Banana Maple Walnut Raw Vegan Icecream
Who doesn't love ice cream? But with all the sugar, and additives and pasteurized milk, it's not the healthiest of desserts, unless… you make your own non dairy, non soy, raw vegan ice cream. It's healthy, delicious, and it only takes 10 or 15 minutes to make.
A great way to deal with ripe bananas is to peel them and freeze them. I just put them into freezer bags, about 4 bananas per bag, tie the end shut and put them in the freezer so they lie flat. When I find bananas on sale I buy lots, or I order a whole box from the organic wholesalers. They will always get ripe faster than I can use them, but as they do, it's easy to freeze them. Then you always have them on hand to use in smoothies or quick non dairy vegan ice cream any time you want.
Ingredients:
4 ripe bananas, frozen
2-3 tablespoons maple syrup or raw agave syrup
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon raw organic vanilla bean powder
1/3 cup walnut pieces
Instructions:
Break each banana up into 3-4 pieces. Put everything except the walnuts into a high-speed blender or food processor. Pulse until it starts getting creamy. You may need to stop and scrap down the sides of the container a couple of times. If you're using a blender that has a plunger, use the plunger as you're pulsing or blending to keep the mixture moving.
When the mixture is smooth and creamy, use a spatula to turn it out into a bowl. If you're not going to eat it all at once, put it into a small freezer safe baking dish with a lid. Add the walnut pieces and mix in with the spatula.
You can eat it right away, or put the lid on and keep it in the freezer. It's a good idea to stir it every few hours to keep it from getting too icy.
Serves 4
Chef's Tip:
Try to buy most of your nuts in the shell. Especially the nuts with a high oil content, like walnuts and macadamia nuts. Most of the shelled nuts I see in the store (even the health food store) are rancid to some degree. That means they don't taste as good as they should, but even more importantly, they contain free radicals that are damaging to our health.
I luv what u guys re doing, it good and i will love to benefit from it too.
Thank you! It’s always nice to be appreciated. I’m grateful you took the time to let us know 🙂
It’s been awhile since I’ve checked your site out, but whenever I do, I am always happy I did! I’ve had some frozen bananas hanging out in my freezer for a while and this was the perfect recipe…..until I realized I didn’t have any vanilla. However, I did have some almond and some rum extract, so I went half and half in lieu of the vanilla and added about 2 t carob powder. YUM! The aftertaste had a little kick back, but it satisfied my craving for ice cream.
This recipe sounds great. I’ll definitely try it, especially because my husband has a ferocious sweet tooth. I didn’t know that shelled walnuts contain free radicals. I eat them daily. Truthfully, though, I can’t imagine sitting and shelling walnuts in the volume we eat them in this house. First of all, they’re nearly impossible to find year-round in the shell, and secondly, who has time to do that? It’s just not practical. What a disappointment; I thought I was eating healthily by eating walnuts. 🙁
Hi Etta. Let me know how you and your husband like it. I love this vegan ice cream. It would be good with pecans too, now that I’m in a place where pecans are abundant and walnuts are harder to find. Just to clarify about the walnuts and free radicals… the walnuts only have free radicals (which are bad) if they are rancid. Many you buy in the store are. Sometimes I find them rancid in the shells, but they are protected in the shell and seem to last for longer before going rancid. You can usually tell by the color on the inside of the walnut. Unfortunately I think most people have never had them really fresh before, so it would be hard for them to compare and notice that what you usually find in the store are rancid. If you can get some really fresh, really good quality walnuts and store them in the freezer I think that would keep them fresh for a long time. Otherwise, if they are fresh, walnuts are very healthy.
Donna,
Thanks for the info/clarification on walnuts. I love, love walnuts! Great suggestion putting them in the freezer. I put a copy of “Forks Over Knives,” on our kitchen table and my husband took the bait and read it. I’m trying to transition him away from all animal flesh and too many animal products (baby steps). Now that he’s read the book he’s incented to try. We don’t eat processed foods but sugary stuff is where he falls off the wagon (don’t we all). I made up a recipe for vegan frozen peanut butter and banana ice cream and it’s killer! But it’s very fattening and your recipe would be a lower calorie option. I’m going to make it this weekend and I’ll let you know how it is.
Etta