Banana Soft Serve: This Post Will Change Your Life
4.36 from 17 votes

This vegan banana soft serve is a creamy, delicious frozen treat! Made with only one ingredient, it’s plant-based, dairy free, and refined sugar free. It’s also totally kid friendly.

Banana Soft Serve | The Full Helping

One of the things I delight in most is to create vegan alternatives to beloved and familiar treats. Nothing embodies this process more than the following recipe for life-changing vegan banana soft serve. I hesitate to call it a recipe, even, because it’s so ridiculously simple!

Back in my pre-vegan days, I was obsessed with low-calorie soft-serve ice creams—Tasti-D-Lite, Crema Lita, etc. (I’m sure that if I would have loved Pinkberry, too, but it appeared on the scene long after I went vegan). I’m now thankfully past the point of insisting on low calorie treats, but I’ve kept my love of soft serve ice cream. I prefer it, honestly, to traditional, firmer scoops.

If you happen to share my weakness for this type of froyo, then this is the treat for you. It’s raw, vegan, made from fresh fruit, and 100% delicious. It’s also kid-friendly and ridiculously simple to make. And, while I’m a big believer that desserts don’t have to be nutritious in order to be worthy, this one happens to be.

Friends, behold banana soft serve.

That’s right. Who knew that frozen bananas could, if given a spin in the food processor, rival the best frozen yogurt in town? Believe me, they do. Once you try this recipe, I guarantee you’ll crave it as often as conventional frozen treats. Maybe even more often. And you won’t believe how straightforward it is to make. See for yourself!

Making banana soft serve

Food processor

There are two ways to make banana soft serve: with a food processor, or in a blender. I’m devoted to using a food processor. I think it gives the soft serve the richest, creamiest texture. If you’re willing to be patient, you won’t need to add any milk to get a beautiful, whipped, smooth texture. The downside of this method is that it can be noisy and dramatic (more on this below). And of course, you’ll need a powerful food processor (at least 7 cups) to do it.

Blender

You can also use a blender to make your banana soft serve. If you do, you’ll probably need to add some non-dairy milk to get things blending. How much milk you add will depend on the blender you use: the more powerful, the less milk you’ll need to add. If you have a blender with a tamper, you can use that to keep the bananas blending without using a lot of liquid.

Tips for perfect banana ice cream

Be patient

If you use a food processor to make your banana soft serve, you’ll need to be patient. It takes a few minutes (about 5) for the bananas to reach a good consistency. The process is a lot like making homemade nut butter. There will be a moment when it seems as though the bananas will never turn into ice cream, but if you allow them to do their thing, they will.

Add liquid slowly

If you use a blender (or a Nutribullet), start with a small amount of non-dairy milk and add more slowly. I recommend one tablespoon at a time. If you add a lot of liquid at once, you’ll end up with something that’s more of a smoothie than ice cream. And while that’s lovely, it’s not the goal!

Use your tamper tool

This applies only to blender banana soft serve, but use your tamper tool if you have one. Using the tamper as you go will ensure that the soft serve can blend into creamy goodness without the need for a lot of non-dairy milk.

Adding mix-ins

Once your soft serve is ready, you can jazz it up with the addition of favorite mix-ins! Mine include melted vegan chocolate, peanut butter, vegan chocolate chips, cinnamon, and toasted coconut flakes. You can either sprinkle these add-ins on top, or you can quickly pulse or blend them into the soft serve to distribute them. A little dollop of raw, vegan whipped cream is also a nice treat.

Banana Soft Serve | The Full Helping
4.36 from 17 votes

Banana Soft Serve

Author – Gena Hamshaw
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 5 minutes
Yields: 2 servings

Ingredients

  • 2 large or 3 medium ripe bananas, peeled, sliced, and then frozen
  • 2-6 tablespoons non-dairy milk (as needed; see instructions)
  • optional: vegan chocolate chips or roughly chopped chocolate, peanut butter, frozen blueberries, pinch of cinnamon, toasted coconut flakes, melted vegan chocolate, or any other toppings of choice

