Banana Soft Serve, 2 Ways

Did you know you can make an ice cream substitute in about 10 minutes with only 3 ingredients? I will show you 2 ways to do so with this Banana Soft Serve recipe. It is creamy and delicious yet a lot lighter than regular ice cream. It makes a great dessert but you can even have it for breakfast. And for my vegan friends; you can make this soft serve vegan by simply using dairy free substitutes. So if you are looking for a cool Summer treat other than ice cream, give this a try!

I know it has been a while since my last post (June and July were really busy for me); but I am back! So you should be seeing posts from me a little more frequently, unless something changes 😁. But back to the recipe. Back in college during my more health conscious days, I used to make this Banana Soft Serve pretty often in 2 ways. Peanut Butter and Nutella were my go to flavors with the latter being my favorite. I don’t remember where I got the idea from but the first time I tried it, I was so pleasantly surprised by the results that I was ready to swear off ice cream forever! Jk lol, if you know me, you know I am an ice cream fanatic. But this soft serve cut down my ice cream consumption quite a lot back then.

Since bananas have a low water content as compared to other fruits, when they are frozen and blended, they have a very creamy texture reminiscent of ice cream. Which makes them a perfect substitute for ice cream. Plus their banana flavor becomes less prominent. Now I will never tell you to swear off a food you love (cus as you can see from my posts, we eat everything over here) but if you ever want to cut back on sugar, fat or dairy heavy frozen treats or if you simply want to try something new, proceed to the tips then to the recipe below.

Some Tips

• Freeze your bananas ahead of time. Your bananas need to be completely frozen in order for you to get a nice and creamy texture.
• You will need a food processor or a similar appliance to blend this recipe smoothly. A food processor is great because it requires less liquid in order to blend the ingredients. Less liquid means a smoother soft serve with less ice particles. If you don’t have a food processor, you can use a blender. Depending on what type of blender you use, you may need to add more milk to help it blend so keep that in mind.
• You can make this vegan. Just use a milk and a hazelnut spread with no dairy. (My version in the images uses whole cow’s milk.)
• You can omit the peanut butter and Nutella. The simple and less caloric version of this recipe is made of only bananas and milk. But it is just way tastier and creamier with the addition of peanut butter or Nutella. Of course you are also not limited to these additions; you can add a different type of nut butter, a cookie butter, chocolate chips, and more.
• It is best when eaten immediately or soon after making. I suggest making only how much you need for the day to get that creamy soft serve texture. But you can also store leftovers in the freezer. You may just need to let it soften at room temperature for a few minutes before serving.