When snack time hits sometimes I'm craving a sweeter treat. That's when I turn to this banana nice cream recipe. It's got the texture of ice cream yet a lot fewer ingredients + no dairy.
The gorgeous color in this fun vegan ice cream recipe comes from the superfood blue spirulina, which provides vital cell support. Perfect for breakfast or as a mid-day pick me up, banana nice cream is a delicious treat (while still getting in healthy nutrients).
3 Ingredient Vegan Ice Cream Recipe
Nice cream is essentially ice cream made with only plant-based ingredients. There is no dairy in nice cream, yet you can still get that thick and creamy with the right plants. Here's the ingredients I used in my homemade version of banana nice cream.
Coconut Milk
Coconut milk is a great non-dairy base that add creaminess and healthy fat. It has some amazing health benefits, from stabilizing blood sugar levels to taming inflammation to improving heart health, and they may actually raise your good levels of cholesterol. For an even creamier result, you can use coconut cream.
Frozen Banana
Frozen bananas give this nice cream recipe an irresistible soft-serve texture. Make sure to use frozen bananas in this recipe since they work so well to give this smoothie bowl a creamy whip consistency. Bananas also act as a sugar-free sweetener—they contain pectin and low-glycemic sugars, and won’t cause your blood sugar to spike. Bananas are also a great source of prebiotics, which are food for the good bacteria in your gut.
Spirulina
I also incorporated blue spirulina into the whip to give it a fun Mediterranean blue hue and added health benefits. Spirulina is blue-green algae that’s harvested from either fresh water lakes or saltwater and is then dried in the sun. Aztecs reportedly used spirulina as a source of food in the 16th century. Otherwise known as cyanobacteria, spirulina can produce energy from sunlight via photosynthesis. As a natural source of chlorophyll, spirulina provides blood building properties as well as increased cellular energy production.
A tablespoon of spirulina has 4 grams of plant protein, and this protein is a complete protein with 18 amino acids – including all the essential amino acids. Spirulina is rich in antioxidants and also fairly high in iron and B vitamins. Yet beware: too much can alter your banana nice cream in a horrible way. So use conservatively.
Best Toppings for Banana Nice Cream
Toppings are optional, but strongly recommended. The best part about nice cream are the toppings! Showcase your artistic abilities or let your kids’ creativity shine with a variety of beautiful edible toppings customized to your taste. For this banana nice cream recipe, we kept the theme blue and picked a combination of blackberries and blueberries for one half.
For the other half, we used dragonfruit cut into star shapes. To make dragonfruit stars, simply slice a ripe dragonfruit into ¼” thick slices, and cut with a mini star shaped cookie cutter.
Use your favorite fruit, berries and granola for topping. As a bonus, these toppings pack in antioxidants, vitamin and minerals for extra nutrition.
Is Banana Nice Cream Worth it?
I know...recipes like this just seem like so much work! Yet it really isn't. 🙂
Honestly, I made this recipe for my kids and then I fell in love with it. Reminiscent of soft-serve ice cream, this healthy treat comes together easily with frozen bananas and coconut cream blended into a cool and creamy whip. So yes— it's absolutely worth the 15 minutes it takes to make. You can alway make extra and freeze as well.
Easy Healthy Dessert Options
There are so many desserts that are super easy to make, super delicious, AND made with whole food plant based ingredients. Check these out:
- Fried sweet plantains
- Blackberry coconut sorbet
- Coconut Joy smoothie bowl
- Chocolate covered banana bites
- Strawberry vegan milkshake
- Chocolate pudding bowl
- Rainbow smoothie
These desserts are made with real ingredients, yet satisfy the sweet tooth. I can't wait for you to try one!
Ultimate Banana Nice Cream
Rate this Recipe Print RecipeIngredients
- 4 bananas (peeled sliced and frozen)
- ¼ cup coconut milk
- dash blue spirulina (adjust and add more until you get the color desired)
Suggested Toppings
- blueberries
- blackberries
- dragon fruit
- granola
- pineapple
- strawberries
Instructions
- Combine ingredients into a blender
- Use a tamper to push down ingredients into blender while on. This is a super thick blend, so you'll need to help the blender by using the tamper. You can also pause blending and push ingredients down with a wooden spoon (yet be careful!).
- Serve immediately or store in a freezer safe container until ready to enjoy.
- When serving, divide into 4 bowls and add toppings.
Video
Notes
- To make the cute lil' dragonfruit stars, simply slice a ripe dragonfruit into ¼” thick slices, and cut with a mini star shaped cookie cutter.
Jessica
I think the beautiful color alone is enough reason to make this recipe! And it's delicious!
Simple Green Smoothies
I totally agree!!
Amanda
This has become our go-to. It's so nice to be able to tell the kids YES, YOU CAN HAVE ICE CREAM!!
Simple Green Smoothies
Woo hoo, Amanda! I bet they love this nice cream!
Kat
We have friends that use a special machine to turn bananas into a form of ice cream, but I try to avoid buying those single-use small appliances. LOVE that you've shown me how I can do this with my beloved Vitamix! Thanks!
Simple Green Smoothies
I'm the same way, Kat! Vitamix blenders are awesome, aren't they? I mean, is there anything they can't do?!
Kim
Ice cream has been a hard treat to give up. Thank you for a delicious (and pretty!) alternative!
Simple Green Smoothies
I could never give up ice cream and am so happy to have a healthier and dairy-free alternative now. 🙂
Erin
This is gorgeous! Definitely turning my next dragon fruit into stars.
Simple Green Smoothies
Same, Erin! I think that's my favorite part of this recipe. 🙂
Barbara
Love this! In your recipes that use coconut milk, are you using the canned coconut milk or the stuff in a carton?
Simple Green Smoothies
Hey Barbara! It really does depend on the recipe. For this one, to get a very creamy nice cream you'll want to use canned coconut milk. 🙂
BETTY JEAN QUACKENBUSH
Hello, Jen, Thank you for this recipe. Where might I purchase blue spirulina? In a health food store I would think but just wanted to see if it might be in the grocery store, too?
Need to do something other than what I am doing.....eating too much ice cream on a daily basis, almost and not small quantities. I will look for more recipes for protein shakes I can use as a meal replacement 1-2x/per day. I am soon to be 71 years of age and need to lose weight to lower sugar #'s. I like to keep active but need to get back to walking daily. I keep busy when I babysit our 3 yr. old grand daughter and she LOVES to keep busy. Thank God that our son and daughter-in-law, grandson and grand daughter live only 10 miles away.
THANKS FOR KEEPING ME ON YOUR MALING LIST ALL THESE YEARS.
Jen Hansard
Hi Betty! You can get the blue spirulina online from Amazon. I linked to it in the recipe, yet you could honestly leave it out (or blend in some blueberries to try and get the blue-ish pigment to pop). It's really all about the fruit toppings and avoiding the dairy and high sugar ice creams— so anything in this direction will def help you health. Your grand daughter is lucky to get to spend time with you! I'm glad they live close do you can make special memories. I could totally see you doing a nail day and making this together too 🙂
C
Where do you purchase spirulina?
Jen Hansard
Good question, C. Pop Joy and Terrasoul Superfoods both have a Blue Spirulina (which is what we used to get it this gorgeous color and they sell it on amazon.