5-minute Healthy Chocolate Banana Ice Cream (Nice Cream!)

Why you’ll love it

I have quite a few quick and healthy desserts on the blog – two of my favourites are this AMAZING 30 minute healthy chocolate cake, and this ridiculously easy 2-minute peanut butter healthy mug cake. Or if you want to eat healthy cake for breakfast AND use up some ripe bananas, try these life-changing banana bread breakfast waffles (I mean it when I say ‘life-changing’).

But there’s something missing. Maybe you need some ice cream to go on top of them? (you definitely need some to go on top of the peanut butter mug cake! Not optional!)

So here’s what I think you’ll love about this healthy chocolate banana nice cream:

• Just 3 healthy ingredients – frozen banana, cocoa or cacao, and peanut butter are all you need to make this 5-minute no bake dessert.
• No ice cream maker necessary! All you’ll need is a food processor or high speed blender such as a Nutribullet.
• Tastes just as delicious as regular ice cream. Can you taste bananas? Yes, sure! But it’s also rich and creamy, a bit like praline in both taste and texture.
• Easily make other flavors. Once you’ve tried the basic recipe, it’s easy to vary it with different flavors. Try adding different fruits and mix-ins, such as berries, biscuits/cookies and nuts (see more ideas below!).
• Dairy free. In case that’s important for you, this is a great dairy free dessert option!

About the ingredients

You’ll find a full list of ingredients with amounts in the recipe card below. But here’s a summary of what you need to know.

In its simplest form, nice cream is made of… frozen bananas! Nothing more, nothing less.

But I like to give mine a chocolaty, nutty kick. So I use these 3 ingredients to make my healthy ice cream:

• Frozen bananas: Very ripe ones are best – with brown spots on the peel. These will naturally sweeten your ice cream. See the box below for instructions on how to freeze them. Alternatively, use ready frozen banana chunks from the supermarket!
• Cocoa: Choose a good quality, unsweetened cocoa for best results. Both Dutch processed or natural are fine. You can also use ‘Cacao’ instead if you like. This is a less processed version of cocoa.
• Peanut butter: Another type of nut butter works just as well, such as almond butter. I like chunky, but you can use smooth instead if you prefer.

How to make banana nice cream step-by-step

Chop a banana (or bananas!) into chunks, throw them into a Ziploc bag and freeze for a minimum of 2 hours.

Empty your banana chunks into the bowl of your food processor (or blender) and add a tablespoon of cocoa powder and a tablespoon of nut butter per banana you’ve used.

Now here’s the fun part. Blend! You may need to stop a few times and scrape down the sides, whether you use the small bowl of your food processor or a blender.

You will see what looks like chunky crumbs at first, but be patient. It’ll take a minute or two. Then just like magic, you’ll end up with something that looks like soft-serve ice cream.

More nice cream recipe ideas

The possibilities for making different versions of this nice cream recipe are endless!

Try:

• 1-ingredient banana nice cream. Simply blend frozen bananas and… voila! You have your nice cream! Leave it at this, or add a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Yum.
• Make some of these amazing candied chocolate orange slices and pop one into the top of everyone’s dessert (you’ll have to prepare ahead for this one, but it’s worth it).
• berry nice cream. Add a small handful of fresh or frozen berries – strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, cherries… Add a few chocolate chips or crunchy nuts to take it to next level delicious!
• pure peanut butter nice cream. Leave out the cacao/cocoa and replace with a bit more peanut butter for peanut butter ice cream heaven!
• cookies and cream nice cream. Stir in a crumbled biscuit/cookie. Oreos work particularly well, and they’re vegan too if that’s important to you.
• mint chocolate chip nice cream. Add a drizzle of peppermint extract with the bananas, then stir in some chocolate chips after blending.
• a nice cream sandwich! For a ‘treat’ option, sandwich your nice cream between 2 cookies to make an ice cream sandwich. If you’d like to keep the cookies healthier too, try these lower sugar Anzac biscuits.