Instructions

  • If using a food processor: Place the bananas in a food processor fitted with the S blade. Turn the machine on. The bananas will get knocked around and make a lot of noise. This is normal! Keep processing until the bananas start to develop a whipped, light, creamy texture; stop when they resemble frozen yogurt. This will take 4-5 minutes. Patience is key. If your bananas are still not getting whipped up by the processor after 4 minutes, add 1-2 tablespoons nondairy milk to get things moving. When the mixture is creamy, with a rich, whipped texture, add chocolate chips, coconut, or any other mix-ins you like. Pulse to combine. Serve immediately.
  • If using a blender: Place the bananas in a blender, along with 1/4 cup milk. Blend till they have a creamy, frozen yogurt consistency. If your blender has a tamper tool, use it to facilitate blending. Add extra non-dairy milk as needed to help the bananas blend. Serve immediately with mix-ins of choice.
Banana Soft Serve | The Full Helping

Storing banana soft serve

I think that this vegan soft serve is best enjoyed when it’s just been made. However, you can re-freeze it once if you end up with extra on your hands. If you do this, you can actually return it to your blender or food processor when you’re ready to eat the leftovers. This will help you to get a creamy, whipped texture once again.

Adding other fruits

Readers often ask whether you can create fruit ice cream with other fruits. The short answer is yes, of course! Frozen cherries and mango also make wonderful fruit ice creams. When it comes to texture, though, I think bananas can’t be beat. No other fruit has given me the same smooth, creamy consistency that bananas do.

If you’d like to add another fruit, I recommend starting with a base of at least 2 bananas and adding one cup of another fruit. This will ensure that your ice cream still has that lovely, frozen yogurt consistency. My favorite fruit additions are blueberries, cherries, and peaches. If you’d like more tips (and a great recipe that includes peaches), you can check out this article.

I can’t begin to do justice to how delicious this is! So what are you waiting for? Stop reading, and start freezing those bananas you’ve got sitting on the counter. You can thank me later 😉

Have a beautiful, sunny Saturday.

xo

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    439 Comments
  1. Wow! Thank you so much for posting this recipe. I was amazed at how similar it was to soft-serve! I felt guilty eating it and kept having to remind myself that it was just a banana!

  2. I LOVE THIS RECIPE! I freeze the bananas for about 2 hours then throw them in a blender and pulse. I have to stop every few pulses and scrap the sides of the blender. You can also add 3-4tsp of cocoa and 3-4tsp of peanut butter and it will taste AMAZING!

  3. This is excellent!! I have tried it with frozen strawberries and with frozen peaches – both were great! But my favorite recipe has the raw cacao powder, almond milk, and slivered almonds added to the frozen bananas! (Sometimes I add some goji berries too) YUMMY and Nutrient dense!!

  4. Made this today in the vita mix with 4 frozen bananas, 8 strawberries, a splash of almond milk and a dash of vanilla. OMG! My husband and I scarfed it all up and will make again and again – so many possible variations!

  5. Dairy and soy free ice cream is good but home made ice cream from organic grass fed cows is healthiest and tastiest.

    • Sure it is … If you are a baby cow. Since I’m an adult and a human, I have to disagree and even say, “Ew.”

  6. That’s really the key to it…REPLACING the old habits rather than forcing yourself into the new ones!

  7. Just so you know, this in the Vitamix, actually is WAY more AWESOME!!!! I know you said it doesn’t work in the Vitamix. Perhaps you weren’t using a tamper (that is what pushes all of the bananas down into the blade). And, when doing this, you absolutely get the best texture ice cream possible, without an ice cream maker. Guaranteed!

  8. Freeze the bananas and push ’em whole through the Champion juicer w/ the blank plate. Instant soft-serve, no waiting. We have this every night.

  9. I love the idea of this, my son has so many allergies but loves fruit and I think he would like this…. I think I would like this too! 😉

    I don’t get why people stop by to leave negative sarcastic comments, if it’s not your thing then you don’t have to comment or read the post.

    I am always happy to find a possible healthy snack for the kids! Am off to buy banana’s today! 🙂

  10. You know it girl, it did change my life. Since then I’ve experimented with frozen fruits of all kinds, a little banana thrown into all of them gives it the right creamy texture – Yum-O!

