If you’re craving ice cream but are looking for something healthier without the binders, fillers, emulsifiers, artificial flavours, trans fats and fake sugars, you will love this all natural frozen banana-lemon cream.
[insert: have you ever read the nutrition facts label on a low fat/sugar ice cream product? Truly scary].
This is a gorgeous dessert, or snack, that has a creamy taste and texture similar to soft ice cream without all the non-foods.
I have prepared a non-dairy/vegan version today but you could easily substitute cow’s milk, as desired.
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3 frozen bananas
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1 – 2 cups almond milk
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Juice of 1 lemon
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Zest of 1 lemon + more for topping
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2 tsp vanilla
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2 Tbsp agave nectar
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A few slivered almonds for topping
Notes:
This dessert tastes best eaten freshly made. If you make it ahead and try to freeze it, it will become rock hard. If you refrigerate it, it will lose it’s cold ice cream texture and become more life a mousse (still good tasting but not an ideal texture).
The amount of almond milk will vary depending on the size of the bananas you are working with and your preferred consistency.
Frozen bananas do not release as much sweetness as fresh, ripe bananas. You can work with this by adding naturally sweet tasting spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, clove or cardamon, or a touch of natural sweetener – such as: agave nectar, demerara, muscovado, palm, turbinado or stevia – as desired.
Place peeled bananas in freezer overnight (allow 24 hours). If you expect to leave the bananas in the freezer for more than 24 hours, it’s best to keep peels on to protect against freezer burn.
Remove bananas from freezer and place in the blender. If bananas still have peels on, use a knife to carefully remove peel (you may need to let them sit out at room temperature for 10 or so minutes to be able to get through the frozen peel).
Add remaining ingredients to blender along with bananas – beginning with 1 cup of almond milk – blending until smooth and gradually adding more milk until desired consistency is achieved.
This recipe will make approximately 4 cups of frozen banana lemon cream.
Enjoy.
Thanks for dropping by Asmita ~ I’m glad you like it.
Haha… oh no… you know, blenders are getting cheaper and cheaper, maybe an item for santa’s list or an upcoming birthday… Thanks for stopping by Ally.
I love good tasting indulgences too! :)
Thanks Kiran :)
There’s just something so refreshing about citrus… I love chocolate but citrus is my balancing flavour :)
I agree, when the banana is very ripe, that’s all the sweetness you’ll ever need and more ;-) it would be fun to experiment with other fruit as well.
Blending bananas has a way of whipping them into a delicious cream… wonderfully yummy! :)
Sounds and looks awesome!!
I’ve always wanted to do this but I can practically see the smoke coming from my blender :(
Gorgeous!!!!!
Indulgence which is healthy… will make it soon. I am sure my kids will like this…
My version of a frozen smoothie — love it for breakfast, lunch and dinner :)
My favorite way to make ice cream! I like your adding in the almond milk and your tip on adding in the spices. I really had not realized that the frozen bananas are not as sweet as fresh. A nice bowl of this sounds so good following all the chocolate this month!!
that’s delicious! I make something liek this in summer, and you know what, you don’t even have to add any milk of any sort if you want, the frozen abnanas are creamy and yummy enough! and when i get super super ripe ones, I find I don’t need any extra sweetener either! (heh giving me the perfect excuse to make a quick caramel sauce to pour over hehe)
Great recipe! I’ve heard of processing bananas like that, put it on my list of things to try, totally forgot about it, in classic “Sally’s Fashion”
I just made a little concoction with bananas, hope to blog about it soon, I have the feeling you will like it ;-) (self promotion, you know…)
It’s a nice option for sure – many of my clients are also lactose intolerant or allergic to the proteins in cow’s milk so this creates a nice dairy free alternative. Thanks Tiffany :)
Thank you so much Amy! I’m continuing to explore and learn about food photography; lots of fun (and challenging too!). Have a great day – I hope you are feeling well these days :)
Funny how creamy from banana… makes me want to experiment with all frozen fruits (and veg!) – the possible combinations are endless…. mmmm…..
Hello Miss P. Cocoa powder… now THAT’s an idea you know I love ;-)
Yay! Thanks so much for stopping by to say hello KoKo – glad you enjoyed.
