Food Healthy Eating Plans Eating Vegan

Why This Delicious Vegan ‘Nice Cream’ Is About to Be Your New Favorite Bedtime Snack

Erin Bunch

January 8, 2020

Consider this your 201-level guide to all the various leaves, seeds, powders, and potions that get so much buzz in the wellness scene—then discover how to actually incorporate them into your life. So whether you want to power up your smoothie with natural supplements, or you're just wondering how to use the cacao powder sitting in your pantry, you'll get the intel you need here. See All

This vegan ice cream recipe will put you straight to sleep...in a good way. Get the recipe here.

Whenever I complain about my insomnia problems (read: constantly), people are quick to offer me a host of solutions—e.g. melatonin, magnesium, ASMR, a sleep robot—which is the opposite of helpful. Hello, I've already tried that! What do I look like, an amateur?

Herbalist, Supernatural founder, and host of Well+Good's Plant Based video series Rachelle Robinett, however, is the first person to recommend something for sleep I haven't yet tried: ice cream. "To get a sleepy-time ice cream, we're going to infuse a vegetarian ice cream recipe with herbs," she says in the latest episode of the series. This combines my two favorite things: witchery and eating inappropriate foodstuffs in bed. I am here for it.

The main herb in her recipe is chamomile, long-renown for its snooze-enhancing qualities. "Chamomile comes from a category of herbs called nervines," she says. "Nervines are my go-to for people with stress and anxiety." Rochette explains that there are daytime nervines and more sedative, nighttime nervines, and that chamomile falls somewhere in-between and is known to be mild. "It's something that we can rely on as a gentle sleep aid, not one that's going to cause a hangover or too much drowsiness," she says.

Watch the full video to find out what else she suggests infusing into your next bowl of "nice" cream, in order to turn it into a delicious bedtime snack that can double as emotional support through your next luteal phase, breakup, or apocalyptic news cycle. Enjoy the scoop!

Into this whole herbal infusions vibe? Try Robinett's adaptogenic, stress-busting veggie dip or her mood-boosting chocolate bark. If it's sleep you crave, banana peel tea is a thing, too.