When it comes to frozen banana Nice Cream the options are endless. You can keep it simple with 2 ingredients – bananas and almond milk. Or add some color and flavor with fruit – berries, mango, cantaloupe. Or, you can really get fancy by adding this bean-based cookie dough.
Beans in ice cream?! Yes, you heard me right! The dates, peanut butter, cinnamon and cacao supply the flavor while the garbanzo beans offer that cookie dough texture. We recommend letting people try it BEFORE you share the ingredient list.
Between the beans, bananas, cacao nibs and dates, this nice cream offers a healthy dose of fiber. Looking at a standard cookie dough ice cream brand, in 1 cup there’s no fiber and 28 grams of added sugar (7 teaspoons!). This isn’t the natural sugar found in fruit – which comes with fiber and lots of other nutrients. This is processed, nutrient-lacking granulated sugar. You’re looking at the perfect combination for a big blood sugar spike.
Banana-based nice cream gives you a sweet and creamy treat using whole, plant-based ingredients. A dessert without the guilt!
Nice Cream Hack: For those wanting to keep pre-made Nice Cream in the freezer for a quick treat, add a small amount of alcohol when blending. Alcohol doesn’t freeze so it will always be easy to scoop. In this recipe I added 1 tablespoon of (cheap) rum to the banana mixture when I knew it would be stored for a few days. Vodka also works well if you don’t want the liquor flavor.
Plant-Based Cookie Dough Nicecream
Ingredients
Cookie Dough
- 1 15 oz. can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
- 10 pitted dates
- 2 T peanut butter (no sugar added)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 cup cacao nibs
Nice Cream
- 6 medium bananas, peeled, halved and placed in the freezer for at least 3 hours
- 3/4 - 1 cup almond milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Cookie Dough
- In a food processor, blend garbanzo beans, dates, peanut butter, vanilla extract and cinnamon until smooth, stopping to scrape down sides as needed.
- With a spatula, stir in cacao nibs
- Flatten dough onto a piece of parchment paper until it's about 1/4 inch thick. I lined a 9 inch baking pan with parchment paper, added the dough, then put another piece of parchment paper on the top and pressed it flat to fill the pan. It doesn't have to be perfect as it will be cut into chunks later.
- Place flattened dough into the freezer for 3 hours.
- When ready to make the Nice Cream, remove dough from freezer and cut into 1/4 inch squares.
Nice Cream
- Add frozen bananas, 3/4 cup almond milk and vanilla to food processor and blend until smooth. Add remaining 1/4 cup of almond milk, 1-2 tablespoons at a time, if needed.
- Stir together nice cream and cookie dough chunks.
- Serve immediately, or, for a more firm texture, freeze in a sealed container for 1-2 hours prior to serving.
Notes
knife was perfect for cutting the frozen cookie dough into small chunks.Nutrition
