Nothing bad, the all-fruit ice-cream
When I put this dessert down in front of my kids last night, they couldn’t believe their eyes. Post-dinner treats at VSHQ consist of fruit and yoghurt (they get ice-cream at nanny & pa’s house) so they didn’t know WHAT they had done to deserve this magnificent creation.
Little did they know that there was some serious fruit smuggling taking place and there wasn’t a single unhealthy thing before them.
You see if you blitz up a frozen banana, you magically get the consistency of ice-cream. You can leave it as a magic one-ingredient dessert if you like, or you can add in some honey or other fruit. In this case I’ve used a couple of mango cheeks, then drizzled over some pomegranate seeds and ‘sprinkles’ of toasted coconut.
Best thing about this recipe is that it’s totally flexible to suit your family. You could replace the mango with berries and experiment with other toppings like pistachios and toasted almonds. I suspect frozen kiwifruit would work too, although I’ve not tried it. Maybe you can all do some experimenting and let me know what variation works at your place.
Magic fruit ice cream
1 mango
2 bananas (ripe but not over-ripe)
Pomegranate & toasted coconut to serve (optional).
Cut the flesh away from the mango skin (if you’re not sure how, watch this video). Pop into a plastic bag and freeze along with the whole bananas. When solid, peel the bananas (totally do-able – the skin comes away in chunks).
Place the bananas into the bowl of a food processor (a mini one will be fine for this quantity) and blitz until smooth.
Add in the mango and again, blitz until smooth. Pop this back into the freezer to harden up again (blitzing may have softened it all a little). Spoon into pretty bowls and serve to your astonished and amazed children.
Serves 4 kids, or 2 kids and 2 non-greedy adults
Vegie Smugglers 
foods for the soul said,
December 6, 2012 @ 6:22 am
As long as it’s sweet, kids think it’s a treat! (And I do too.) You’re a brilliant parent to come up with such a healthy ice cream!
becky mcclure said,
December 6, 2012 @ 6:57 am
we love banana ice cream in this house!!!!
wendyblume said,
December 6, 2012 @ 8:12 am
Yes, it’s a bit genius, isn’t it! Especially for kids like mine who aren’t massive banana fans. Do you keep yours pure Becky, or add other ingredients?
jessie11 said,
December 6, 2012 @ 9:42 am
Fantastic!! I cut my overripe bananas into chunks and freeze them to make muffins etc. But the freezer has way too many bags of bananas at the moment. Magic Banana Icecream here we come…!!!
wendyblume said,
December 6, 2012 @ 9:47 am
Yep, although you need to make it before the bananas turn. Would just be mush otherwise. Have you tried my banana bread? I promise that it’s good, and will use up a stack of your freezer stash.
https://vegiesmugglers.com.au/2011/02/08/banana-bread/
Keira said,
December 6, 2012 @ 10:07 am
I LOVE this idea but wondering if you know about the new contraption on the market called the YONANA? (www.yonana.com.au) it is designed specifically to blitz frozen fruit to an ice-cream / sorbet consistency. We use it almost everyday to make ‘ice-cream’ for our 18 month old. It is a one use machine but oh so brilliant for summer 😀
wendyblume said,
December 6, 2012 @ 10:10 am
No, I don’t know it! Sounds great. What flavours work out best?
I just use my trusty mini-food processor, which cops such a flogging that it’s on its last legs!
Keira said,
February 17, 2013 @ 7:06 pm
My favourite combo so far would have to be banana / mango / pineapple! Or for an adult treat, banana with a small amount of dark mint chocolate through it, yep, it blitzes it to a choc chip icecream YUM! 😀
wendyblume said,
February 18, 2013 @ 10:16 am
yummo! I hadn’t thought of pineapple – I’ll give it a bash while they’re in season.
Jo said,
December 6, 2012 @ 6:57 pm
This sounds great, ive never frozen bananas b4, do u peel & freeze whole or do they blacken if u skin them? Freeze in chunks or leave intact? Cant wait to try this 🙂
susievenkat said,
December 6, 2012 @ 7:17 pm
Peel, cling wrap & freeze is the best way – I reckon.
wendyblume said,
December 6, 2012 @ 8:24 pm
Sounds like either whole or peeled works great!
Jo said,
December 7, 2012 @ 1:11 am
Great, thanks ladies 🙂
jeanieinparadise said,
December 7, 2012 @ 9:42 pm
Aaah – we had a bumper crop of lady fingers this year, so have several dozen frozen bananas already – may try this.
wendyblume said,
December 8, 2012 @ 7:19 am
Sounds perfect
My Favourite “Ice Cream” « Dreambles said,
December 8, 2012 @ 12:06 am
[…] Every day ice-cream (fruit smuggling at its finest) (vegiesmugglers.com.au) […]
Barbara Good said,
December 8, 2012 @ 7:34 pm
This looks fantastic, I’ll have to save a banana or two next time. I reckon a tiny bit of grated dark chocolate would be a hit as a topping too.
Lisa said,
December 10, 2012 @ 1:39 pm
Thanks Wendy! I’ve been blitzing banana and mango and popping it into our Tupperware Lollitups so it’s on a stick – and he’s loving them! Asked for them again last night as he was going to bed and this morning for breakfast so I’ve had to say they’re an afternoon treat – hehehe little does he know they’re pure fruit. Genius! Thanks!!
mummysundeservedblessings said,
December 10, 2012 @ 3:58 pm
Such a great idea. I have made it for myself but I am yet to try it out on the kids. I think they would love it too. Thanks for linking up to the Weekend Cookbook
Laura said,
March 29, 2013 @ 2:06 pm
I wonder if you could add spinach or kale to this without ruining the taste/texture…… Will have to try and see how it goes. 🙂
wendyblume said,
April 1, 2013 @ 9:14 am
interesting idea! I”m sure alot of the green smoothie recipes could be adapted in a good way.
10 Healthy Ice Cream Recipes! | Natural New Age Mum said,
January 6, 2014 @ 11:02 am
[…] Magic Fruit Icecream […]
Julia said,
April 3, 2014 @ 11:37 am
Wendy from one very grateful Oma, you saved me! With this “icec-ream” recipe I managed to “convince” my 2 year old fussy (“NO!!” to just about everything) granddaughter to eat her pumpkin before a promised special treat of “ice-cream” 🙂 She woofed it down saying “YUMMY ice-cream Oma, YUMMY!!” I can’t thank you enough 🙂