Vegan Mango Ice Cream

This was delightfully good for being something so guilt-free and so quick and easy to make! What a fabulous recipe to have up your sleeve when you need to produce a quick, delicious, and yes, even healthy dessert. I do think it can pass for real ice cream (or at least pass for frozen yogurt).

I used 5 frozen bananas and 2 cups frozen sweet cherries. I used a couple of handfuls of fresh chopped basil.

Confession: I “un-veganized” this recipe by using regular fat free milk instead of a plant based milk. I used a drizzle of pomegranate molasses.

This would have come together in 5 minutes if I had not made the mistake of first trying to use my apparently NOT so high-powered blender which was no match for the very frozen bananas. My food processor worked much better.

I actually have a Yonanas Machine gathering dust on my shelf (Does anyone remember those? You plug it in, put frozen bananas and other add-ins into the shoot, and magically, out comes “healthy ice cream”!). I was interested to see how this recipe compared to the Yonanas results. I actually like this dessert made with this method MUCH better than when made with the machine! Perhaps it’s the added bit of milk? This recipe is creamier with a taste and texture much more like real ice cream than what I get from the Yonanas method and truly no harder to make than using the machine. Adios, Yonanas Machine!

It took me 13 minutes to make, but that was only because I had to transfer it from the “low-powered” blender into the food processor once I realized the blender just wouldn’t work.

Leftovers were surprisingly good after freezing for a few days, not getting icy as I had feared they would.

This recipe follows a formula that both vegans and Vitamix aficionados have been following for decades. I’m not sure that “ice cream” is the right word for it, and I’m not a fan of superlatives in recipe titles. But it is good stuff. This is pretty much how I’ve made my smoothies for the past twenty-some-odd years, so clearly I like it. The texture immediately after blending is comparable to a soft-serve ice cream. You can suck it through a straw but just barely.

For my test version, I used some mixed berries and sweet cherries for the fruit. The pink peppercorns were an unusual addition but didn’t really come through in the final product. I wouldn’t bother with them again.

As written, the texture of the ice cream/smoothie isn’t as creamy as regular ice cream but more so than a sorbet. If you want to really up the creaminess throw in a handful of walnuts or pecans. Another great addition is a couple tablespoons of ground chocolate (but not cocoa powder unless you add sweetener to match). I like to use Ghirardelli ground chocolate, which is already somewhat sweet.

I omitted the sweetener as I find the bananas and fruit are sweet enough for my taste.

A word about your blender: It really helps to have a high-powered blender like a Vitamix to make this recipe. I speak from experience! I burned out three highly-rated blenders in one year making this stuff. Then I broke down and shelled out the bucks for the Vitamix, and happily blended for the next 20 years. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Now I’ve got another use for those brown bananas that keep gathering in my kitchen!

The variations for this ice cream are endless–whatever fruit is in season or whatever is in the kitchen! A little advance timing needs to be done to freeze the fruit but now I’ll start freezing bananas already sliced.

I used store-bought almond milk, bananas, and pineapple. The ice cream was similar to a delicious sherbet. The pink peppercorns were a nice surprise.

The grandchildren loved dropping everything in the food processor and then having an instant dessert. They approved!

If you happen to have frozen bananas and frozen mango chunks, this will come together in about 10 minutes. We served this frozen treat with fresh blueberries and a sprinkle of chunky almond granola. The mango ice cream is good and smooth and creamy. The pink peppercorns add a tasty something”–we would not have been able to identify the flavor but we like it.

We had to scrape down the Vitamix every 5 seconds or so, stopping 8 or 9 times to get the mixture to a state that everything would mix on the frozen setting. Then, with an additional 10 seconds, the whole mixture came together into an ice cream-like texture and we served it up.

This recipe makes a very pleasant dessert treat. Would I call it an ice cream? No. But it is creamy, sweet, and very very banana-y. It’s simple to make and whizzing it all in my food processor took about 8 minutes.

As my bananas were pretty large they overpowered the more fruity flavor of the mango. I think this is easily solved by adding another cup of frozen mango.

We all enjoyed the little flecks from the peppercorns. But be warned the more I whirred it in the food processor the more there seemed to be. In the end we got about 6 cups of ice cream. (about 12 servings of 2 scoops each.). Since it will keep in the freezer for another day, that’s not a bad thing in my book. Next time I make this I will only use 4 bananas and increase the amount of frozen mango so it will taste more like mangos. I like bananas but I LOVE the taste of mango.

I used almond coconut milk, peppercorns, and 4 drops stevia.