It’s amazing what makes its way into our foods… the simplest rule we could ever keep in mind, is to try and eat things they way they look when growing in nature… thanks so much for your comment Heidi.
Thanks so much Yummy!
Thanks Joanne… lemon, lime, orange… all great options here. Enjoy :)
Thanks Mandy – we like this one all year round :)
Oooh… the peanut butter option is always appealing… yum… will have to give that one a try at some point. I know, it’s amazing the creamy result you can get from blended banana. Next I’m going to try frozen peaches (in season) as Jen suggests above. Sounds divine… have a great day Charles!
Thanks Alyssa – I hope your hubby enjoys this one… mine really did. It’s got lots of flavour so I don’t think he’ll feel deprived ;-) Yes, absolutely, you can use a different sweetener – I list a number of them in the post – honey works as well! Cheers.
Thanks Kay! I hope you enjoy… it’s a nice flavour for sure – the lemon really comes through in this one.
Perfect! Let me know if you give it a try MJ. I hope you enjoy!
They add them because they take out all the natural foods that our society has been brainwashed to believe are bad for us… without fat, they need a binding agent as well as something to improve taste (fat is full of flavour) – so in go all the non-foods. We have it backwards – if we can just learn to moderate our intake of real food, we wouldn’t need the fake counter-health ingredients. Cheers Stephanie!
Thanks Kim :) xo
Peaches would be an absolute delight… beetle? really??
Thanks Rachelle – it’s so nice to have creamy options that are dairy free. I hope you and your daughter enjoy and thank you for dropping in – much appreciated :)
Hee.hee, though shall not covet they neighbour’s dish! ;-) No ice cream maker necessary! So simple…
Thanks Elly!! It’s fun to find little items that appeal and are a bit different from time to time… a little splurge ;-)
Yay! Hope you like Sarah… have a great day.
Thanks Caroline… I picked the little gems up at a Japanese store in our neighbourhood ;)
Super easy indeed and quite yummy! Thanks France.
Hi Lisa, I just love the taste of lemon and lime, so wherever I see fit, I work them in… if you can avoid the crystalization, the peeled version is much easier to deal with!
Thanks so much Judy – I appreciate the pin love too! :)
Thanks Liz – I hope you enjoy this one. Thanks for stopping by! :)
Thank you magic of spice – it’s fun to be able to serve something like this up that has the feeling of a dessert while being perfectly healthy.
I know, it’s pretty neat, to think that it’s just banana… the other thing I really like about it, is that in its frozen form, the banana does not release as much sweetness – I find overly ripe bananas almost too sweet for my taste.
Haha, it’s very simple so I’m not sure it qualifies as sophisticated but i’ll take it, thanks ;-) I’m amazed by the creamy result you can get from blending frozen banana – what a treat!
Thanks Leaf – I quite love the spoon too ;-) – lemon and lime are among my fave dessert add-ins… yum!
Love that this is vegan! :D
Very pretty Kelly, I love the plate and bowl too. Your photography is so nice, your doing a really nice job!
I love how smooth and silky this looks. That lemon zest on top is gorgeous
i love banana frozen yogurt :). i’ve seen people add in cocoa powder or almond butter, all sorts of add ins!
Fabulous! This would be a perfect recipe to try in my new Vita-Mix bahaha.
Yummy! I love making banana ice cream but I’ve never made a lemon flavor! I need to try that, soon! I love your comment on the scary nutrition label on ice cream. Every time we even look at ice cream at the store my hubby makes a comment about anti-freeze and that’s enough to make me walk away let alone the scary nutritionals, haha.
Ooh, what a delicious and different twist on ice cream/yogurt!
This would be such a fun treat to have in the freezer waiting for me! I wouldn’t ahve thought to add lemons…
Must make this before our summer days become winter ones.
