Tennessee is not at the top of the list when it comes to daring culinary trends, so this may not surprise some of you. But today I learned, via press release, that there is such a thing as vegan ice cream.
On top of that (the fudge on my sundae of surprise, if you will), it has a celebrity spokesperson: “celebrity vegan” Erykah Badu, who loves the concoctions of chef Wheeler del Torro, author of The Vegan Scoop.
Badu can go on and on when it comes to vegan ice cream (with author del Torro)
Now this vegan ice cream may well be delicious (the Thai Chile flavor mentioned in the press release sounds intriguing). But can you really call something ice cream if it’s not, you know, made with actual cream? Or does a “soy and nut milk blend” count? Readers, your opinion is needed.
I would say that from a nitpick perspective, no you cannot call something ice cream if no cream was involved in the making of the product. I think my favorite non-dairy ice cream brand (from a purely lexical standpoint, because if I want to eat ice cream, I’m going to eat the real thing!) is Rice Dream, made with rice milk, I believe.
But really, since you’re in Nashville, you can get your fill of zany ice cream flavors over at Las Paletas. I know for certain that I’ve had a chocolate chili pepper popsicle there. And yes, it was delicious!