No, this is not your typical matcha ice cream — it's sugar-free, dairy-free, low in carbs and calories, and high in protein. But, it's just as tasty, robust, and refreshing as regular matcha ice cream!
Matcha is one of the most popular ice cream flavors in Japan. And we definitely see the appeal! It's refreshing and robust, sweet but not too sweet, and perfect for warm summer days. Matcha ice cream resembles green tea in flavor, except it's stronger. It's quite addicting!
It's just a handful of ingredients including unsweetened almond milk, matcha powder, vanilla protein powder and erythritol sweetener. You can find matcha powder at specialty grocery stores, larger grocers and online. And you don't need much as little goes a long way.
It's a simple ice cream to make in the Ninja Creami. Simply blend all the ingredients in a blender and then freeze in a Ninja Creami container for 24 hours. After that, it's ready for the Ninja Creami to turn into ice cream, which takes less than 10 minutes.
Be sure to check out our other Ninja Creami recipes including Keto Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream, Keto Butter Pecan Ice Cream and High-Protein, Keto Chocolate Ice Cream
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More About Matcha
Matcha is a popular flavor of ice cream in Japan. Matcha is a fine, green powder made from green tea leaves which are only grown in the shade (as opposed to regular green tea leaves that are grown in the sun). Matcha is much stronger in flavor than regular green tea and comes in 3 different grades: ceremonial, premium, and culinary grade.
Ceremonial and premium grades are higher grades of matcha, which are more expensive and used for drinking. Culinary is a lower grade that is less expensive and used for culinary purposes like ice cream, cakes, and more.
Ingredients
- Unsweetened almond milk: To create the right consistency, you need a liquid. We use unsweetened almond milk since it's keto-friendly and low in calories. You may substitute with another type of low-carb milk like unsweetened macadamia milk.
- Vanilla protein powder: We use a vanilla whey protein powder to increase the protein in this ice cream. Our favorite vanilla protein powder is Quest Vanilla Milkshake. However, you may use your favorite vanilla protein powder.
- Powdered erythritol: We use Swerve Confectioners Sweetener, but you can use any of brand of erythritol sweetener.
- Matcha green powder: We use a culinary grade of matcha which is the cheapest type of matcha to buy and is used for culinary purposes like ice cream. We use 2 teaspoons for a stronger, robust flavor. For a lighter flavor, you can start with 1 ½ teaspoons of matcha.
- Guar Gum: Guar gum is thickening agent that helps create a creamy texture in ice creams and sorbets. You may substitute with xanthan gum, but the texture may not turn out as creamy.
How to Make
STEP 1: Combine all the ingredients in a blender or food processor and pulse until fully mixed and smooth in consistency.
STEP 2: Pour the blended mixture into a Ninja Creami pint container and place in the freezer. Let freeze for at least 24 hours.
STEP 3: After freezing, take the lid off the pint container and place in the Ninja Creami outer bowl. Install the Creami paddle into the outer bowl lid, place the lid on the outer bowl and lock into place according to the instructions in the Creami manual.
STEP 4: Select the Lite Ice Cream mode, and it will spin for several minutes.
STEP 5: When it stops spinning, take the container out and assess the consistency of the ice cream. If it's powdery in texture as shown in picture 5 (as opposed to creamy and smooth), then you'll need to respin.
STEP 6: If you need to respin, place the outer bowl lid back on and lock it back into the Ninja creami and push respin.
STEP 7: After it's done respining, take out the outer bowl and assess the ice cream consistency. If its smooth and creamy, as shown in picture 7, then it's ready for serving.
STEP 8: Immediately serve in bowls (it melts quick!) and enjoy!
Expert Tips For Using the Ninja Creami
- When freezing your mixture make sure your pint is on a level surface in the freezer and that you don't fill the pint past the fill line.
- The Creami instructions also recommend freezing for at least 24 hours to make sure its fully hardened.
- Depending on the recipe and your freezer's temperature, you may need to respin multiple times. For example, if our mixture is frozen at a low temperature, we typically need to respin multiple times. We've even had situations where we needed to respin as much 8 to 10 times. If this happens to you frequently, consider increasing the temperature of your freezer.
- If you want to include any mix-ins like sugar-free chocolate chips or candy, simply add them to the spun ice cream and press the mix-in button to incorporate. If you use the other settings, your mix-ins will be shredded too finely.
