Homemade Vegan Banana Ice Cream
Peanut Butter Banana Ice Cream (Ela Vegan) uses ripe frozen bananas (choose an organic peanut butter to avoid palm oil). Banana ice cream, often called ‘nice cream’ is one of the best ways to use leftover bananas. It’s simple, naturally sweet, and is no effort. All you need is frozen banana and a blender or food processor strong enough to handle it.
Start with sliced frozen bananas. Blend them until they break down into crumbs, then keep going. At first it may look dry or grainy, but after a minute or two it usually turns smooth and creamy. If needed, add a tiny splash of plant milk to help it along, though too much can make it loose.
You can eat it straight away as a soft-serve dessert, or freeze it for an hour if you want a firmer scoop. Because banana is the base, the result tastes clean and sweet rather than heavy. It feels like a proper pudding, though it starts with fruit that might otherwise have been thrown out.
To make a vegan banana split, just slice a fresh banana lengthwise, and add scoops of vegan ice-cream (vanilla and chocolate), and top with chopped nuts, dairy-free chocolate sauce and a spoonful of jam.
Read up on food safety for people and animals (many foods used for banana recipes including chocolate and nutmeg are unsafe near animal friends). For tinned foods, rinse then remove lids (pop in cans) or pop ring-pulls back over holes. Pinch or flatten cans, to stop wildlife getting trapped.
How to buy, store and freeze bananas
Bananas are obviously not local, so buy Fair Trade and organic (farm shops are better, as supermarkets have to wrap organic bananas in plastic, to stop contamination from non-organic produce).
To avoid food waste, choose green bananas if not planning to use immediately, and use ripe sweet bananas for puddings and cakes. Store at room temperature away from other fruits that give off ethylene gas.
To freeze bananas for smoothies and ‘nice cream’, slice first then freeze on a tray, then transfer to a silicone freezer bag. Use within three months.
Use banana peel as homemade shoe polish!
The inside of a banana peel makes great shoe polish, just buff with a clean cloth to lift dust and give a mild shine. You can also use it over dry elbows and hands (or use a mashed banana as a face mask, deu to potassium). If composting banana peel, remember to remove any plastic stickers.