  11. I’ve done this and sometimes add frozen cherries or strawberries with it. I like the cherries best. I will have to try the “chocolate” syrup. This is just the yummiest “soft serve” (and that is also what I call it) “ice cream” ever. Gotta make it real soon!

  12. Am I the only person that BROKE my food processor trying to do this? I was really looking forward to trying it, but as soon as I turned it on, the whole lid broke and flew off. Not gonna try it in the new one.

    • Jennifer- I’m shocked no one else has experienced this problem, as this is why I started searching the comments. My food processor didn’t break, but it sounded like it was going to! I started by pulsing, but after a few I thought for sure it was going to break. I let it sit for a few minutes in the hopes that it would thaw a bit and was able to get it going after that.

      • That noise is normal! And food processors shouldn’t break, but I am so sorry if this happened to anyone 🙁

  13. Thanks so much for this recipe!! It was absolutely incredible! Imma sweet freak and this recipe is the best banana ice cream ever!! Thanks 🙂

  14. Making this… Sounds so yummy and I love bananas! One thing to point out, AGAVE NECTAR IS NOT GOOD FOR YOU! it’s not natural nor is it raw. It’s not even from the agave plant. Agave nectar is refined from a root vegetable so it’s full of starch. It also has more fructose than HFCS. Here’s an article about it: http://www.foodrenegade.com/agave-nectar-good-or-bad/. Just thought you should know as a person who is following the raw and vegan lifestyle. I’m not raw or vegan myself but I do eat quality food that is hormone/antibiotic free, organic, and locally grown.

  15. Great googly moogly! This is definitely getting made at my house! And the chocolate sauce, aww, you just don’t know…

    (Yay! =) )

  16. Absolutely love this recipe! I like to make a chocolate sauce out of raw cacao powder and coconut oil, and then pour it over the top of the ice cream. The chocolate sauce hardens when it gets cold and forms kind of a shell around the ice cream, not unlike the Dairy Queen chocolate sauce!

  17. Thank you so much for this post, it totally did change my life 🙂
    just wanted to share how i’ve been making it – i let the bananas sit out for a while a get lots of brown spots on them before i freeze them, the resulting soft serve will taste less “banana-y”
    I also love to add in a whack load of frozen strawberries and it just makes it so amazing, and a bright pink! but it has to be frozen strawberries and it would be the bestest if you frozen them yourself on a cookie sheet 🙂 please cut them first cuz they are hard as rocks if frozen solid lol oh and i’m always using a blender, i bet it takes more time but the results are the same 🙂
    if you add a cup of water, it will come out more sherbety 😀
    Thanks again! and for any doubters, i say try it and you will believe my friend, you will.

  18. This is an easy and delicious recipe! I used grounds from brewed Crio Bru instead of cocoa. It added a nice crunch and same great cocoa flavor.

  19. Mmmmm! We tried this one time about two years ago and loved it! We’re not vegans, and we both hate the crazy noise of the blender, so we haven’t tried it since, but we can definitely agree with everyone who says this is a wonderful idea. Toppings also help enhance the treat — fruit, nuts, sauces, et cetera. Loved it all. 🙂

  20. I love this. I am just getting started on my blog about sweets and adding a healthy recipe after each sweet I review. I am definitely going to reference this blog and this post in my soft-serve post! Thanks for the wonderful recipes! What an awesome site!

  21. Back in the early to mid-90s, my boss used to have meetings with someone high-up at Burberry (possibly the CEO?). He had a Champion Juicer in his office and used to make this with bananas ALL THE TIME. My boss loved it so much that he bought a Champion juicer for our office, and we made this quite often at work. You are absolutely correct, it’s beyond belief how delicious it is!

  22. Thank you so much for this recipe! I don’t really like it plain, but with almond butter, it is good, fzn blueberries makes it nice, but with fzn raspberries it is soooooo good! Love it!

  23. One of the first recipes of yours I’ve tried, and am blown out of the water. I told everyone I know and diverted them to your site for more recipes. I can’t wait to try different variations!
    Thanks so much for the work you do!

