Chia Coconut Milk Ice Cream

I decided to take a zucchini from my garden to our neighbor yesterday, and while we were there visiting on her front porch, I mentioned that I had made chia ice cream.  Her response?  "You mean like the seeds they put on those clay heads to grow?  I may have to rethink saying you're not a hippie."  To which I had to laugh.  Despite our best efforts to look like good suburbanites, I fear the cat may be out of the bag.  When you defend not mowing a hillside in order to harvest the weeds and then casually mention eating chia seeds a few sentences later, sometimes you start to feel like an outsider.  Well, that's how I felt anyway.  Sometimes I just don't know if this suburbia suits us anymore.  I hear the call of a farm life louder and louder every day.  But, before I go all starry eyed about having a little farmette someday, back to the ice cream.  And the chia seeds.

For those who don't know, chia seeds are awesome.  Great sources of energy and full of nutritional goodness!  We first read about using chia as an energy source in the book, Born to Run by Christopher McDougall.  No Meat Athlete has a great article about the running fuel mentioned in the book used by the Tarahumara Indians.  The first time I ever ran past the half marathon mark (13.1 miles for the non-runners) the hubby and I started out with a chia seed mixture in a drink form.  And I think it worked because that was a great run!  So, we always include chia seeds in our daily smoothies, but I've also been experimenting with chia soaked in water as a substitute for a binder such as eggs in our veganized recipes.  It seems to work very similar to flax eggs. So, I thought it might be fun to make it the star of a recipe for a change, so here's the 3 ingredient ice "cream" I came up with.



I miss ice cream so much sometimes that I have given in once since giving up dairy and had a small dish from our favorite ice cream spot.  Big mistake.  I regretted it and my stomach was not pleased almost immediately.  I haven't tempted fate since.  But I have been experimenting with other milks and mixtures and this time, I decided coconut milk would be my base.  I used a 15 oz can of unsweetened coconut milk, added about 1/4 c of soaked chia seeds and 3 T of honey.  I put the whole mix in the blender, made it nice and frothy and then added it to the ice cream maker.  It has a smooth texture and is the perfect sweetness.  I loved it and I loved that I was having ice cream that was full of nutrition and easy on my digestive system.  Perfect combo!

In case you're not convinced on how beneficial chia seeds are to your diet...check out What's Cooking America - Chia Seeds.

 

Anyone else find creative uses for misunderstood ingredients like chia?  I'd love to hear them!!

Sheri