What with the warmer temperatures lately, I’ve been craving ice cream (like my Gluten-free Chunks ‘o Brownie Ice Cream or my No Churn Strawberry Ice Cream) the way I usually crave fruits and veggies, so I’ve had to come up with some healthy options so that I don’t gain back the baby weight that I’ve lost. The result? Tropical Coconut & Banana Nice Cream!
This super-healthy, preservative-free ice cream alternative is rich and creamy due to the coconut milk it contains, with a smooth ice cream texture from the frozen banana. A dash of honey gives it a depth of flavour that is unexpected given how little honey is used, and then the cinnamon rounds out the flavour. You can serve it right away, as soft serve, or freeze it for a more solid and scoopable ‘nice cream’.
Tropical Coconut & Banana Nice Cream
A blender is all you need to create this creamy, flavourful, dairy-free 'nice cream'! Coconut milk & frozen banana come together to create a rich soft-serve (or scoopable!) summery dessert!
Ingredients
- 3 bananas, sliced and frozen solid
- 1/2 c. coconut milk
- 1 tbsp. honey (or maple syrup -- see recipe notes)
- 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until the consistency of soft-serve!
- For a scoopable dessert, spoon into a freezer-friendly dish and freeze for 1 or 2 hours. If you forget it in the freezer (and take a nap, like me!) you can leave it out on the counter for 20 minutes to soften up to a scoopable consistency again.
- Top with toasted coconut or toasted pecans and enjoy your summery, healthy dessert!
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
4Serving Size:
1/2 c.Amount Per Serving: Calories: 165Total Fat: 6gSaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 5mgCarbohydrates: 29gFiber: 2gSugar: 18gProtein: 2g
Not a nutritionist, yo'! 🙂
I’ve served this scooped into little glass bowls, topped with toasted coconut, for an after dinner dessert, as well as packed into sugar waffle cones for an on-the-go treat. Basically, it’s a healthy sweet treat that I can happily nom on all day long, guilt-free!
While I don’t recommend giving this nice cream to a baby, simply because it contains honey (which is not recommended for babies under 1 year old), if you leave out the honey, it’s definitely toddler friendly! Healthy fats from the coconut milk, lots of nutrients from the banana…you could serve it for breakfast and everyone is happy! (Especially me, because ice cream always makes me happy!)
I did mention adventures in baby food, though, right? Well, I’m slowly introducing more and more foods to mah bebe every few days, adding in a new fruit here and a new veg there. I’ve even introduced her to chicken (cooking chicken was a bit of a learning curve for this vegetarian mommy). Next up? Tofu. Give me a few months and I’ll be feeding her bbq’d tofu without batting an eye! I have to say, it’s fun to be able to introduce her to a world of delicious foods!
Speaking of delicious foods, if you try this Tropical Coconut & Banana Nice Cream, let me know in the comments! I wonder if you could add in other tropical fruits…pineapple? A few chunks of guava? Mmm…so many yummy possible substitutions!
Next Post: Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta with Kale! Healthy, hearty, and easy to make, with the bonus that it’s preservative-free — yummer!!! My tummy is totally growling now. Maybe I shouldn’t write blog posts just before dinner! Tee hee! 🙂
This sounds amazing. I have lots of frozen bananas but only a can of coconut cream. Do you think this would this work instead of coconut milk?
Absolutely it would work! It’ll just be creamier! I’ve made nice cream with only frozen bananas, so it’ll be fine. It’s such a forgiving recipe!
I have made “ice cream” with just bananas but I think he coconut milk would make it even more tasty! It’s a bit high in carbs for me – but everyone is allowed a treat now and again so I will definitely be trying this one!
I used to make banana ‘ice cream’ with just bananas too! But I find adding in the coconut really makes it more like soft serve, and easier to blend. Plus it adds a nice flavour! And I agree about the treats — I’m trying to get back down to my wedding weight, and I know for myself, I need to have a sweet treat in the evening in order to be able to focus on losing the weight the rest of the day. So healthy ‘nice cream’ it is!
I’m going to see if Rob wants some of this. It looks healthier than regular ice cream, which he isn’t eating right now. Do you have any idea of the calorie count on it?
Hey Becky! The calorie count is at the bottom of the recipe, along with more nutritional info., and it’s about 165 calories for a half cup. But if you wanted to make it even healthier, you could just used frozen bananas! That’s what I used to do growing up. You do have to use a wooden spoon to mix the mixture many times in between blending it, if you’re just using frozen bananas (unless you have a vitamix super-high powered blender) but it would be non-fat and pure fruit, and perhaps fit better into his diet. That said, both versions are delicious!!!!
I tried this with some success and a little failure. I followed the recipe exactly except for substituting stevia for the honey. My original plan was to put it into my Cuisinart ice cream maker, but after I tried a sip, I drank it all. It was delicious. I couldn’t wait long enough for the ice cream to churn.
Jeannie@GetMeToTheCountry
I think that’s a full-on win! Do you grow your own stevia? Talk about healthy!
I have grown it before with quite a bit of success. It is a tropical plant, only supposed to live in a warm zone 9, I am zone 7; however, it was planted beside a huge boulder in my flower bed (everything is beside a boulder in my yard). I think the rock kept the roots warm during the winter while it was dormant and so it returned in the spring for years. A bitterly cold winter finally killed it. Fresh stevia tastes green (if that makes sense) so it didn’t have the same flavor. It is like adding spinach to your ice cream, didn’t work on some recipes. I tried to start more this year but didn’t have any success.
Fascinating! I love that your rock created a microclimate! I actually just got a fig tree, in zone 4/5. We’ll see how it survives a Canadian winter!