  24. OMG! i just made this because i’ve really started loving bananas and i don’t want to eat ice cream cause i’m trying to go vegan. This is SO good! now i’m gonna go freeze a ton of bananas cause i think this is gonna be made a lot at my house now 🙂

  25. Wow!

    This actually looks amazing (I say actually because I’m usually a sucker for processed, crappy, “non-real” food!). I’m interested in finding recipes like this that are wholesome, real, healthy, and super-easy to make.

    Thanks for posting!
    Nick

  26. i ate this for breakfast. with a swirl of almond butter. i ate ice cream for breakfast, with none of the guilt!

  27. Uh, frozen mashed bananas do not equal ice cream. But I guess if your senses of taste and smell are so far gone that you think carrot juice is the equivalent of chocolate milk, it’d be pretty easy to make this mistake. And I don’t blame you for being confused, your brain probably isn’t functioning properly with all those nutrients you’re not getting from your vegan diet.

    • crazy_hippy, I believe the word ‘alternative’ was used. And I just made it for the first time ever, it is quite good, and the texture is just like ice cream. But obviously if you hate the idea, this post will not, in fact, change your life.

  28. Ok, this is a keeper….modified recipe adding 1 tbls of organic vanilla extract.. YUMMY…thank you for the contribution 🙂

  29. I love this ice cream treat!!!
    Such a guiltless dessert and I like to make a raw crumble/ sprinkles
    On mine with 6-8 honey dates and half a cup of coconut and put
    It through the food processor and they stick to each other as a crumble
    It is sooo yummy on top of banana ice cream!!

  30. i don’t know how i happened upon this page but it IS a life changer! i made this last night and added in a scoop of peanut butter at the end to swirl. it was UNBELIEVABLE. my meat-eating boyfriend and i were close to spoon-sparring for the last bite. thanks for sharing!

  31. i have a yonanas 😀 <3 but yea its amazing stuff i agree with the other person talking about it 😀 except mine doesnt swirl hmmm wonder why 🙁

  32. WOW I have just been overcome with the urge to pick up banana’s…which I will be stopping at the market tomorrow afterwork to try this for tuesday night…YUM!!!

  33. Aargh. I’m sure this is good, but as someone who is allergic to bananas, it’s a little frustrating to read another “miracle recipe” that involves this fruit.

    • You might want to try coconut milk, which you can blend similarly with just a little sweetener. There’s a few recipes to be found and it’s remarkably easy.

  34. MMM! We just happened to have some frozen bananas in the freezer so as soon as I read this I ran down to the kitchen to make some! It’s fantastic and I even made the drizzle to go with it (although my dark cocoa was a bit lumpy so it didn’t blend as nicely as I’d like it to) I was amazed by how tasteful it was! Btw, this is my first specifically raw recipe as a baby raw eater =D

  35. HOLY COW! this looks so amazing and so easy i cannot even believe it! also i cannot wait to try! i have a random question for you… and maybe you have blogged about this already, so if you have the link to my answer that’d be great 🙂 what or why made you decide to go vegan?

  36. I make a crust of crushed almonds and a little maple syrup (to hold the nuts together) then pour the blended frozen bananas into the crust and refreeze for a yummy guilt free pie!

  37. I’ve been doing this awhile now.. love it.. my bf on the other hand thinks it just tastes like frozen baby food.

  38. Gena, this is superb! As soon as I read this, I froze several bananas. I love froyo, but didn’t know that banana can be this good. Even my 15 months baby love it! Thank you… I can say good bye to the expensive and full of sugar ice cream & froyo!

  39. do I need to thaw the bananas first? because once i put them straight from the frezer in the blender and the blender broke (its not a Vitamix but a powerful Kenwood)

    • No, you don’t thaw the bananas, that defeats the purpose. 🙂
      Depends on the blender… it works perfectly well in a food processor.

  40. I just got the “yonanas” maker…only $50. The commercial has been playing on TV. The consistency is thicker and much more like ice cream than the food processor which was much more gooey and takes a while to make and scrape off the sides again and again. The yonanas twirls up like soft serve right into your bowl and it took only 60 seconds to make a serving for 2. Still LOVE my food processor…gazpacho last night (yum), but for ice cream the yonanas machine is definitely better. Well worth the price.

