salty mustachioed chocolate pistachio vegan ice cream

Okily-dokily, here's more ice cream. This was a highly requested one, so I took a stab at it. I took several stabs at it...several creamy, delicious, salty, nutty, chocolaty stabs. Tough gig. Finally nailed it. I had to increase the amount of sugar in my standard base, since the blended pistachios counteracted some of the sweetness. Got 'er done though, and now you can too! Hit me in the comments with what flavor of ice cream you're dying to have veganized.

Quick notes:

• Make sure you have an ice cream maker.
• Also to make this recipe right, you need about half a day or so. So plan for that.
• If you don't have a high-powered blender, you can use a regular blender, then, after the blending step, pass the mixture through a fine mesh strainer to remove any unprocessed cashew pieces. Then proceed with the mint steeping process.
• If I forget to soak my cashews, I place them in a microwave safe container and cover with water. Then nuke for 2 minutes and let rest another 5 minutes. Then they're ready to go.
• Below you'll find excerpts from my instagram stories showing some of the making of the mint chip ice cream recipe. The relevant part to this recipe is the chocolate splattering step. So be sure to check that out.

1/2 cup raw cashews, soaked at least 1 hour (overnight, if you don't have a high-powered blender), drained, and rinsed
1 cup raw, unsalted pistachio nutmeats, divided
1/2 cup water
14 ounce can coconut milk (regular, not the "lite" stuff)
3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon arrowroot powder/flour
Pinch salt
1/3 cup dark chocolate chips
3/4 teaspoon refined coconut oil
1/4 teaspoon coarse or flaky sea salt or, fancily, Fleur de Sel

Into a (preferably) high-powered blender, add soaked cashews, 1/2 cup of the pistachios, water, coconut milk, sugar, vanilla, arrowroot, and salt. Blend until smooth, about 1 minute, scraping down the sides, if necessary, to mix in any stray cashew pieces that jumped up onto the side.

Transfer to a medium saucepan, and heat over medium, stirring continually, until the arrowroot activates, and the mix thickens to an almost pudding-like consistency, 4 to 6 minutes.

Once thickened, immediately transfer to a wide, high-sided vessel, and stir it around for 3 to 4 minutes to promote quick cooling. Once cooled (it can still be a little warm), transfer to a container and cover tightly. Refrigerate at least 4 hours.

Add the chilled cashew/coconut mixture to your ice cream maker, and do whatever the maker's instructions say you have to do to make it into ice cream. In the meantime, place remaining pistachios in a small food processor, and pulse until roughly chopped. Add to the ice cream maker towards the end of the churning. If the nuts don't get evenly distributed, worry not, as you'll be stirring it all again later.

To get those signature non-uniform, chocolate freckles and chips, you have to do some abstract art. Place chocolate chips and coconut oil into a small microwave safe bowl. Microwave 20 seconds. Almost nothing will happen, so stir it around and continue microwaving in 20 second bursts, stirring after every nuking, until it's totally melted. Stir in the coarse salt.

Chose a container that's about 1 quart or so, and with the tines of a fork (or a child size spork), swoosh, swizzle, and splatter the inside surfaces of the container with chocolate. Next spoon enough ice cream on the bottom to make an even layer, then do more chocolate art on top of that layer. Add another ice cream layer, and then more chocolate squizzles. Continue until all the ice cream and chocolate is used up. Cover container, and place in the freezer for 1 hour.

After an hour, the ice cream will be plenty cold but not totally frozen and still soft. Using a spoon, stir the ice cream. This will break up all those swoozles of chocolate, achieving that flecked look.

Again, tightly cover and place in the freezer at least another 3 hours. It's fairly easy to scoop right out of the freezer, but letting it rest at room temperature for 5 minutes will make it a lot easier. Enjoy!