After switching to a completely dairy free lifestyle, I was a little dissapointed by not being able to eat ice cream. Although of course it is very easy to find dairy free sorbet at places like Whole Foods, they are pretty expensive. Particurly because I am also eating sugar-free. Now, it has always boggled my mind why there is a need to add so much sugar to something like fruit sorbet. Presumably, fruit is already pretty sweet, so adding sugar really doesn’t seem that necessary to me.

Last week, I did find a fantastic orange mango sorbet at my local Whole Foods. At $6.40 for about half a litre (and it lasted me only one day), it does get a little expensive. The other added inconvenience is that Whole Foods is a good 5km hike from my home, so it’s not a place I can easily go to to pick up a tub of ice cream on a whim.

Inspired by my purchase though, I bought a Cuisinart Automatic Ice Cream Maker yesterday. It’s fabulous! I produced this fantastic strawberry sorbet in about 20 minutes.

Here is my dairy-free, gluten-free, and sugar-free recipe for homemade fruit sorbet:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 box of strawberries (about 15 medium sized strawberries)
• 1 cup of almond milk (or rice milk)
• Agave nectar

Preparation

Combine strawberries and almond milk in a blender and blend until smooth. Set up the ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions (the Cuisinart has to sit in your freezer for at least 12 hours prior to using it, so plan accordingly!). Turn the ice cream maker on, and pour the strawberry mixture into the machine. Add agave nectar to taste (about 1-2 tbsp).

You can get creative and add other things to this recipe as well. Cut up some strawberries into pieces and add them in while the ice cream maker is turned on to mix them in properly. Or add in gummy bears for a fun chewy taste.