  41. I follow many food blogs. I love to cook bake you name it. I have to this day never commented on a food blog (except my best friends). This is so very life changing and delicious that I just had too. Seriously how can this just be frozen bananas? It is like magic. I have been buying discounted old bananas from the farmers market and making this all the time. Cheap, amazing, and healthy.

  42. I was wary of using our mini food processor because I doubt it would be capable of this, but I tried it (granted my mom yelled at me because it has such a sharp blade lol) and it’s AMAZING!! I melted some all-natural peanut butter in the microwave for topping, and that really made it. Thank you SO much!!!! 🙂

  43. @Anonymous (March 1, 2011 at 9:03 pm), actually, it’d be better eating the bananas because they’re full of potassium and are fruit, and the sugar is natural sugar and is released to the body slower than refined (white) sugar, and plus, this could help with reaching the ‘Five A Day’.

  44. This post did change my life. Now, I must eat one of these everyday! Good ol’ potassium (and some calcium since I put in 1/4 cup of milk)!

  45. Wow. I can’t believe how creamy this is! It really *is* like ice cream. You’re right – this will absolutely change my life. Thank you!!!

  46. I make something similar to this . . . read it in one of my books.

    I take frozen strawberries and run them through my Omega juicer (with the blank in) and then run a banana through it.

    I run it through about 3 times and it mixes together as the most awesome strawberry banana ice cream!

    I’ve done with other frozen fruits too, but for me the strawberries are the best!

  47. I can’t wait ti try this recipe! I think you could add a little vanilla extract to it.

  48. Oh. my. heavens. I am so excited!! I’ve recently taken dairy and refined (and nearly all natural) sweeteners out of my diet–needless to say, I’ve been looking for a special treat that fits both of these criteria. Thank you!!

  49. This sounds yummy and nice and unprocessed. Bananas are fat-free and chock full of potassium. However, from a strictly calorically-speaking standpoint, you’d be better off eating ice cream than 2-3 bananas. The fruit alone would be roughly 240-360 calories and would count as 4-6 servings of fruit because of the high sugar content.

    • Calories don’t matter to our bodies nearly as much as nutrient-density. Not by any stretch would one be better off consuming a concocted desert over an all natural one that is completely unrefined, thus has all of its nutrient content and fiber.

  50. This was way easy to make and tasted incredibly good! And the best part of it for me is that it doesn’t require NUTS (which all other ice cream recipes seem to call for). This is pure fruit, love it! Low in fat and calories, easy to digest… thanks a mil 🙂

  51. Its amazing how easy it is and taste great! my husband adds natural peanut butter

  52. The cooked food I struggle with missing most is coffee. Over the last year or so I’ve experimented with a number of cacao based concoctions to satisfy my cravings, and this is my decadent favourite:

    Ingredients

    * 1/4 cup macadamias
    * 4 dates
    * 2 teaspoons agave nectar
    * 1 tablespoon cacao powder
    * 1 1/2 cups of water

    Method

    Blend all ingredients on high until creamy. Makes about 2 cups.

    I serve it in a coffee cup with saucer so I can replicate the atmosphere of my habit – this is often what I’m missing the most anyway!

  53. I’m making this for my boo this weekend cause she has an insane ice cream weakness. But she’s mildly allergic to bananas, so I was wondering if there was any other fruit or vegetable that I could use that would produce the same results….

    • I found out you can try it with papaya: http://tinyurl.com/3ou2hly The person who tried it is a fan of Gena too!
      I think mangoes may work (since they’re dense sort of dense), and I’ll try the mango idea tomorrow morning.
      Maybe cantaloupe and honey dew melons work too…they’re sort of like papayas, right?

  54. I’m going to make this SAT night with friends! Thanks so much. We’ll top with other healthiness! Thank you so much for the great post!

  55. Thank you Gena for all your great recipes! I tried this one tonight. Pretty good but I think because I used over ripe bananas. I have always frozen these for shakes and they have been fine. How ripe should the bananas be? Also, I remind myself to create a new habit and peel the bananas before I freeze them. Off to search your website more for say a yummy raw pie. Any ideas? I still have your juice recipes tagged and will go back to the grapefruit one tomorrow morning. Loved it!

