Healthy Vegan Banana Ice-Cream (*N’ice-Cream*)

🐄 Vegan

🐄 Simple banana ice-cream with just 2 ingredients

🐄 3 flavour variations

🐄 High protein variation

Many years ago when I first heard about this anomaly, I was very skeptical. I was told that if you froze bananas, then blended them, it would turn into soft serve ice-cream. Erm… right 🤣 If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is!

So you can imagine my surprise and disbelief when I did eventually end up trying it, and what came out of my food processor looked something like the picture below. ⬇️⬇️⬇️

It looked like ice-cream, the texture was very creamy and ice-cream like, although it did taste like bananas.

Let me warn you now that if you do not like bananas, you probably won’t like this vegan ice-cream! It does keep the distinctive flavour of the bananas, although, as you will see, flavouring it in various ways is really delicious.

I was very excited at this discovery – a healthy vegan ice-cream with only 2 ingredients? This is it folks.

With a few more ingredients, you can turn it into a healthy and balanced breakfast meal, that tastes like pudding!

First of all, there is the addition of other frozen fruits – get creative and see what works! Berries are a classic – I used frozen blueberries. You want them to be frozen to get that icy consistency, although if you prefer to make a thick smoothie to sip, feel free to add fresh fruits and blend them up with the frozen banana – what you will get is something the consistency of a double-thick milkshake. Yum! Almond butter added in to the mix is really delicious as well.

Then there is the addition of chocolate in the form of cocoa powder. And anyone who knows me knows my *love (read *obsession) for peanut butter, so I added that in too. Obvious.

Personally, I really like to keep my meals balanced as far as macro nutrients go, and because I work-out in the gym, making sure I get enough protein in throughout the day is important to me (please do not believe the myth, however, that it is difficult to get enough protein as a vegan!).

I add vegan protein powder to my banana n’ice cream to ramp up the health benefits, and then I usually add some type of healthy fat as well in the form of toppings.

Why not try adding some cinnamon, or pumpkin pie spice mix (find the recipe for the pumpkin pie spice here) for a flavor variation?

Is this recipe not just getting better and better, or is it just me?! 🤷🏻‍♀️🙌🏼

A few examples of vegan protein powders I have used and enjoyed are:

• Wild Vegan Protein which I find at Clicks, although here it is on Takealot.

• Nutritech Vegan Protein found at Wellness Warehouse.

• USN Plant Protein found at Clicks.

• My Wellness Super Vegan Protein found at Wellness Warehouse.

• Health Connection pea protein isolate (unflavoured) which I find at Dischem. I don’t recommend this on it’s own – I usually add a fresh banana and a teaspoon of cocoa powder along with some soya milk to make a tasty shake. Added to this chocolate peanut butter banana ice cream recipe, this would be great I think.

Topping Ideas

• Roughly chopped toasted nuts, such as walnuts, cashews or almonds.
• Toasted coconut flakes or shredded/fine dessicated coconut.
• Seeds, such as pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, flaxseeds and chia seeds, or a mix.
• Nut butter, such as peanut butter, almond butter, or macadamia nut butter.
• Fresh fruits, such as mango, peaches, kiwi fruit, papaya, or whatever you have on hand.
• Dried fruits, such as chopped dates, raisins, goji berries, or dried cranberries.
• Raw cacao nibs.
• Granola.
• Toasted rolled oats.
• Chocolate chips.
• Vegan coconut caramel sauce, like this Nature’s Charm one I found at Dischem.

The list is only confined to your imagination!

Let me know if you try it – I would love to know what flavour combinations you come up with.

Vegan Banana Ice-Cream

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Recipe by Catherine Stevenson Course: BreakfastDifficulty: Easy

Servings

1

servings

Prep time

15

minutes

A healthy vegan ice cream made from just bananas which can be flavoured and varied to no end.

Ingredients

• Simple 2 ingredient banana ice-cream

• 2 bananas, sliced and frozen

• 2 Tbs soya milk/plant-based milk of choice

• Berry banana ice-cream

• 2 bananas, sliced and frozen

• 3/4 cup frozen berries (I used blueberries)

• 2 Tbs soya milk/plant milk

• Chocolate peanut butter ice-cream

• 2 bananas, sliced and frozen

• 2 Tbs soya milk/plant milk

• 1 Tbs cocoa powder

• 2 tsp peanut butter

• 1 tsp vanilla essence

• High protein vegan ice cream

• Add 1/2 – 1 scoop (+- 30g) plant-based protein powder, such as those mentioned above in the post to any of the 3 flavour variations.

Directions

• 1 day before
• Peel bananas and slice into rounds. Place into a ziplock bag or plastic container and place in the freezer overnight.
• Plain Banana Ice-cream
• Place the frozen bananas and plant milk into your food processor. A blender would likely work too, although I have only tried it in my food processor.
• Blend until smooth and creamy. You may have to scrape down the sides occasionally.
• Top with your favourite toppings – sliced fruit, nuts, seeds, nut butters, chocolate chips, granola etc.
• Berry banana ice-cream
• Place frozen bananas, frozen blueberries and plant milk into your food processor.
• Blend until smooth and creamy, scraping down sides as necessary.
• Top with your favourite toppings!
• Chocolate peanut butter ice-cream
• Place frozen bananas, plant milk, cocoa powder, peanut butter and vanilla into your food processor.
• Blend until smooth and creamy, scraping down sides occasionally as necessary.
• Top with your favourite toppings!
• High protein
• Just add the protein powder into the mix and a dash more plant milk and blend.

Notes

• Topping Ideas: Nuts, seeds, nut butters, chopped fresh fruit, granola, toasted oats, chocolate chips, coconut flakes, cacao nibs, dried fruit such as cranberries or raisins. Use your imagination!