Helado de Lúcuma (2 ways)

If you haven't been fortunate enough to come across Lúcuma, I hope this inspires you to try it out. Lúcuma (pronounced looh-cuh-ma) is a fruit from South America- primarily found in and around Peru. My first encounter with this incredible fruit was as a delicious flavour of ice cream, albeit a mass produced generic brand in Chile.

I have, thankfully, had my fare share of Lúcuma ice cream, although have yet to come across a vegan offering. There is a chain in the Pennsylvania/ New Jersey region of the US called Llama Ice Cream which offers both lúcuma and chirimoya flavours, although sadly these are not part of their dairy free range (yet!).

Lúcuma itself is very sweet, and tastes like caramel mixed with a slight earthiness similar to sweet potato.  I was able to get my mitts on some lúcuma powder through Amazon, although I'm sure it's stocked in some health food stores as it's considered a superfood due to it's properties as a fabulous antioxidant. It's also chock full of vitamins, and is said to have anti-aging properties!

As I mentioned, I have yet to come across a dairy free/ vegan brand of lúcuma ice cream, so I set about using two base ingredients to make my own:
Lúcuma Nice Cream- This uses my nice cream recipe (with a base of frozen banana, click here for the generic nice cream recipe). Mix 2-3 tbsp lúcuma powder with the frozen banana.
Lúcuma Tofu Ice Cream (which also makes a delicious lúcuma pudding if you're too impatient to wait for the ice cream to freeze!)

Lúcuma Tofu Ice Cream
Ingredients
1 pack of silken tofu
4 tbsp lúcuma powder
1 tbsp date sugar
1/4 cup plant based milk

Method
Add the ingredients to a blender
Blend on medium to high for 3-4 minutes until the ingredients are mixed well together, and the mixture is light and airy, almost like a mousse.
Chill in the fridge for 1-2 hours  (it can be eaten like this and is delicious!)
Freeze for at least 2 hours, up to 3 months.
Top with some date syrup for an even sweeter treat!