Meatless Mondays: Vegan Ice Cream?

Last week, I read an article about a public health campaign for Meatless Mondays on NPR. Let's be honest, meat is awesome (especially when it's bacon). But too much of a good thing can be bad. Eating it at every meal raises cholesterol and increases the likelihood of chronic heart problems. So why not go meatless for a day?

This campaign is a cool concept and I'm curious to see what new foods I'll discover by forgoing meat and focusing on veggies or even vegan food. (It would be too easy to observe a meat-free day by enjoying pasta or cheese-based dishes - so I'm mainly focusing on foods outside my comfort zone.) I'll document my Meatless Monday adventures here once a week, sharing new recipes, food products, or restaurants.

This week I tried vegan ice cream.

To be honest, as an ice cream lover, the whole concept of vegan ice cream is an oxymoron. But when I found out there is a dairy-free ice cream made of coconut milk, I was curious. I love coconut, and if anything could make vegan ice cream palatable, coconut milk would be it.

After trying a few bites, I knew this wasn't authentic ice cream. But it was still really good. It wasn't trying too hard to be something it was not (like soy ice cream or even some "diet" ice creams) - the coconut milk ice cream was confident in its own identity. (And why shouldn't it be? I can't think of one dish with coconut in it that isn't delicious.)

I was shocked to find myself genuinely enjoying a vegan food.

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