Healthy home-made ice cream

Banana-chocolate ice cream

A friend and I were chatting the other day about smoothies and what we put in them and how we experimented with different ingredients and combinations. She said she wanted to make ice cream or an ice cream-like dessert with her Nutri-bullet but couldn’t find a recipe. That conversation made me think it might be a good topic to write about: it’s June, it’s hot and everybody is revelling in the summer weather after a very long wait. 

Banana

You can actually make ice cream with one ingredient: bananas! Pureed frozen bananas make an amazing healthy frozen dessert. Just take a frozen solid banana out of the freezer, cut it into chunks and puree it in a blender and it comes out creamy smooth. You can add peanut butter, chocolate or strawberries to it if you want a different flavour. If you are using a Nutri-bullet, always make sure you have some liquid or it will not puree the fruit properly.

Avocados also make an excellent base ingredient for homemade healthy ice cream. Always blend the main ingredients together first and add the ice last.

Avocado

¾ cup of creamer (cow's milk, almond milk, coconut milk, rice milk)

½ an avocado

3 cups of ice or frozen berries

Tamp down the ice as it blends to decrease the blending time as you do not want to overheat the mixture.

Orange avocado

2 oranges

¼ cup raw honey

½ avocado

½ lemon

Vanilla extract

Strip of orange peel

5 cups of ice cubes

Combine all ingredients except ice cubes and blend. Add the ice cubes and blend again until the mixture forms mounds. Do not over mix.

Here is a sorbet that’s super easy to make:

Blueberry 

Coconut milk

Blueberries

Lemon zest

Ice cubes or use frozen berries

The key to making ice cream in the blender is a three to one ratio of ice to liquid. You can also use frozen fruit and milk to make a creamy dessert which can be frozen if you prefer it colder and firmer. Frozen fruit makes for a tastier end product than plain old ice and still gives you the cold and consistency of ice cream. Whether you have a Nutri-bullet, a Vitamix, or a blender, you can make these and other ice cream- like recipes. Experiment with your favourite fruits and see what delights you can come up with.