Tag: banana

Try This—Banana+Coconut+Cardamom Ice Cream

Banana, Coconut, Cardamom Ice Cream. A quick and simple banana based ice cream with a little bit of spice. This post first appeared last year and is still one of my favorite nice cream recipes!

I’m not sure if I could have told you what cardamom was good for if you had asked me a couple of weeks ago. It’s one of those spices that I have on the spice rack, but I never use. I spent a weekend at my bestie’s house and she spiked our morning coffee with a little bit of cardamom. I wasn’t really down with it, but I drank it anyway because coffee. To be fair, I’m not really that into flavored coffee (this iced coffee recipe is as close as I get), so it wasn’t the cardamom that threw me off. Maybe coffee and cardamom isn’t for me, but I could totally see myself combining it with something else. I started to think about recipes that might benefit from that distinct herbal, citrusy flavor. With Summer right around the corner, I decided to make some ice cream.

Dude. This may have been the best decision I’ve made in a while. Even though it was absolutely freezing in the city this weekend, this ice cream was so good that I turned the heat on, curled up with a chunky throw on the couch, watched some Netflix, and totally gorged myself on what was supposed to be enough ice cream for two servings. Don’t judge me, just try this!

Banana+Coconut+Cardamom Ice Cream

recipe from Chitra Agrawal’s Vibrant India

serves 2

Ingredients

  • 2 ripe bananas
  • 2 tablespoons dried unsweetened shredded coconut, plus more for garnish
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom powder
  • 1 tablespoon bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips (optional)
  • granulated brown sugar, for garnish
  • sliced almonds, for garnish

Directions

  • peel the bananas and cut them into 1/2-inch disks.  place in a glass bowl or freezer bag.  freeze the bananas for at least 2 hours or up to overnight.
  • using a food processor, pulse the frozen banana pieces.  they will first get crumbly, then gooey, then look like oatmeal pieces, and then start to bunch on one side of the bowl.  scrape down the sides and keep pulsing through these stages.  eventually, the banana will become smooth and creamy resembling soft-serve ice cream.  pulse the processor until the mixture aerates and becomes somewhat fluffy, then mix in the coconut, cardamom powder, and chocolate chips.
  • you can the ice cream immediately; it will be like soft-serve ice cream, or transfer it to an airtight container and freeze until solid, like traditional ice cream.
  • serve with an optional healthy sprinkling of jaggery (find it here), sliced almonds, and more grated coconut on top.

Source: Dolly and Oatmeal via Chitra Agrawal’s cookbook, Vibrant India.

Try This---Banana Milk Coffee

Try This—Banana Milk Coffee (Clean Eating Vegan Treat)

Thursday morning, you’re gonna wake up to a deliciously creamy, banana milk coffee. I’m saying Thursday for two reasons. Number one, I need to give you a little time to get over the initial shock of how incredible banana coffee sounds. Number two, you’re gonna need some time to cold brew your coffee to make your banana coffee dreams a reality.

In the spirit of staying motivated for a healthy new year, I’ve been cutting sugar out of my diet. I have a total sweet tooth, but I’ve been trying to cut down on the amount of unnecessary sugar I consume. I’ve traded in my bad-for-you pancake syrup for the very good-for-you maple syrup used in master cleanses. I’ve been sweetening baked goods with applesauce instead of the cups of sugar I usually use. The last sugar front that I’m up against is the megaton of sugar I put in my coffee. I’ve tried to sweeten coffee with everything from stevia to agave syrup…horrible. So when I heard about banana milk, I just had to give it a try.

The thing about this banana milk coffee is that, surprisingly, it doesn’t really taste too much like bananas. I know, I know. How is that possible? Truth is, I have no idea. What I do know is that this is one of the creamiest ‘lattes’ I’ve ever had. Best part is that it’s totally a clean eating, naturally sweet, potassium punch of a complete breakfast (seriously just as filling as a smoothie). It’s the perfect alternative to those expensive sugar cube lattes that you get at the local coffee shop. You guys!!! You must try this!

Try This---Banana Milk Coffee

Banana Milk Coffee

Ingredients

  • 1-2 tbsp ground coffee
  • 1 ripe banana
  • 1 cup milk

Directions

  • In a mason jar, combine 1 tbsp of ground coffee with 6 oz of water (if you like your coffee strong like I do, you can add more coffee per cup of water)
  • place the mason jar in the fridge and allow it to brew for a day (about 18 hours)
  • line a colander or strainer with a paper coffee filter
  • pour the mixture through the filter to remove coffee grounds
  • in a blender, combine the banana and milk
  • blend until creamy
  • pour enough banana milk over the cold brew to suit your taste

For a vegan alternative, you can use almond milk, rice milk, or coconut milk. Unsweetened milk works just fine, but if you like your coffee on the sweeter side you can use regular almond, rice, or coconut milk.

The brewing instructions are just an approximation. It’s pretty difficult to screw up cold brew, just use the same ratio of coffee grounds to water that you use regularly and it’ll turn out the same way as your regular coffee pot coffee. Also, feel free to add a dash of cinnamon to the grounds before you cold brew. Yum.