Things to do with fruit. Do you have fruit in your freezer, particularly bananas, and you’re looking for something to do with it besides bake it into something? Make healthy and delicious ice cream and a healthy and delicious topping for it.
Peach and banana ice cream with rhubarb and strawberry topping. Plus walnuts.
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Peach and banana ice cream with rhubarb and strawberry topping. Plus walnuts.
I use a ratio of two third’s bananas to one third other fruit to make blender ice cream. I generally buy medium bananas and when they’re past their prime I peel and cut them into 4-5 pieces and freeze. I’ve made this ice cream with strawberries, blueberries and peaches. Try it with whatever you have – mixes berries, cherries, mango, etc. Also I don’t have a Vitamix. I have an old $50 Ninja that came with three different blender containers. I use the medium (40 ounce) container because it’s easier to scrape down the sides when blending the ice cream.
Ingredients
2 medium frozen bananas in pieces
the equivalent of 2 peaches using frozen peach slices
1/4 cup of milk, almond milk, soy milk etc. I don’t use water or fruit juice because the ice cream crystallizes. I made this batch with some whole milk I had lying around.
Add the fruit to the blender container and let it thaw about 10 minutes.
Let the fruit thaw a little so it’s easier to blend.
Then add a couple of tablespoons of milk. Blend, move the fruit around with a spatula to make sure it’s all blending. Add more milk if the chunks won’t break up. Keep blending and scraping until it’s smooth. Then I stir in a teaspoon of vanilla and blend it in. At this point it’s soft serve.
Blend the vanilla in.
This is the consistency, on a spatula, that I scooped into the containers to freeze.
Half full 8 ounce container on the left and a full 16 ounce container on the right.
I scoop it into a container(s) and freeze it for 4 hours or more. If you’re making multiple batches to feed more people freeze it in a loaf pan so you can pull nice round scoops with an ice cream scoop.
After 12 hours. First scoop!
Add your toppings!
Roasted strawberry and rhubarb (Yes I know rhubarb is a vege) Makes about 32 ounces.
I got this recipe from a CSA I was a member of a million years ago. What I like about it is the strawberries are added at the end so they don’t disintegrate and you have nice pieces. You’re supposed to cook the rhubarb and let it cool for 20-30 minutes and then stir in the sliced strawberries. I just stir them in when I take it out of the oven.
Ingredients
Butter to grease 8×13 baking pan. Or use two 8×8 pans. It just has to be something you can cover tightly with tin foil.
1 pound of rhubarb cut into 1 inch pieces
16 ounces of strawberries, cleaned, tops trimmed off, sliced.
1/2 cup light brown sugar. I’m sure you can use regular sugar, dark brown sugar, maple syrup or any other sweetener you have around. If you don’t use sweetener I think rhubarb is too tart. 1/2 cup sugar = 8 tablespoons. This makes about 8 servings or 1 tablespoon of sugar per serving. You won’t die!
A quarter cup of orange juice. I keep this around in case the rhubarb gets dry while baking. I didn’t use it on this batch.
Preheat over to 350 degrees.
Grease pan with butter.
Toss rhubarb in a bowl with the brown sugar.
Add the rhubarb to the pan and cover tightly with aluminum foil. Bake for 15-20 minutes. After 10 minutes peak under the foil to make sure it isn’t dry. If dry add some orange juice, water etc. I just baked this batch for 20 minutes and it was a little mushy but delicious.
Remove the foil and let it cool for 20-30 minutes and then stir in the sliced strawberries. OR just stir in the strawberries. Also you can add some salt maybe 1/8 teaspoon and stir it in. This tasted great so I left it out.
Add strawberries after rhubarb is done.
You can eat it alone warm, cooled or chilled. I let it cool in the pan and then store in fridge overnight. The flavors meld together.
Peach and banana ice cream with rhubarb and strawberry topping (plus walnuts)
I add the rhubarb/strawberry topping to the ice cream cold because the it melts pretty quickly. You can toast the nuts (any nuts you like) before you add them. Both the ice cream and rhubarb can be eaten separately. Also it’s so healthy I ate this bowl for breakfast! Enjoy!
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