You're only six simple ingredients away from this creamy Vegan Coconut Matcha Ice Cream. The perfect pairing of coconutty creaminess and a wonderful, bright, earthy green tea flavor.
By Candice Walker on January 3, 2025 (Last updated January 3, 2025) This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy.
You’re only six simple ingredients away from this creamy Vegan Coconut Matcha Ice Cream. The perfect pairing of coconutty creaminess and a wonderful, bright, earthy green tea flavor. Plus, I’m sharing my secret ingredient for making this vegan ice cream easily scoopable with a soft, pleasing texture.
🌟 Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Creating a delicious vegan ice cream with a smooth, creamy texture can be a bit of a challenge without dairy or eggs. My recipe delivers perfectly scoopable results, thanks to the added vodka. The vodka helps to control the hardness of the ice cream when frozen, ensuring it stays soft enough to enjoy straight from the freezer. Like all vegan ice creams, thaw this one a bit before scooping for the best texture. And scoop it into a glass to turn into a double matcha affogato for a special treat.
My recipe was tested with full-fat canned coconut milk and cream, which offer the most reliable fat and water ratios of all the non-dairy milk options. This consistency in the milk helps achieve a silky, indulgent texture in the ice cream. It does come with a strong, creamy coconut flavor.
Finally, matcha green tea and coconut are two complementary flavors you’re sure to love! Matcha’s grassy, earthy, slightly bitter notes are balanced by coconut’s creamy, sweet, and nutty profile, creating a perfect blend of richness and freshness in this ice cream.
🧾 Ingredients in This Recipe
Matcha – I always use culinary-grade matcha. There’s no need to waste money on ceremonial grade matcha, culinary works perfectly.
Coconut milk: I do not recommend substituting another non-dairy milk for the coconut milk in this recipe. There are many different non-dairy kinds of milk that you can use in non-dairy ice cream, but each one will yield a different texture due to the different fat and water levels. This recipe was made specifically for full-fat canned coconut milk and cream.
Coconut cream – Make sure the can of coconut cream is full-fat. Sometimes coconut cream is labeled 30% fat and that is not good enough for this recipe.
Vanilla extract – It’s worth it to use a high-quality vanilla extract because it makes a big difference to the flavor of the ice cream. Some less expensive vanilla extracts are made with artificial flavoring instead of real vanilla, and you’ll taste the difference.
Vodka – Vodka doesn’t freeze like water does, so this is the secret to keeping the texture of the ice cream soft enough to scoop.
Sugar – I have made this recipe using turbinado, granulated, and cane sugar in this recipe and they all work well.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
👩🍳 How to Make This Recipe
Put the bowl of your ice cream maker in the freezer. Add your coconut milk, sugar, and vanilla extract together in a pan and heat over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture just barely simmers.
Add a few tablespoons of the mixture to a small bowl and sift in the matcha powder. Whisk to combine and remove all the lumps.
Add the matcha mixture back into the coconut milk mixture (or the other way around) and whisk to combine.
Now add in the coconut cream and vodka. Mix gently but thoroughly then transfer to mixture to a refrigerator to chill overnight.
The next day, add your chilled ice cream to your ice cream maker.
Churn ( on the stir setting) until it is the thickness of soft serve ice cream, 20-25 minutes.
Transfer the ice cream to a container that you can safely freeze, and cover the top with a lid or parchment paper.
Freeze the ice cream for at least 4 hours, and then you’re ready to scoop! After freezing, let it thaw for at least 10-15 minutes before scooping.
🍨 More Vegan Dessert Recipes
Smooth, creamy vegan treats to satisfy your sweet tooth.
You're only six simple ingredients away from this creamy Vegan Coconut Matcha Ice Cream. The perfect pairing of coconutty creaminess and a wonderful, bright, earthy green tea flavor.
Prep Time25 minutesmins
Cook Time10 minutesmins
Resting Time4 hourshrs
Total Time4 hourshrs35 minutesmins
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American, Japanese
Diet: Gluten Free, Kosher, Vegan, Vegetarian
Servings: 8
Calories: 310kcal
Ingredients
14oz.full fat coconut milkcanned
1/3cupsugarcane sugar, granulated sugar, or turbinado sugar
Put the bowl of your ice cream maker in the freezer.
Add the coconut milk, sugar, and vanilla extract together in a pan and heat over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture just barely simmers and the sugar is completely dissolved.
Add a few tablespoons of the mixture to a small bowl and sift in the matcha powder. Whisk to remove all the clumps.
Add the matcha mixture back into the coconut milk mixture and whisk to combine.
Now add in the coconut cream and vodka. Mix gently but thoroughly then transfer to the refrigerator to chill overnight.
The next day, add your chilled ice cream to your ice cream maker. Churn (stir setting) until it is the thickness of soft serve ice cream, 20-25 minutes.
Transfer the ice cream to a container that you can safely freeze, and cover the top with a lid or parchment paper.
Freeze the ice cream for at least 4 hours, and then you're ready to scoop serve! After freezing overnight, let it thaw ~10 minutes before scooping.
Notes
I do not recommend substituting another non-dairy milk for the coconut milk in this recipe. There are many different non-dairy kinds of milk that you can use in non-dairy ice cream, but each one will yield a different texture due to the different fat and water levels. This recipe was made specifically for full fat canned coconut milk and cream.Best to consume as soon as possible, and up to one week from churning because it continues to firm over time.Just like most store-bought vegan ice creams, this recipe requires a thaw for ~10 minutes before scooping.
Did you try this recipe?I’d love to hear what you think! Leave a Review to let us know how it came out, if you have a successful substitution or variation, or anything else.