:-) Mandy
Hi Kelly – my wife made this for me once – banana “cream”, but also with a bit of peanut butter added and it was absolutely amazing! I was bowled over by the results, considering it was, effectively, just banana. So creamy, and ice-cream like. If I’d been served it without being told what it was, I’d probably for sure have thought it had dairy in it! :)
I love the idea of using almond butter, and the lemon must give a fantastic little zing too! Love it – so pretty in the photo too :)
That sounds great! My husband has a serious ice cream addiciton, but I’m always looking for healthier alternatives. Would I be able to substitute honey or another sweetener for agave? I’ve been looking for the stuff since we got here but I haven’t been able to find it anywhere. If not, maybe I should see if I can just order some online
I love the twangy taste of lemon, but never thought of adding it with bananas. Hrm.. you’ve definitely got my mind intrigued by this recipe Kelly :)
Thank you for this non-dairy ice cream! I love ice cream but the dairy doesn’t love me so I’m also looking for alternatives. I have everything to make this so it’s a done deal!
I would love to eat this for dessert right now! I stopped buying the low-fat and low-sugar ice creams and yogurts because of the label! Why add all those weird and horrible ingredients? I got an ice cream maker for X-mas and I can’t wait to use it to make my own!
Refreshing. Yummmmmy. Healthy.
This has it ALL, Kelly. :)) X
My Inner Chick http://myinnerchick.com
While I’m not a huge fan of bananas, I imagine that would work with just about any frozen fruit – I’m already thinking peaches! We started my Baking class with a little label lesson in understanding some of the ingredients in foods. One of them was actually a crushed up beetle! really gross… I always prefer a label whose ingredient list is all foods!
I can’t wait to try this for my lactose intolerant daughter. Thank you.
I am coveting a dish of this right now! What a great (and healthy) recipe. Time to dust off the ice cream maker.
Totally agree about the ingredients in ice cream…I try to buy the best organic brand I can, but even that has loads of weird stuff in it. This looks gorgeous and I love your crockery!
Love this idea! I’m putting bananas in the freezer tonight!!
Mmmm want want want! sounds amazing, Kelly. Love the bowls you served this in. x
What a lovely dessert idea. I know we crave a little sweet from time to time and this is such a nice option without all the baking and fussing.
We love banana ice cream! Lemon sounds so refreshing! I usually peel my banana’s and freeze them, but have had issues with ice crystal forming if I let them sit for awhile in my freezer. Lately, I’ve been using glass containers with plastic lid then put them in a freezer safe bag and had luck that way. I’ll have to try your way with keeping peels on, sounds like a neat idea!
Love this idea, definitely gonna try it! Pinning on Pintrest too!
Healthy and tasty! I love the plate and bowl you used here…
Hehe, glad I could help! I totally made the mistake of putting a peeled banana in the freezer before…not fun getting that peel off. I’ve had the bananas frozen for a while and didn’t have any issues with freezer burn.
What a gorgeous, healthy option to ice cream. I agree…I can’t stand reading all the chemicals listed on a carton of ice cream…ugh.
What a lovely treat! I use frozen bananas in smoothie type drinks, but this has a more decedent dessert feel :)
Who would have thought bananas would be so incredibly creamy? I have made a banana chocolate cream, and a banana avocado cream and both were unbelievable. I love the other suggestions too.
I’ll keep this in mind for the summer months!
Kelly, first of all I must say I love your plate and bowl! The cream sounds delicious. It also seems quite unusual (first I thought everything was mixed and frozen, but after having read your recipe everything became clear: it’s much more sophisticated than I thought! but still easy I guess). I’m in awe of your creativity.
Pity I don’t have bananas. I could do with a healthy dessert now…
I love blending up frozen banana for desserts. The lemony tang must be gorgeous here. Very cute food props too, especially that little spoon!
Sounds delish…peanut butter banana is a favourite combination in this house – I have no doubt it would be a huge hit. I like the subtlety of flavours here – the lemon really comes through and is very refreshing.
I make banana softserv all the time, but never thought to add lemon! Great idea. Have you tried bananas with peanut butter? That’s my favorite one to do thus far.
Yes! Banana n PB “ice cream” is the best! The lemon banana was banging’ as well but i think some lemon seeds got away from me because there was a bitter after taste…I was being lazy and not using the juicer…
Haha, now why didn’t I think of that!! :) Thank you Amy. I suspect if the bananas are only in the fridge for 24 hours or so, there’s no downside to peeling (low risk of freezer burn) – cheers!
I’ve made this with just bananas, but adding lemon sounds amazing! P.S. If you peel the bananas before freezing them it’s much easier ;)