You put the lime in the coconut…ice cream? That song had the right idea because these flavors work so well together in this Coconut Lime Dairy-Free Ice Cream! To make it even better, we’ve added pineapple and makrut lime leaves to the mix.

This coconut lime dairy-free ice cream has a coconut cream base that has been blended with fresh pineapple and standard lime juice, which bring a bright and subtle sweetness to this dessert. The ice cream is rounded out and sweetened up with the floral notes of a makrut simple syrup.

Even better? It’s totally vegan, so everyone can enjoy it!

Makrut Lime

Makrut lime has a special place in our hearts. It’s a type of lime tree that is native to Southeast Asia. In our experience, it also happens to grow very well in a Southern California climate (our parents have a tree in their backyard).

Our dad grew up in Thailand as a white falang (foreigner), spending a few years in Bangkok, but most of his time in Northern Thailand in Chiang Mai. He loves food as much as we do, and he immersed himself in the language, culture, and flavors of Thai cuisine (savory, umami, spicy, sour, with just a touch of sweetness) while living there. Years later, after returning to the U.S. to attend college and build his life here, he introduced us to Thai food too. He shared the specific flavors of foods he grew up eating in Thailand.

Makrut is one of these flavors that is fairly common in many of the Thai dishes our dad grew up eating. Different from other limes, the most used part of this plant are the leaves themselves. The edible leaves are a vibrant, glossy green and have an herby, floral taste, and the fruit is bumpy on the outside and a little bitter on the inside. We typically use only the leaves in our Thai food, but you can eat the fruit too.

If you don’t have access to a makrut lime tree like we do, you can find these leaves online too.

Ingredients for the Makrut Lime Simple Syrup

This simple syrup is light and floral and brings sweetness to the ice cream. If you don’t have makrut leaves, you can leave this out and make a basic simple syrup instead. We don’t recommend using regular/standard lime leaves as a substitute for makrut.

To make the simple syrup, you’ll need the following ingredients:

Sugar and water – most simple syrups, like this one, are made with equal parts granulated sugar and water.
Makrut lime leaves* – when using makrut leaves here, it’s helpful to tear them up. Tearing and/or bruising the leaves helps to bring out their natural oils so that their flavor infuses the simple syrup better.

Ingredients for the Coconut Lime Dairy-Free Ice Cream

This coconut lime dairy-free ice cream is full of flavor and super refreshing. Here are the ingredients you’ll need to make it:

Coconut cream – we really recommend coconut cream over coconut milk in this recipe. It helps make this non-dairy ice cream a bit creamier.
Makrut lime simple syrup – the simple syrup is used in the ice cream base and gives it a subtle floral flavor.
Fresh (or frozen) pineapple – pineapple helps sweeten the coconut and give it a little bit more fruitiness. We used fresh pineapple, which was pretty juicy, but frozen should work fine too. It just may not be quite as sweet.
Lime juice – don’t be tempted to use makrut juice here; it’s a little more bitter than this dish needs. If you want your ice cream more tart, feel free to add more lime.
Lime zest – again, you should use standard limes for the zest.
Salt – we like our desserts well-balanced, so we like to add a little salt with this recipe. This helps bring out the sweetness of the coconut and pineapple and round everything out.
Vanilla extract – as it does with dairy ice cream, vanilla helps balance out the flavors.
Coconut extract – since this is a coconut ice cream, adding coconut extract amps up the coconut taste. Make sure to measure this one because overdoing it can make your ice cream taste the way old-school sunscreen smells!
Makrut lime leaves* – bruising the leaves helps bring out the oils and flavors of the lime leaves. To bruise them, twist the leaves in your hands and gently squeeze them.

To Make the Markut Lime Simple Syrup

Make the simple syrup first by heating the water and the sugar in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. While mixture is heating, add the torn makrut leaves and cook until sugar dissolves. Let leaves steep in syrup as mixture cools. Be sure to strain out leaves before using syrup.

To Make the Coconut Lime Dairy-Free Ice Cream

Before making your ice cream base, make sure your ice cream maker bowl is frozen for 12 to 24 hours.

To make the ice cream, blend coconut cream, lime juice, pineapple, salt, and extracts in a blender until smooth. Pour into a bowl or container and whisk in zest and simple syrup. Add the 5 bruised makrut lime leaves to the container, cover, and put in the fridge for a few hours or overnight. This will not only allow the mixture to become cold before churning, but it will also help the flavors to come together better.

When you’re ready to churn the ice cream, remove the makrut lime leaves from the ice cream base and whisk up the mixture since it may have separated while in the fridge. Make the ice cream according to your ice cream maker’s settings (we churned ours on “ice cream” for 20 minutes in our Cuisinart). Once churned, freeze the ice cream in a freezer friendly container so that it can firm up until you are ready to eat it.

Enjoy!

*Note: If you don’t have makrut lime leaves, just make recipe with plain simple syrup and ignore the instructions to steep makrut lime leaves in mixture before churning. Do not use regular lime leaves as a substitute for makrut.