Make healthy chocolate banana ice cream with frozen bananas, cacao powder, almond milk and almond butter. It’s absolutely delicious, healthy, dairy-free and doesn’t require an ice cream maker!
Throughout the summer months I seem to crave ice cream. Maybe it’s childhood memories of chocolate and strawberry cones from Carl’s Ice Cream, the best soft-serve ice cream shop ever. Or maybe it’s the fact that it’s blazing hot outside and I need something to cool down. Either way, I could eat ice cream every day. It’s always been my favorite dessert so when I found out you could make healthy ice cream from ONE ingredient (frozen bananas) I was in heaven.
I actually have to thank my mother-in-law for the idea because she was the first person to introduce me to it. This was years ago — way before the land of Pinterest. Now everyone knows about frozen banana ice cream, which is awesome!! I’m just waiting for someone to open a shop with healthy fruit-based ice creams here in Richmond.
Anyhow, this summer I’ve been on a banana ice cream bender… again. I’ve been making a bunch of different combos and have found a new favorite.
Here’s What You Need:
frozen bananas
almond milk – I used unsweetened chocolate almond milk for more chocolate flavor without adding sugar and it was delicious! Unsweetened vanilla almond milk works great too.
almond butter
cacao powder – or cocoa powder works!
cacao nibs or chocolate chips – optional but I love the texture it adds.
We all know banana and chocolate go well together, but you introduce a little almond butter to the mix and things get real. Chocolate, banana and almond butter = the trifecta.
Of all my years buying Almond Breeze this was my first time buying the unsweetened chocolate. Crazy, right? I’m excited I finally decided to try it because I can definitely see myself buying it again. I’ve actually been using it as creamer for my iced cold brew coffee and it’s quite delicious. Like a mocha iced latte. 🙂
See how smooth and creamy it turns out?!?
I added in a few cacao nibs for a little crunch, but they’re totally optional. Isaac hates crunchy things like nuts and chocolate chips in his ice cream (or brownies) so I get that some people won’t be a fan.
Nibs or no nibs, this healthy ice cream is soooo good and incredibly easy to make! Ready for the recipe?
Like This Recipe? More Healthy Frozen Treats To Try:
If you make this healthy chocolate banana ice cream be sure to leave a comment and star rating below letting us know how it turned out. Your feedback is so helpful for the EBF team and our readers!
Make HEALTHY Chocolate Banana Ice Cream with frozen bananas, cacao powder, almond milk and almond butter. It’s absolutely delicious, healthy, dairy-free and doesn’t require an ice cream maker!
Ingredients
3 frozen bananas, chopped into chunks
1/4 cup almond milk (unsweetened chocolate or vanilla)
1 Tablespoon almond butter
1/2 – 1 Tablespoon cacao powder (or cocoa powder)
1/2 Tablespoons cacao nibs or chocolate chips (optional)
Instructions
Place bananas, almond milk, almond butter and cocoa powder into a food processor(affiliate link) or high speed blender.
Pulse/process until smooth and creamy. You may need to turn off the motor and stir the mixture a couple times while processing.
Add in cacao nibs or chocolate chips (if using) and pulse once more. Spoon ice cream in to a bowl and enjoy! If you want to be able to scoop the ice cream you can place it in the freezer for 2 hours so it’s solid enough to scoop.
Yum!! I had a sweet craving and was so glad to try this. Checked everything I needed and made me feel good knowing it was a healthier option too! The consistency reminded me of a frosty which was delightful. Thanks!
Ahh yay!! That makes me so happy to hear, Cassidy. I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe. Thanks for making it and for coming back to leave a comment + star rating. I so appreciate it. 🙂
Healthy Chocolate Banana Ice Cream is definitely one of the most fun and delicious things I have ever made. 😁My husband couldn’t believe it was homemade and I almost didn’t share it with him! Brittany, this is straight up magical, Thank you So Much!!!
Ahh that makes me so happy to hear, Jennifer. I’m so glad this recipe was a hit!! Thanks for making it and for coming back to leave a comment + star rating. I so appreciate it. 🙂
My 3 year old & I make “banana ice cream” on a regular basis, so we were very excited to try this exciting version of it! Just like all of the other EBF recipes we’ve tried THIS WAS AMAZING & super easy of course. Love that all of your recipes and quick and simple but still healthy and yummy!
Ahh yay!! That makes me so happy to hear, Kelsey! I’m so glad this recipe was a hit. Thanks for trying my recipe and for coming back to leave a comment + star rating. I so appreciate it. 🙂
You’re so welcome, Jasmine!! So glad you enjoyed this recipe. Thanks for making it and for coming back to leave a comment + star rating. I appreciate it!
I think coconut butter will work just fine as a sub for almond butter. It will give it a coconut flavor, but I’m sure that will be tasty with the chocolate and banana.
Couldn’t wait to get home from my 4 mile power walk this afternoon and enjoy this wonderful healthy ice cream. The flavor was wonderful not too sweet chocolate chips I added or just the perfect touch satisfied my sweet tooth! I will definitely be making it a lot. Love all of your recipes!
