ORANGE DRAGON FRUIT ICE CREAM

I love the drama and flamboyance of dragon fruit. From the look to the colour and the name, dragon fruit has it all. It is a fruit that won’t go unnoticed. I love looking at them in the markets as the grocers always cut some in half showing the bright white or deep red flesh of this attention seeker. It is the fruit of several cactus species. The plant species blooms only at night; the large white fragrant flowers of the typical cactus flower shape are among those called "moonflower" or "Queen of the Night". The taste of a dragon fruit will not blow your socks off. It kinda tastes like a sweet kiwi fruit and I’m not that good at describing flavours. Dragon fruits are not cheap either so they need a purpose and wouldn’t just be eaten in your daily fruit quota – they ain’t apples - beauty not the substance. This ice cream though brings out their flavour and combining it with orange gives them a really citrusy exotic flavour. It’s a mix of a kiwi and orange flavour that works really well together. I bought two dragon fruits as suggested in the recipe and ended up with about twice as much ice cream as the recipe said it would make. I’m not sure if my fruits were bigger or extra juicy either way it was fine by me as the ice cream will last longer and I really like this flavour combination!

As you can see from the photo I used the Costa Rica pitaya which has red-skinned fruit with red flesh because I loved the colour and it made a beautiful looking ice cream.
Yields approximately 600g

Ingredients:

• 1 cup soy milk, divided
• 2 tbsp arrowroot powder
• 2 cups soy creamer
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2large navel oranges
• 2 dragon fruits
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1.	In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup soy milk with arrowroot powder, and set aside.
2.	Finely grate 2 tbsp zest from oranges, then halve the oranges and squeeze 1 cup juice.
3.	Cut dragon fruit in half and remove flesh from skin, add to a food processor or blender, and process, until smooth.
4.	Combine zest, orange juice and dragon fruit purée, creamer, remaining 3/4 cup soy milk, and sugar in a sauce pan over low heat. Once the mixture starts to boil, remove from heat immediately and add the arrowroot mixture. The liquid should thicken noticeably. Add vanilla extract.
5.	Refrigerate mixture until chilled, approximately 2 to 3 hours. Freeze according to your ice cream maker’s instructions.

Vegan Mofo 2010 day 19 recipe comes from: The Vegan Scoop: 150 Recipes for Dairy-Free Ice Cream that Tastes Better Than the "Real" Thing by Wheeler del Torro This post uses material from the Wikipedia article Pitaya.