for a visual representation to give you an idea on how to make this recipe. Enjoy!