Last summer Curtis fenced in our front yard and dug up the grass in preparation for planting a large food garden. Because we live in a natural setting, we needed the fence to keep out deer and deter the bears. When my first planting of squash seeds didn’t grow, I planted another batch. Then I decided that growing squash down the retaining wall at the back of our home might also be nice (which it was!). Then, to my surprise, all three batches of squash seeds grew into a wide variety of gorgeous organic squashes. So I began creating new and different ways to enjoy this vegetable. Imagine my anticipation when I created this recipe and then waited for the ice cream maker to churn out the finished product. Then there was the first bite. It was heavenly! I had created my new and favorite way to enjoy squash in ice cream. Every day after that Curtis and I enjoyed this delightful treat, which doesn’t actually contain pumpkins due to my overflow of squash, but tastes like creamy pumpkin pie without the crust, or perhaps even better.
Ingredients
- ½ cup raw, unsalted cashews
- ¼ cup filtered water
- 2 probiotic capsules, or ½ teaspoon probiotic powder
- 2 cups almond milk
- 2 cups cooked squash (such as kabocha, acorn, hubbard, or butternut) or 1½ cups pureed cooked squash
- 7 fresh Medjool dates, pitted
- 1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- 0.12 teaspoon nutmeg
- In a small bowl, mix the cashews and water; add the contents of the probiotic capsule (discarding the empty capsule shell) or probiotic powder, and mix well. Cover and let sit for twelve hours.
- In a blender, combine the cashew mixture with the milk, squash, dates, cinnamon, ginger. cloves, and nutmeg, and blend until the mixture is smooth. Pour it into an ice cream maker, and follow the manufacturer’s instructions. Serve immediately.