Raw Ice Cream Cones (Dairy-Free!)


There are angels living among us.
And many of them grow, harvest and prepare local, wild and living food for us at Turtle Lake Refuge in Durango. Their mission is to celebrate the connection between personal health and wild lands. . .and they do it deliciously.

On a recent sunny Saturday morning, I visited their booth at the Durango Farmer's Market, and enjoyed the best "ice cream cone" of my life. It was an impossibly delicious raw, dairy-free, gluten-free treat. I'm so glad that Turtle Lake Goddess Katrina Blair gave me permission to rave about their ice cream online! Purchase a copy of their cookbook, Local Wild Life, for more local, wild and living food recipes. Most recipes are gluten-free and dairy-free, and all are raw and super healthy.

Turtle Lake Refuge serves lunch to the community every Tuesday and Friday from 11:11am-2:22pm at 848 E. 3rd Avenue in Durango. Suggested donation of $10-15: includes drink, soup & salad, main entree, and dessert. Visit them soon!




Andy's Raw Vanilla Ice Cream Base
1 Cup cashews (no need to soak)
1.5 Cup water
1/3 Cup honey or raw agave*
1/4 tsp salt (+/-)
1/3 Cup raisins
     Soak raisins for half hour or longer so they blend better. 
     This is the secret ingredient that imparts the rich/buttery flavor, 
     if you want a vanilla color then use golden raisins instead of standard raisins.
1 vanilla bean (or 3 tsp of vanilla extract)
1-2 Tbsp coconut oil

Take all the above ingredients and blend in Vitamix or Blendtec for a couple of minutes...or at least until all the solids have blended away.

Pour the mixture through a sprout bag (or cheesecloth). This will catch all of the tiny cashew/vanilla bean particles, and make the final product much more silky smooth.

At this point, it is best to 'pre-chill' the mixture. If you simply dump the mixture into the ice cream maker now, it won't set up properly, and it will be less firm than even soft serve. Place it in the fridge for a few hours, or if you've gotta gave that ice cream ASAP, put the mixture in the freezer for about 10-15 minutes. You want it to be cool, but not to the point where ice crystals are starting to form. (SPECIAL NOTE: do not use the ice cream maker 'bowl' to do the pre-cooling. The base will freeze to the bowl, and the batch will be ruined.)

When the mixture is sufficiently cool, pour it into the ice cream maker, and let it go! After about 20 minutes or so, it should be ready! It makes about a pint.

(from www.rawfreedomcommunity.com)

Ice Cream Cones
3 bananas
1 cup soaked figs and 3 cups fig soak water
1 t. cinnamon

After de-stemming the soaked figs, place them in the blender with the bananas and cinnamon. Ass the fig soak water and blend until smooth

Form circles on the dehydrator teflex sheets and dry overnight, or until they are dry but still flexible. Toll the circular fruit leather into a cone and fill with your favorite flavor of Turtle Ice Dreams.