Five Spice Banana Cream

A few weeks ago, I received the following email from Dana G:

"Stacy, please help. I have just found that I am allergic to gluten, nuts, eggs, chocolate, corn, avocado and dairy. I feel like I can't eat anything and I miss dessert! Can you give me a quick and easy recipe for a treat?"


I was happy to help, although I couldn't use my favorite dessert, a chocolate mousse that is made the raw/vegan way with avocados. A great contender though, is K's favorite healthy dessert, which we call Five Spice Banana Cream. It was hard to come up with a name for it--it is a cross between soft ice cream and pudding. This dessert is delicious, nutritious and ridiculously simple to make. The Chinese Five Spice I use is a powdered mixture of cinnamon, star anise, ginger, fennel and cloves. It is delicious and the nutritional benefits are too numerous to count, but I will say this combination is great for digestion and blood sugar management. If you don't have Chinese Five Spice Powder on hand, you can substitute cinnamon, nutmeg or any of your favorite spices.


Bananas are one of the best sources of potassium, an essential mineral that helps maintain normal blood pressure and heart function. Just one banana a day may help to prevent high blood pressure and protect against heart disease.The potassium also improves your body's ability to absorb calcium, making bananas great for your bones. Bananas have also been known to prevent and heal stomach ulcers. Although bananas are mostly protected by their peel, I encourage you to buy organic bananas. This will benefit your health, and also the health of the farmer that allowed you to enjoy it.


Print Recipe
INGREDIENTS:
  • 4 bananas sliced
  • 1 teaspoon Chinese Five Spice Powder
  • optional: 2 tablespoons almond butter
DIRECTIONS:

Place banana slices on a plate and freeze for 2-3 hours. Place bananas in a food processor along with the spice powder. Blend. In the beginning, the bananas will look like finely diced banana flakes but eventually they will come together and look like ice cream. If your bananas do not come together, it just means they are too frozen. Let them sit in the food processor for five minutes and then try again. If you want to add almond butter (not Dana or anyone allergic to nuts!) you can at this point and it will give it a mousse like consistency. Continue to blend until it looks like ice cream and enjoy!




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26 comments:

Shana said...

Wow, that totally looks like ice cream. I didn't know bananas could do that!

penny aka jeroxie said...

Always wanted to try the one fruit ice cream.... have to give this a go.

janet said...

I've made something similar to this, but I just love your addition of chinese five spice powder! What a great idea, and my mouth is watering for this now!

Tasty Eats At Home said...

Looks delicious, and so good for you! I've made coconut milk and banana ice cream before, but never just banana ice cream!

Jenny said...

How delish! Now I am curious about your chocolate mousse...

Jeannie said...

I can get 5 spice powder here :D Can I substitute bananas with another fruit? My boys do not like bananas :( Yours sure looks like icecream.

Kitchen M said...

Oh man, you are so creative, Stacy! You didn't just avoid those ingredients. You actually made something that's healthy for anyone! I can't believe it's only banana and Chinese five spice though. It looks so fancy and sophisticated like artisan coffee flavored ice cream or something.

Nicole said...

This looks JUST like ice cream! I'm so impressed!

tasteofbeirut said...

This is what I call A GREAT recipe! I am going to test it soon, no because I am allergic but because I think it will be fantastic and so "healthy" to eat!

Nicole, RD said...

That's it!? 3 ingredient!? Score! They look and sound unique and delicious!

Conor @ HoldtheBeef said...

This looks amazing. I've been meaning to try the frozen banana 'ice cream' trick for ages, but keep forgetting about it. This really looks so good! Great idea about using five spice powder too.

Jon said...

So cool! It looks just like ice cream! What is the mousse?!

Anonymous said...

I love your addition of 5 spice - what a great flavor to this healthy and delicious frozen treat!

Tangled Noodle said...

This is amazing for just 2 (optionally 3) ingredients! It looks like a full-cream ice cream - brava!!

Dana said...

Thank you! I can't believe you did a pot regarding my question. I can't wait to try this! Thanks again!

Stacy said...

@Jeannie: I am not sure of another food you can substitute. There is something about the sweetness and viscosity of bananas that works perfectly. Avocado may give you the thickness and richness, but you will most likely need to add a sweetener. Let me know if you come up with anything!

Mary Poppins in Heels said...

This sounds delicious!

And thank you, Stacy, for your sweet note in my post "The Shit & The Fan." (I think it wasn't so much bad spelling as fast typing, yes?:) )

Divina Pe said...

This is great alternative to ice cream and really simple to make. :)

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella said...

Wow, that looks so simple and tasty! Great job! :D

Sanjana said...

Wow! This looks amazing- Banana+5 Spice=Win!

Simply Life said...

wow I'm always so impressed when people make their own ice cream and this looks wonderful!

Dana said...

Hi, this is Dana again. I just wanted to thank you so much! I made this last night and loved it. My parents and sister also thought it was great. My sister even offered to change her eating if everything tastes this good! I can do this now! THANK YOU!!!

My Little Space said...

Oh wow, what an awesome flavour! Actually , the 5 spice flavour is quite strong. I bet it taste pretty yummy. HHmm...mm...

Ang said...

I heart Five spice! This is so inventive!

MaryMoh said...

Looks like a perfect ice cream to me....a healthy one with ice cream...mmmm. But I wonder how it tastes like with the 5 spice powder. I only use that for cooking meat dishes.

Cooking Rookie said...

Simple genius! I love this recipe! And it's so healthy!

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