What is Nice Cream?

Nice cream is a sugar-free, dairy-free ice cream substitute made by blending pieces of frozen fruit in a food processor. It’s rich and creamy enough to be enjoyed as a dessert but also packed with enough nutrients to have for breakfast. (And who doesn’t want to have ice cream for breakfast?) 

It’s not hard to see why it’s gained popularity. Unlike most recipes, this one doesn’t require an ice cream maker. All you need is a food processor and you’ll have this whipped, custard-like dessert in no time. 

Author Dani Spies even wrote Nice Cream: 30 Guilt Free Banana Ice Cream Desserts, where she defines the dessert as, “a low-calorie, low-fat, plant-based alternative to traditional ice cream that also happens to be delicious and packed with nutrients.”

How is it made?

The most famous recipe uses bananas as the base. However, more and more people are adapting the recipe to use frozen mangoes or strawberries. The recipe still calls for banana in order to provide sweetness and texture while the other fruits provide a little added flavour. 

1) Freeze whole, peeled, bananas. The riper the bananas, the sweeter your nice cream will be.

2) Break three bananas into 1 inch chunks (or about three cups of frozen fruit). You can also cut the banana before freezing if it's easier.

3) Blend the chunks in a food processor (frozen fruit may damage a less powerful mixer). You may want to add 1/4 cup of plant-based milk such as coconut or almond.

4) You can serve it immediately for a soft-serve texture or leave it in the freezer for one to two hours for a thicker consistency. 

Make it Your Own!

Most recipes may suggest making nice cream with bananas but that shouldn’t stop you from trying it with other fruits such as mangoes or honeydew melon. You can also try using bananas as a base and adding berries, nuts or other flavours such as matcha or chocolate.

Other fruits you can use as a base inplace of banana include: 

Mangoes: peeled, cut into chunks

Peaches, nectarines: peeled, pitted, cut into chunks

Honeydew or cantaloupe: peeled, seeded, cut into chunks

Strawberries: cut into chunks

Apricots: pitted and halved