Just because the Summer of Scoops is over doesn’t mean I’m about to stop with new ice cream flavors and dishes.

For “Real Women Have Curves,” I knew I wanted to make something decadent to reflect the IDGAF body positivity shown in the movie.

This vegan, gluten-free recipe for caramel ice cream dessert nachos makes 2 bowls or “servings” plus some extra ice cream. We actually made these last winter when we celebrated buying a house, and they are an amazing celebratory snack or dessert.

Ice Cream Ingredients
2 cups vegan milk
2 11.2-ounce cartons caramel-flavored vegan creamer (22.4 ounces total)
1 teaspoon caramel extract
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 3.5-ounce bag vegan, gluten-free caramels, chopped up

Marshmallow Sauce Ingredients
2 cups vegan marshmallows
1 tablespoon vegan creamer

Caramel Sauce Ingredients
1 3.5-ounce bag vegan, gluten-free caramels
1 tablespoon vegan creamer

Nachos Ingredients
36 sweet chips like buñuelos or churro strips
2 pints vegan caramel ice cream
1 bag cinnamon sugar twists, crumbled

Instructions
Add the milk, creamer, extract, xanthan gum and half the chopped up caramels into a blender. If you can’t find caramel extract or creamer, you can use vanilla extract and creamer. (Get more of my ice cream 101 tips here.)

Pulse until everything is evenly mixed.

What happens next depends on your ice cream maker. If you have a more standard one, you’ll pull your chilled (for 24 hours) bowl out and make the ice cream.

If you have one like mine, you pour the mixture into two or three pints, then freeze them for 24 hours.

After that time, you put the pint into your ice cream maker on the ice cream setting and let it do its magic.

For the extra cacophony of caramel, add the remaining half of the chopped caramels in there at the end of a normal ice cream maker’s cycle or using the mix-in setting if you have one like mine.

While the ice cream is processing and going through the mix-in stage, make your marshmallow and caramel sauces.

In a sauce pan over medium heat, melt the marshmallows and stir in the creamer. If you have extra caramel creamer, use it here.

Once they are mixed together, remove from the heat to avoid overcooking and so your ice cream doesn’t melt too quickly when assembling the nachos. It’s OK if it has some clumps of marshmallow to give texture to your nachos.

For the caramel sauce, melt the caramels in a sauce pan over medium heat and stir in the creamer (more bonus points if you have caramel creamer to use here, too). It should take 3-5 minutes for the sauce to form.

Carefully time the finish with when you need to drizzle the caramel sauce over the top, because it can solidify rather quickly.

Place 18 chips at the bottom of a bowl (preferably a wide shallow one).

Scoop 3-4 ice cream scoops on top of the chips.

Pour half of the marshmallow sauce over the ice cream and chips.

Drizzle the caramel sauce next.

Crumble the cinnamon sugar twists over the top.

Repeat the last five steps for the second bowl.

Serve and enjoy with “Real Women Have Curves!”

The Easy Route
Instead of making your own ice cream, caramel sauce and/or marshmallow sauce, you can buy premade if you find the appropriate vegan flavors. Let us know what you find in the comments.

The Pairing
I rewatched “Real Women Have Curves” for the first time in 20 years, and I am still blown away by this stunning debut from America Ferrera.

This was a fantastic audition tape of sorts for her role in last year’s “Barbie.”

In “Real Women Have Curves,” Ferrera plays Ana García, a vivacious 18-year-old who is trying to figure out what life has in store for her.

I was around the same age as Ana when I first saw this, and I was amazed at how confident and smart she was portrayed.

As someone who has been chubby her whole life, seeing a chubby female character live her life in bold but honest ways was a breath of fresh air in 2002, and it sadly still is today.

I found Ferrera’s performance as Ana to be immensely relatable, and I highly recommend the film to anyone who needs a jolt of body positivity.

If you decide to make caramel ice cream dessert nachos and/or watch “Real Women Have Curves,” let us know! Tag us in your Instagram posts & stories, threads, tweets or TikTok videos: @veg_out_recipes