This Ninja Creami pumpkin ice cream tastes like pumpkin pie in a creamy frozen dessert. It’s a delicious way to enjoy those fall flavors and satisfy your pumpkin spice cravings. It’s made with pumpkin puree, spices and protein rich ingredients to make this easy homemade ice cream both low carb and high protein.
You may also like all of my Ninja Creami ice cream recipes!
It’s prime pumpkin season and today I want to share with you this easy and delicious Ninja Creami pumpkin ice cream recipe. It’s not only low carb (2.5 grams net carbs) and sugar free but it’s also high protein (13.1 grams protein). So you can indulge in this creamy, sweet keto dessert and still hit those protein goals! There are lots of tips and ingredient substitutes below so check them out.
Why I love this recipe.
- I love that it’s low carb and sugar free though you’d never know that by the taste.
- It’s also high in protein which is a goal of mine to up my protein intake.
- It’s creamy without adding a lot of fat so it’s lower in calories too.
- It’s easy to make healthy ice cream with the Ninja Creami machine.
- I have two ways to make using xanthan gum or cream cheese so if you don’t have one you can use the other.
Recipe ingredients and substitutions.
- canned pumpkin – I use pure pumpkin not pumpkin pie filling which is loaded with sugar.
- protein powder – Isopure vanilla zero carb protein powder is my go to choice as it has 0 carbs and I like the flavor. You can use any kind of protein powder you wish and if you don’t care about protein powder you can eliminate it. However you might want to add a bit more sweetener. Taste after mixing and add more as needed.
- Swerve brown sugar sweetener – This is my go to sweetener brand but you can also use Lakanto golden which has that brown sugar flavor but is low carb. If you don’t care about carbs you can use regular brown sugar. You can also use regular sweetener if you want but the brown sugar adds more a warm flavor.
- unsweetened almond milk – I like to use this to keep the calories and carbs down. You can use other dairy free milks or protein milk if you want. Just know that the carb counts will differ.
- xanthan gum or whipped cream cheese – I made this both ways and I discuss the difference below in the post. Both make the recipe creamy but the whipped cream cheese adds a bit more fat and calories while the xanthan gum does not. Note the whipped cream cheese blends better but you can use regular instead. However you may not have that on hand. If you don’t care about carbs, fat or calories you can also try using heavy whipping cream instead of the milk for creaminess.
- pumpkin pie spice and vanilla extract – I like pumpkin pie spice because it’s blend of a few warming spices. You can substitute cinnamon if you wish or even add a bit of it in addition to the other spices. The vanilla extract gives a bit more vanilla flavor. If you don’t use the vanilla protein powder I would double the extract. You can use a vanilla bean paste instead.
How to make Ninja Creami pumpkin ice cream that’s low carb and high protein.
Note that I used xanthan gum in the pictures below. If you want to use cream cheese scroll down for those pictures but you would make it the same way.
Step 1: To make the ice cream base, add the milk, xanthan gum (or cream cheese), pumpkin puree, protein powder, pie spices, vanilla extract and Swerve brown sugar sweetener to a high speed blender. Blend until combined and pour into the pint container that came with the Ninja Creami machine.
Step 2: For best results freeze 24 hours or at least over night. When ready to eat, run the outside of the container under hot water for a 30 seconds or so. This will help melt the icy sides of the container.
Step 3: Place the pint into the outer bowl assembly of the ice cream maker and attach the lid. Today I used the sorbet setting but you can also use the lite setting. Below is what mine looked like. It wasn’t powdery but it was a bit less creamy than I wanted.
Step 4: If your is powdery or not as smooth like mine above you can respin if yours is more powdery. Or if like mine you can just use the mix-in setting to get it more smooth and not get too melty looking.
And that is all there is to it.
How to store: When finished eating if there are leftovers, smooth the top layer, attach the lid and refreeze completely before running through the machine again.
Please scroll down for the printable recipe card.
If you make it with cream cheese not xanthan gum.
As I mentioned above you make this cream cheese version the same way as the xathan gum. I ran it through the sorbet setting and the mix in button just like the other one but you can see it’s not quite as smooth but it was delicious!
The difference between the two versions.
carb count, calorie count, protein count, and using cream cheese is more easily found.
