Today we’re sharing one of the most magical dessert recipes on the planet—homemade banana ice cream (or “nice cream” as many people call it). This simple vegan dessert recipe is by no means unique—rather it’s one that every human being should know and love.
You can make soft serve style ice cream in minutes without an ice cream maker. All you need is a food processor or a high-powered blender with a tamper and some frozen bananas.
Sadly, many people have never tried this magic. That’s a tragedy, really. So, here it is for all to try and enjoy!
This frozen banana nice cream is made with one single ingredient, tastes like soft serve ice cream, and is actually healthy. That’s right, you can dig in for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or even as a late night snack without the guilt. The recipe (or directions, rather) is below. Enjoy!
The beauty of this recipe is that the bananas form a beautiful base that can spun in many different directions by adding in additional ingredients. Simply by adding some fruit, nut butter, cocoa powder, or extracts you can make:
…and so much more. This ice cream making technique is versatile and you really can’t go wrong!
Ice cream is always better with toppings, so layer them on! Here are a few of our favorites:
You can serve this vegan ice cream in a bowl (I love using coconut bowls), in a cup, in a cone, or serve it up smoothie-bowl style!
While any frozen bananas will work for this recipe, your banana ice cream will taste best if you use super-ripe spotty bananas. Bananas can be nearly all brown, and they will still work beautifully in this recipe. The longer bananas ripen, the sweeter they get.
Peel ands slice up your ripe bananas and freeze them for at least 24 hours before making your nice cream. I keep frozen bananas in the freezer all the time so banana soft serve is always just moments away!
If you have a food processor, use that. A food processor is designed to blend up thicker foods without much liquid, whereas most blenders demand a lot of liquid to get things moving. You can toss your frozen bananas into your food processor and blend them without any milk, which creates the thickest creamiest banana ice cream! If you’d like to add a splash of milk, or any add-ins (like cocoa powder), just add them into the food processor with the bananas.
Note: hold your food processor down with your hand while you’re blending, because at the beginning the frozen banana chunks will fly wildly around. Soon enough they will get chopped up become a soft cream. Continue blending until the banana ice cream turns a lighter color, which you’ll see happen quickly.
If you have a high-powered blender with a tamper, such as a Vitamix, that will work too! Although you will s till have an easier time blending if you add a splash of your favorite plant-based milk (soymilk, almondmilk, oatmilk, coconut milk, cashew milk, etc).
Once it’s ready the banana ice cream will be a soft serve consistency. It should be thick and velvety smooth without any chunks. Scoop it into a bowl (we love coconut bowls!) or an ice cream cone, add your favorite toppings, and enjoy immediately!
Banana ice cream does not store or save well, so lap up every last bit! It’s healthy, so you don’t have to worry about over-indulging. Go back for seconds or thirds guilt-free! The best healthy dessert ever.
If you’d prefer to drink your ice cream, you can easily turn this into a sippable vegan milkshake by adding some plant-based milk. Soymilk, almond milk, cashew milk, coconut milk, flax milk—any type of milk will work, and you just need a bit! The more you add, the less thick your homemade dairy-free milkshake will be. Easy peasy!
If you’re hungry for more delicious vegan dessert recipes, you can find lots here on World of Vegan as well as in our e-cookbook, Plant Based on A Budget Desserts. Cheers!
Banana ice cream recipe photos by Michelle Cehn, copyright of World of Vegan™, all rights reserved. Article edited by Amanda Meth. Please note that this article contains an affiliate link which helps support our work at World of Vegan.
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I loveeee nice cream! I’ve got frozen bananas in the fridge ready to go for this one!!
Banana nicecream is the best sweet treat! I like adding some cacao powder and peanut butter to mine 🙂
Banana Nice cream!!!! for the Win! It’s the best sweet tooth craving fix
Delicious and healthy at the same time? This is really a dream dessert and I love that you can add different flavorings and toppings. Never boring and always so good! I keep frozen bananas in my freezer at all times – yum!
The best best best dessert! We eat this ALL the time. I most often make it in my food processor because I find that easier than the blender—even with a high powered vitamix with a tamper.
This is the easiest dessert to make, ever! So good and economical!