Raw Food Recipe for Vanilla Ice Cream

This recipe uses both vanilla extract and vanilla beans, because the beans are expensive. If you want, you can also use just beans.

2 cups raw cashews, soaked 4 hours or more
2 cups coconut meat
1 cup filtered water
1 cup agave nectar
1/4 cup coconut butter
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
seeds of 1/2 vanilla bean, or 2 additional teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

In a blender mix all ingredients until totally smooth.
Chill thoroughly in the refrigerator and then process in an ice-cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

This recipe comes from "Raw Food, Real World" by Matthew Kenney and Sarma Melngailis.
This is one of my favorite raw food cookbooks.

Another great raw food cookbook is:
"Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine" by Gabriel Cousens.
In the first part of this book, you can find scientific information about the raw food diet.
In the second part, you can find great raw food recipes.