Ninja Creami Pistachio Ice Cream

Learn how easy it is to make indulgent pistachio ice cream in the Ninja Creami with this easy recipe.

You’ll love this easy Ninja Creami pistachio ice cream recipe–made with just 3 ingredients!

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Several years ago, I started making homemade ice cream and sorbet for my family, using an ice cream maker attachment for my KitchenAid mixer.

That method has served me well for many years now. I’ve also made many no-churn ice creams, which don’t require an ice cream machine at all!

Every summer, we happily enjoy some of our favorite homemade frozen desserts, thanks to those two methods.

But more recently, I invested in a Ninja Creami ice cream maker, which uses a different method for preparing cool and creamy frozen treats.

Because I love making homemade pistachio ice cream, I decided to try making Ninja Creami pistachio ice cream.

The result is a creamy, indulgent ice cream that we promptly devoured. 🙂 It’s similar to pistachio gelato, and I’m sure you’ll love it, too!

Of course, this is a wonderful treat to serve during the summer, but because of its lovely hue, it makes a great holiday dessert, too!

Just like my pistachio ooey gooey bars, this ice cream would be perfect for St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, or even Christmas!

It’s one of the best Ninja Creami recipes!

Making Ice Cream in the Ninja Creami

Let’s start off by talking about how traditional ice cream is often made, then I’ll share briefly how the Ninja Creami works.

Traditionally, many ice cream recipes are made with a custard-style base typically made with eggs, sugar, and milk, and cooked on the stove top.

After the custard base cools in the refrigerator for a while, it’s churned in a pre-frozen drum of an ice cream maker. This churning not only helps the custard freeze, but also aerates it and breaks up ice crystals, so it ends up nice and creamy.

After churning, it gets transferred to the freezer for a few hours.

Then there’s no-churn ice cream, which gets its sweetness from sweetened condensed milk, and its creaminess from light and fluffy whipped cream.

It’s a simple method of making ice cream without egg yolks or whole eggs, that doesn’t require any cooking, and no ice cream machines!

The Ninja Creami sort of does the whole process backwards. Instead of churning your base into a light and creamy dessert, then allowing it to freeze, you begin by preparing a liquid ice cream base and freeze it for at least 24 hours.

Once that liquid is frozen solid, you transfer it into your Ninja Creami, which “creamifies” the base with one of seven settings, by finely chopping or shaving the frozen concoction. It’s not quite a blender or food processor (the blades aren’t sharp!), but it’s a similar idea.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure if this reversed process would really work well, since there’s no aerating or breaking up crystals prior to freezing.

But I was happily proven wrong! The result is rich and creamy ice cream that my whole family loves!

And having the ability to make multiple flavors with the Ninja Creami is great, as it allows everyone to have their own ice cream.

Related Recipes:

• Healthy Ninja Creami Recipes
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• Ninja Creami Strawberry Sorbet
• Easy Ninja Creami Apple Cinnamon Sorbet
• Ninja Creami Blueberry Lemon Sorbet
• Easiest Ninja Creami Cherry Sorbet
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• Oreo Milkshake without Ice Cream
• Ninja Creami Strawberry Ice Cream
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• Ninja Creaim Coca Cola Ice Cream

How to Make Pistachio Ice Cream in the Ninja Creami

It’s really easy to make this simple pistachio ice cream.

Ingredients You’ll Need:

• Pistachio pudding mix
• Whole milk
• Heavy whipping cream
• Optional: chopped pistachios

How to Make this Easy Pistachio Ice Cream Recipe:

(Full printable recipe is available below)

Mix the base. First, you’ll start by whisking together pudding mix, whole milk, and heavy cream cream. Mix for about two minutes, or until pudding mixture is fully dissolved and just starting to thicken.

The amount of pudding mix can vary between half a box or a full box. Both options work well, depending on what you’re going for:

• If you use a full box, the ice cream will be more thick (with an ever-so-slightly gummy texture, like frozen pudding), but will have more pistachio flavor.
• If you use a half box, the ice cream will be less thick but have less pistachio flavor (you may want to add a bit of green food coloring in this case, too, for a brighter hue).

Personally, I find half of a box to be more ideal, but my kids really enjoyed the full box. So feel free to experiment!

Check out these other Ninja Creami recipes made with pudding mix, too!

Freeze. Next, you’ll pour the liquid into a Ninja Creami pint and close the lid. Transfer to a flat location in your freezer (you want it to freeze nice and level) and freeze for 24 hours.

Creamify. After 24 hours, remove the lid from the pint and insert into the bowl of the Ninja Creami. Lock the outer bowl lid and click the bowl into place.

Select the Ice Cream function and let the Ninja do the rest!

Optional: Add chopped pistachios. Once the ice cream has been spun, remove it from the machine.

Use a spoon to create a hole in the middle of the pint, about 1 1/2 inches wide, that reaches all the way to the bottom of the pint. Add chopped pistachios into this well.

Return the bowl to the machine and use the Mix In function to incorporate the nuts.

Scoop and serve!

Notes and Adaptations:

• If your ice cream is crumbly after the first round of churning, you can put it through a Re-Spin cycle. If that doesn’t result in a nice, creamy texture, I like to add a tablespoon of milk and Re-Spin again, which usually does the trick. If you’re adding chopped pistachios, I recommend doing any necessary re-spin cycles prior to the mix-in cycle. I’d recommend using 1/4 cup of pistachios, but you could use a little more depending on how much crunch you want.
• Feel free to add a couple drops of almond extract if you’d like more pronounced flavor, especially if you’re using a half box of pudding mix.
• If you need to make this dairy free, you can try using unsweetened canned coconut cream (not regular coconut milk) instead of heavy cream and unsweetened almond milk or oat milk instead of regular milk, like in this sugar free Ninja Creami pistachio ice cream.

Recommended Equipment:

• Ninja Creami
• Ninja Creami Pint

Be sure to save this to your Ninja Creami board on Pinterest!