Vegan Mastic Ice Cream
A favorite flavor of mine, which I discovered in Turkey, is mastic. And luckily for me, there's a lot of it here. At Lsandsia, we got a dessert that was hands down the most potent mastic flavor I have had so far, so that's what I want to recreate. Theirs had cherry jam and candied pistachio on top—very yummy!
Mastic is also a sneaky superfood, from soothing the digestive tract, and blood sugar regulation, to oral and skin health, so it's an added bonus.
400 ml full-fat coconut milk
10-15 medjool dates (if not soft and moist, soak in hot water for 5-10 minutes until they swell up)
2-4 tablespoons maple syrup, to taste
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ teaspoon ground mastic
Pulverize the mastic (since it is a resin, it will be easier to handle if you first freeze it for 10-15 minutes and then put the resin drops in the mortar).
Puree the ingredients in a high-speed blender until smooth.
Pour into a metal bowl and chill in the freezer, whisking with a silicone spatula every 15 minutes until it reaches the desired consistency, or use your ice cream maker if you have one.
And enjoy!