    Karen

  56. ThanksGena! I have frozen bananas in my freezer. Think I may have tried this once in my Vitamix without success . I do love frozen strawberries, bananas and almond milk as a protein smoothie with protein powder. 5 minutes sounds like a long processing time but I will try it. 🙂 Had this at a raw foods counter once and it was delicious!

    Karen

    • I am not a fan of bananas but made this for my boyfriend… NOW, I am a banana scream fan!!!

  57. I am ridiculously excited about trying this recipe. My nephew is always asking me for ice-cream, and obviously I don’t want to fill him up with sugar and fat. I am thrilled to try this out on him. I am hoping he will think I have suddenly become very, very cool.

  58. This did change my life. I am not vegan, nor raw, but I’m always looking for healthful snacks and desserts. AMAZING!

  59. i have always been wanting to make the banana soft serve but don’t have a vitamix…do u think a blender would work?!

  60. incredible…have only had it once with a spoonful of peanut butter….making it again tonight and think i will add some raspberries..and i can’t leave out that bit of peanut butter :O ..amazing…now i am thinking of the chocolate syrup on top of the peanut butter banana ice cream ..mMM

  61. I am about to try it out right now!! I will let you know how it turns out! Thanks

  62. Thank you for this site.I have pased it on to my friends all over the world. I have never seen any recipes for soft serve even in the Food Processor books. If you mix fruits, my suggestion is only one part banana to three parts of something else lest the banana take over the flavor. With banana by itself you are expecting the strong flavor. Works well with Mango and Durian (that stinky smelly fruit of the Orient which I love).

  63. I’ve been making this almost everyday for the last few weeks! Ah, it’s amazing. I use the Vitamix and it works absolutely perfectly!

  64. i put some roasted almonds and raisins in it… awesome! thanks for sharing 🙂

  65. OMG, Are you kidding me? This is SOOOOOOO good. I am an ice cream/fro yo addict. I mean serious addict. Everyday. Now, I found something just as good and healthy? Are you kidding?

    Thanks!!!

  66. Oh. My. Goodness. I just made this, and it was so fluffy and creamy and melty and AWESOME! I had to add a little almond milk, though, since my food processor sounded like it was about to eject the banana chunks. Yum! I’m definitely going to experiment with different mix-ins! Great and fast dessert!

  67. Banana soft-serve is the absolute healthiest, tastiest and smartest ice cream substitution ever made. Really. And it tastes delicious 🙂

  68. This is sooo so good!!! After making it once, I was addicted. I add a splash of almond milk, cinnamon, and nutmeg and puree in my mini food processor. Serve w almond butter or peanut butter, and a dollop of nonfat whipped cream (I am not completely vegan as of yet!) This post most definitely changed my life 😉

  69. Soo amazing!! I actually made it in the blender with almond milk and almond butter!! it looked like a smoothie so i put it in a container , threw some rasp ans blueberries and into the freezer.

    Yum yum!! The idea of the chocolate syrup is great!! I’ll try it!! 😀

    • you froze it after mixing everything up or mixed up frozen things…?

      I am wondering if it works to mix, freeze and then eat from the freezer as you would conventional ice cream….

      • You have to use frozen bananas to make it, but then you can freeze and defrost slightly to eat as needed.

  70. So good. I just made a small batch and I want more. I melted some peanut butter and drizzled it on top too!

  71. This is one of my faves and I often have a big bowl of “ice cream” for dinner. Not for dessert, but *as* dinner.

    I do strawberry ice cream, peach ice cream, blackberry ice cream, raspberry ice cream, etc. as well. Three frozen bananas and a bag of frozen fruit make flavored ice creams. Strawberry is definitely my favorite!

      • I use the food processor as well — and toss in any frozen fruit I have around. Frozen cherries are my favorite with the bananas

  72. I absolutely loved this recipe!! Its so easy! I used a little food chopper/mini food processor thing I had at my house so I had to scoop it out a lot to make a larger batch. Everyone really loved it! I posted it on my blog (galaxyfitnessclub.wordpress.com & westmorelandathleticclub.wordpress.com) as well linking back to you! (your pictures turned out a 100000x better than mine! that may be just because you made it better!) But either way great recipe thanks so much!!