STORING THE ICE CREAM
Ice cream made by the Ninja Creami is best when eaten immediately. Since it's not made with standard ingredients and in the same manner as regular ice cream, it does not store as well as traditional ice cream.
If you have leftovers, we recommend letting the ice cream melt until soft (which happens fairly quickly) and then storing it back in a Creami pint since you'll likely need to re-run the Creami on it after it re-hardens. Be sure to flatten the surface of the ice cream in the pint before placing it in the freezer.
To serve, simply re-run the Creami process again or respin the ice cream (as it may be frozen) until smooth and creamy.
WHY THE NINJA CREAMI CAN MAKE ICE CREAM OUT OF ALMOST ANYTHING
With traditional ice cream machines, the ice cream is stored in the freezer so it has to maintain its creamy texture while in there. Keeping a liquid creamy at freezing temperatures requires a careful balance of ingredients. For example, in traditional ice cream, if you reduce the amount of sugar in the mixture it will get too hard in the freezer to be ice cream.
By contrast, with the Ninja Creami you start by freezing your mixture into a solid and then the Creami pulverizes it to create ice cream. The benefit of this approach is almost any mixture will freeze to a solid. This is especially useful in low calorie or protein ice creams with non-standard ingredients that won't stay creamy in the traditional ice cream making process. The trade off is that you have to eat it right away and it can't be stored like traditional ice cream.
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If you try this recipe, we would love to hear your feedback! Leave a comment, rate it, and tag @lowcarbsimplified on your photo of this recipe on Instagram or Facebook. We hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do!
Recipe
Ninja Creami, Keto Matcha Ice Cream (High Protein!)
Equipment
- Ninja Creami (Use the 1x conversion button below if you have the original CREAMi)
- Ninja Creami Deluxe (Use the 1.5x conversion button below if you have the Creami Deluxe)
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
- 3 tablespoons swerve confectioners
- ⅓ scoop Quest Vanilla Milkshake Protein Powder (⅓ scoop is 10g)
- 2 teaspoons Culinary matcha powder
- ¼ scant teaspoon guar gum
Instructions
- Blend ingredients: Combine all the ingredients in a blender or food processor and pulse until fully mixed and smooth in consistency.
- Freeze: Pour the blended mixture into a Ninja Creami pint container and place in the freezer. Let sit for at least 24 hours.
- Turn to ice cream in the Ninja Creami: After freezing, take the lid off the pint and place in the Ninja Creami outer bowl. Install the Creami paddle into the pint lid, put on the outer bowl and lock into place. Select the Lite Ice Cream mode, and it will spin for several minutes.
- Respin: When it stops spinning, take the container out and assess the consistency of the ice cream. If it's a powdery in texture (as opposed to creamy and smooth), then you'll need to respin. To respin, place the pint container back in the Ninja creami and push respin. After it's done, take out and assess the ice cream consistency. If smooth and creamy, serve immediately. If still powdery, continue to respin until you reach the desired consistency.
Notes
- This recipe was designed for the original Ninja Creami. If you have the Ninja Creami Deluxe use the 1.5x conversion button in the ingredients section of the recipe card to adjust the ingredient amounts.
Have youbtried this recipe with a different protein powder? One that's organic perhaps.
There is so much variation in protein powders in terms of brands, flavoring, and protein type that it's hard to say. That being said, I think if it's an organic protein powder that's still a whey/casein mix it has a good chance of working. The biggest issue might be that organic could be flavored or sweetened with Stevia which for some people has a strong licorice flavor. But if you enjoy the taste of the protein powder by itself then that would be a good sign.
Great recipe! Have made it a few time and made a few changes and got it right on the money to taste just like the Matcha Ice Cream you get in restaurants or Asian stores.
Good to hear!
I made this and followed all instructions, it tasted dreadful.
Would love to get more information about what happened. Was it strong matcha flavored or not strong enough? Curious about the matcha powder you used as well. Matcha can sometimes be a tricky ice cream. Sorry to hear about this! We still love this recipe, but we're big matcha fans. Thanks for sharing!
Would this work with allulose? Since I have so much in the pantry.
We haven't tried it with this recipe, but it's very likely to work. In our experience with Creami recipes, allulose will usually replace erythritol fine but the reverse is not true (sometimes an allulose recipe won't work with erythritol). Note that in baking it's different (see our comparison of different sweeteners in making chocolate chip cookies).
Let us know how it goes if you try it!
I am working my way through your low-carb Ninja Creami recipes and this one is another winner! Thanks!
Always good to hear, thank you Ann!