Ice Cream News
Dallas dish of the week: Cado avocado non-dairy ice cream
Editor's note: Every week, we'll spotlight a culinary treat found around Dallas-Fort Worth — whether it's a new opening, a dish at a restaurant, or a grocery find.
Dish: Cado avocado ice cream
Location: Grocery stores
Dairy-free ice cream is a hugely growing category, with cool new innovations advancing the experience practically every day. This is good news not only for those who observe a vegan eating plan but also for the increasing number of people who eschew dairy.
Soy ice cream was the first, and for a long time the only nondairy ice cream (and for a long time, chalky and awful).
But in the past few years, companies have introduced all kinds of alternative ice cream options, each better than the last: from coconut milk whose creamy richness approximates Haagen Dazs-premium butterfat levels, to the amazing almond-milk line introduced by Ben & Jerry's in 2017.
Cado Avocado Ice Cream is next-level. It's an ice cream that uses pureed avocado as a base, but manages not to taste like avocado.
Cado's avocado base is made from pureed avocado; flavorings; and gums, which enhance the texture. It's currently available in three flavors: chocolate, mint chocolate chip, and lemon sorbet. Within the next few months, they'll be adding four more flavors: cherry amaretto, java chip, vanilla, and salted caramel.
Chefs have been using avocados as a base for vegan desserts such as puddings and brownies for years, so it's clever to take it to ice cream.
Founded in Iowa by Meghan Dowd, her brother Jack, and her mother Deb, Cado has been around since 2015. But in the past few months, the line has achieved wider distribution. In Texas, you can find it at Natural Grocers stores in DFW, Austin, and San Antonio, and at $6.09 a pint, it ain't cheap.
According to Dowd, the avocado-base:
- offers more nutrition and a superior fat
- doesn't compete with the flavor
- has a really creamy quality, just like ice cream.
It really is all the things she says. The chocolate was profoundly chocolatey and buttery creamy. The lemon was creamy and refreshing, very lemon chiffon.
As a decadent dessert ice cream, it's amazingly "healthy," not that such a thing matters when you want ice cream.
The ingredients for the lemon flavor are as follows: avocado puree, avocado oil, cane sugar, tapioca starch, lemon juice concentrate, sea salt, guar gum, gum acacia, and lemon oil. Everything is organic.
A serving is 170 calories which is on the low side. It has 12 grams of fat.