- The cream cheese version was obviously is easier in that you don’t have to buy the xanthan gum and cheese is more accessible.
- I think the cream cheese version tastes a bit better but they were very close.
- The nutritional difference is
- cream cheese version had 115 calories, 4.1g fat, 3.5g net carbs and 13.6 protein.
- xanthan gum version had 91 calories, 1.9g fat, 2.5g net carbs and 13.1g protein.
- These numbers are per serving and there are 2 servings per pint container.
More Ninja Creami ice cream recipes to try.
I have a nice collection of low carb and/or high protein ice cream recipes but my most popular ones are this keto blueberry cheesecake protein ice cream or this keto chocolate peanut butter recipe.
Troubleshooting your Ninja Creami pumpkin ice cream.
This simply means that you need to run it through a cycle one or more times more. If you run it through 2 cycles and it’s still powdery, you might want to add a bit of liquid (1 tablespoon or so) and run it through 1 more time. That should do the trick.
I find that 24 hours or more works best but you can run it through after a minimum of 12 hours.
Yes you can use a different protein powder or not use any at all. The nutritional information will of course change. If you don’t want to use protein powder, note that you might want to add more sweetener and flavoring as the protein powder would add some to the recipe along with the additional protein content.
Yes you can use any kind of mild you want from oat milk to premade protein shakes. You can even use protein milk like Fairlife. This will change the nutritional information and might affect the texture but it will work. You can also use any kind of sweetener you want. If you don’t care about carbs you substitute with regular sugar or brown sugar in this case.
The nutritional information with the cream cheese version is 115 calories / 4.1g fat / 4.9g carbs / 1.4g fiber / 13.6g protein = 3.5g net carbs (per serving and there are 2 servings per pint)
The nutritional information with the xanthan gum version is 91 calories / 1.9g fat / 4.2g carbs / 1.7g fiber / 13.1g protein = 2.5g net carbs (per serving and there are 2 servings per pint)
Ninja Creami Pumpkin Ice Cream Recipe (low carb and high protein)
This easy Ninja Creami pumpkin ice cream recipe is like a piece of pumpkin pie in a creamy dessert. However it is low carb and high in protein so it's a healthy dessert you can feel good about eating.
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
- ¼ cup canned pure pumpkin puree (not pie filling)
- 1 scoop vanilla protein powder (I used Isopure Zerocarb Vanilla)
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar sweetener (I like Swerve brown)
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1 teaspoon vailla extract
- ¼ teaspoon xanthan gum (can sub with 2 tablespoons whipped cream cheese)
- a sprinkle of salt (optional)
Instructions
- Note you will make this the same way whether you are using cream cheese or xanthan gum though the texture and taste may be slightly different. See the nutrtional comparison below in the Notes section.
- Add all the ingredients to a high speed blender and then blend to combine. Pour the mixture into the pint storage container that came with the NInja Creami machine. Freeze 24 hours optimally or at least overnight.
- When ready to eat, run the frozen pint container under hot water for about 30 seconds. Then take off the storage lid and place in the outer assemble bowl of the Creami machine. Attach the lid and place in the machine. Hit the Sorbet button and let it run through that cycle. Note you can also use the Lite button if you wish.
- Once it's done running, take out and look at the texture of the ice cream. If it's powdery you will want to run it through one more time using the Respin button. Mine was not powdery but not as smooth as I'd like so I ran it through the Mix-In cycle to give it a short cylef of mixing. If it is still powdery after the respin cycle add a tablespoon of almond milk and run through the Re-spin cycle one more time. Mine only took the Sorbet cycle and the Mix-in cycle.
- When the texture is to you liking you take off the lid and scoop into bowls. This makes 2-3 servings for me. THe nutrtional information below is for 2 servings per conatiner. When finished eating if there are leftovers, smooth the top layer, attach the lid and refreeze completely before running through the machine again.
Notes
The nutritional information with the xanthan gum version is 91 calories / 1.9g fat / 4.2g carbs / 1.7g fiber / 13.1g protein = 2.5g net carbs (per serving and there are 2 servings per pint)
The nutritional information with the cream cheese version is 115 calories / 4.1g fat / 4.9g carbs / 1.4g fiber / 13.6g protein = 3.5g net carbs (per serving and there are 2 servings per pint)
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 2 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 91
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