PARIS, March 10 — When it comes to animal product alternatives, taking the dairy out of ice cream isn’t always easy.

Not only do you have to find a way to get the right texture, but you also have to avoid that telltale aftertaste that can put off many a vegan.

In New Zealand, one solution has been found thanks to a circular approach based on using "ugly” cauliflowers.

To make ice cream, you need sugar, eggs, cream and/or milk, but that’s obviously no good for vegans. Instead, brands tend to use plant milks like almond or rice milk, while cornstarch is sometimes added to get the right consistency.

Coconut milk or avocado have also proved their worth in home-made concoctions. Commercially, attempts have proved less convincing, either because of the texture or because of a noticeable aftertaste.

In New Zealand, two young entrepreneurs could have found the solution in the form of a circular process.

This consists of recovering cauliflowers that do not make it into stores because they’re too small in size or simply unattractive.

In short, the start-up EatKinda recycles vegetables that would otherwise end up in the trash.

Cauliflower might not be the first vegetable you’d think of to replace coconut milk in a vegan ice cream.

In fact, brand co-founder Jenni Matheson did try other vegetables, like pumpkin, but it turns out that cauliflower has an interesting textural edge.

The major challenge for plant-based alternatives is to pass the test of taste. In the case of this New Zealand ice cream, the use of cauliflower could very well put an end to the all-too-common aftertaste that comes with many ice creams prepared without cow’s milk.

Sometimes, you can also end up with ice creams that contain a lot of small ice crystals and have no real flavour.

Rest assured that the EatKinda brand uses more than just cauliflower to make its ice cream, with water, coconut oil and elderberry juice concentrate also part of the recipe.

Such a recipe has a particular resonance in a country like New Zealand, where there are almost as many dairy cows as inhabitants. And yet, the brand has every reason to believe in its success.

The New Zealand chain Hell Pizza, which has restaurants in Australia, Canada and India, recently started serving this vegan ice cream. — ETX Studio