For my sister's birthday, I made her a vegan and gluten-free Macadamia and Caramel Cheesecake (recipe was from the Whole Pantry app for those interested). I was wondering what ice-cream to serve with such a dessert, so I decided to go the classic route: namely, a vanilla vegan ice-cream. But how to get the very specific flavour of vanilla into the ice-cream? I decided to use vanilla bean, a technique I had seen in gelato store that only used natural ingredients called Amorino in Verona, Italy (they also create flowers with gelato!!). Below is a photo of the gelato from Amorino in the main square of Verona: the bottom was hazelnut, the middle was vanilla and chocolate for the top.


You will need:

2 bananas
1/4 cup or more of almond milk (or another plant-based milk)
1 tsp of vanilla essence
1 vanilla bean
Optional: 1-2 tbsp of maple syrup


1. In a small saucepan, pour the almond milk and vanilla essence, and place over low heat. Cut open the vanilla bean and scrape out the vanilla, and add to the milk. Stir until the milk, essence and vanilla bean are combined. Below is a photo of what it should look like.


2. Pour this mixture with the banana into a blender. You might want to add some maple syrup too.
Once mixed, add to a metal tray, cover in glad wrap. Every 30 minutes whisk the mixture until the mixture is like ice-cream.

I also served the left-overs as morning tea for my parents the next day, as they were leaving for Europe.