"Non-Dairy" Avocado Ice Cream (or "How I Spent My Summer Vacation")

Serving 1: With slivered honey almonds

It has been an interesting summer. I took a break from my dance class to rest my knees, get much needed recovery time, and get a chance to clean up around the house. It really felt I had a vacation, even though I was still working. I loved the extra free time that I had to take walks, window shop and even read! I miss that.

An interesting side effect was I also ended up spending extra time in the kitchen. It is one of my creative outlets, although it is mostly due to the necessity of nourishment. Regardless, it gave me a chance to play with ingredients and be inspired. 

One of these experiments was making my own frozen desserts. I guess it started when I made Avocado “Ice Cream”. I’ve always wanted to make Avocado Ice Cream like my Dad did every summer. Avocado was one of his favorites (and still is) so he would take one or two avocados, mash them and mix them up with condensed milk and put it in the freezer and enjoy it for a week. Dad would be back at the fridge once or twice a day getting avocado ice cream while I had my normal Magnolia Chocolate Marble (Yeah!) or Mocha. Back then, I did not like avocado and preferred chocolate (well, I still do), so Dad enjoyed it all by himself.

Frozen fruit in the (Ninja) Blender

Now, I love avocado. During the season, I may have an avocado or three every week – on toast, tacos, tamales, omelets, you name it. I am a “Californian” anyway, so I think its a law to have avocado (along with Kale). There was a time when I bought mini avocados. My Hubby was wondering why I bought them – but it was the perfect size for one serving.

Back to ice cream… With my making dairy-free banana “ice cream” last year, I was inspired to make a healthier and perhaps dairy free version of my Dad’s summer favorite. I am trying to minimize my dairy and condensed milk has tons of sugar, so that was my motivation. I had a vision of combining avocado with frozen bananas and getting the perfect scoop.

Freezing the avocado was also in my vision because I usually end up with half of an avocado after lunch. That was the other rationale for freezing. I thought freezing it will preserve the lovely green color.

Here’s what I have so far…

Mad Gourmet’s Healthier Dairy-free Avocado “Ice Cream”

Inspired by my childhood summers with Dad
Makes 2 servings

Ingredients

• 1/2 avocado (about 1/3 cup)
• 1 banana (about 1/2 cup)
• (Up to) 1/4 cup of coconut milk
• 1/2 tsp of agave syrup (add more to taste)
• Almond slivers or coconut shavings for toppings.

Directions

1. Peel and cut banana and avocado into one inch slices.
2. Freeze (I usually do this overnight).
3. Put avocado chunks and banana in a blender.
4. Add coconut milk as needed (consistency should be like ice cream not a smoothie)
5. Top with almonds or coconut shavings and enjoy.

Verdict

Serving 2: With Coconut Shavings

I love the combination of avocado and bananas. The bananas provide the creaminess that you usually get with ice cream. The addition of coconut milk adds to the creaminess and makes it closer to the ice cream that Dad loved. It also makes for a delicious but healthy tropical treat.

As blended, it is a yummy dessert, but tricky to make a perfect scoop. It usually has a yogurt-like (or shall I say guacamole?) texture that may be a bit runny for the scooper. I find that putting the mixture in the freezer until it firms up (about 20-30 minutes) does the trick. As I am writing this, I am thinking that a quenelle may be a good alternative presentation.

After that experiment, I became encouraged to make my other frozen treats. (Hmmm... I feel another blog post coming). Think granitas and sorbets... some with summer fruit. I never thought that these would be so easy to make.

So, here’s my summer tribute to Dad. By the way, he loved Durian too… but I don’t think I’ll acquire a taste for that.

Going Bananas? Make Banana "Ice Cream"

We had a delivery from Safeway last week that included eight free bananas - eight bananas! Too much for two people and cat. We thought that this was a great deal since in addition to the fruit, it also included free delivery. We also thought that we can finish all that bananas. After all, my husband had visions of peanut butter filled bananas as a snack.

Well, that did not happen, and we still had six bananas! Now, they're getting brown.

I remembered reading about banana ice cream from frozen bananas; that seems like a great option for the remaining six. So, I put the whole bananas in the freezer: peel and all.

Bananas in a blender - Puree & Stir

Over the week, I finally got around to making Banana Ice Cream based on the recipe from Sparkpeople.com. This recipe is a combination of peanut butter and bananas so it follows my husband's vision.

One problem though: I did not peel the bananas first. DUH!

I searched Google again for possibilities and found a lot of options. What I tried is the technique shown in Happy Herbivore.com. I got my trusty knife and surprisingly, the bananas did peel easily. The fruits were extraordinarily cold though, so it helped to put on a latex glove.

I followed the recipe - but there was another problem: I do not have a food processor. I had to use my blender, which did not quite like pureeing frozen bananas without anything liquid. It needed a little bit of liquid, so I had to add a bit of almond milk (about 1/4 c). I figured the nuttiness of the almond milk would compliment the peanut butter. After adding the almond milk, the pureeing came easier. Still, a lot of stirring was involved.

Verdict

The result was actually pretty good. Pureed frozen bananas turned out to be surprisingly creamy. I wanted to try the recipe as-is first and see if we need to increase the peanut butter. My husband said we should.

I served this batch with some light whipped cream and peanut butter granola for crunch. The granola also tied to the hint of the peanut butter flavor of the ice cream. I think next time, we'll try 1 Tbsp instead. 

Serving it in a ramekin also added a touch of elegance to it. I could have gone overboard and added chocolate syrup, but I opted for simplicity for this one and focusing on the natural flavors of fruit and nut, with a hint of cream. It was yummy, almost like ice cream.

Perhaps next time, I will use the recipe at Herbivore.com that uses vanilla and cinnamon or maybe some combination of it. Vanilla and Peanut Butter does sound great together.

Just goes to show: When life gives you bananas, make banana faux-ice cream. Until next batch.