Ahh yay!! I’m so glad you enjoyed this ice cream, Melissa!! Thanks for trying it and for taking the time to leave a comment + star rating. I really appreciate it. 🙂
Chocolate Banana Ice Cream: How would I be able to lower the grams of sugar, other than omitting the cocoa nibts? Leave out the almond butter? Recipe sounds wonderful. I’m currently doing Weight Watchers and the sugar will make it very high in points. Thanking you in advance, Pamm
Hey Pamela – If you use a natural almond butter that only has one or two ingredients it shouldn’t have added sugar in it (maybe 1 gram of sugar max) so that won’t really change the sugar content of this recipe too much. I would omit the cocoa nibs / chocolate chips if you’re trying to lower the sugar content.
Just made this. It’s incredible! I have celiac (and it’s GF) and my husband has type 2 diabetes. He found out in Sept of 2019 and is beating it with diet and exercise. He love his new banana ice cream!!
So good! I only had plain, unsweetened almond milk so used 1 tbsp. of the cocoa and it was excellent. I had it right away and out of the freezer. I will definitely be keeping this recipe on hand. Thank you!!!!
Amazzzzing!! My husband and I have been trying to eat healthier and thought we’d give this a recipe a shot. I love my sweets and Seriously we could not believe how good this was!! I don’t see myself buying ice cream again when I can just make this. Thank you for sharing!
Yayyy!! I’m so glad that you tried and enjoyed this recipe, Shannon. Thank you for coming back to leave a comment and star rating. The ratings are super helpful to other readers so I really appreciate it!
YUM!!! My husband and I are enjoying this tasty treat right now. I subbed coconut milk and peanut butter for almonds since we can’t eat almonds. I needed to double the milk to get the right texture in my food processor and it’s super tasty and creamy. I haven’t had anything similar to chocolate ice cream in close to 4 years, so this is especially special. Thank you!
I “discovered” frozen banana “ice cream” a year ago, but haven’t made it much, having recently discovered many unhappy allergies. However, I can eat sunflower butter, which is amazingly delicious, so am going to try the ice cream with that in place of almond butter. It’s a bit runny, so I may need to add more banana, but as my former mother-in-law, a Kentucky hill woman, used to say, “Ain’t complainin’, just explainin’!”
…I love this idea….sounds so yummm. However, theres very litle ” almond’ in Almond Milk that you buy, and you can actually make your own. I lived in CA, in the area where there was Blue Diamond Almond Farm and Plant, but I did research on it, and havent used Blue Diamond in a long time…; I am not criticizing, I am only stating an option. I realize the post was in partnership with Blue Diamond, and I respect that,to the end that it helps make your site possible…that is the reason I stated it was not to criticize, only to share information.
I’m sure you could use any other kind of nut butter. I’m going to try this with chocolate protein powder/shake instead of the chocolate almond milk. I’m not allergic, but I like the idea of adding a little protein.
Hi! I am really planning to add this on my list for my soon-to-be business 🙂 I hope its okay to use this as part of my food testing and tasting hehehe but i should ask, if i put this in freezer how many days it would last?
This was so good. My husband and I enjoyed this with our evening tea. My 8 year old son was eating his Reese’s peanut butter cup ice cream sandwich and tasted ours. Now he wants some next time. Yeah, healthy ice cream snack.
This is amazingly delicious!!! I actually used chocolate cashew milk instead of almond…..soooooo delicious! I also sprinkled some wheat germ on top …..even better!
This looks delicious and I would love to try it. I have evrything other than the chocolate almond breeze but I’m down for a quick grocery store trip. Quick question, can you double check the nutrition on this? The carbs and sugars seem off. 7 g carbs, 47 g sugar?
Hi Heather! I hope you love the ice cream!! The nutrition info is confusing, the amount comes after the term so there’s 7 grams of fat, 47 grams of carbs and 24 grams of sugar. I put lines in so it’s easier to tell which number goes with which!
Thanks Daniela! It tastes the best when served right away, but I’m sure you could store it in the freezer for a few weeks. It does tend to get really hard when frozen so you’ll need to take it out of the freezer to thaw a bit (like 15 minutes or so) before serving.
I grew up on Carl’s as well, and have many fond memories attached to it. I took my brother to Carl’s yesterday for Father’s Day (he now lives in Richmond). Unfortunately, I have developed a bad reaction to cow’s milk, so I paid the price for my scoop of strawberry creaminess. But finding this dairy free version of creamy deliciousness is making my mouth water. Thanks!
Awww, I love this connection! Carl’s is so good and I haven’t been in way too long. You’ll have to try this banana ice cream and let me know what you think of it. 🙂
I make banana ice cream all the time in the summer too. Chocolate almond milk would be an awesome addition to this and coffee! Thanks for the idea. We just moved and I can’t find my food processor blades. Of all the things to lose! I’m about thisclose to ordering new ones.
I just bought the unsweetened chocolate for the first time last week. I didn’t think I would love it but I did. I will absolutely have to put some into my cold brew! Great idea!!
I always crave ice ceam in the summer. My new fave is a specialty ice cream shop in Austin called Lick. It’s fabulous. But I like making my own treats too. Thanks for the recipe!
You keep telling me to make this, and I have no excuse now that I have a ton of frozen bananas in the freezer… Now I need to get my hands on some unsweetened chocolate almond milk (which, what the heck… I’ve never bought either.. I’m thinking it wasn’t available until recently?)!
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Delicious! This is so refreshing and tastes great as soft serve or frozen for a few hours.
★★★★★
So glad you enjoyed this nice cream recipe, Vanessa! Thanks for making it and for coming back to leave a comment + star rating. I appreciate it. 🙂
Yum!! I had a sweet craving and was so glad to try this. Checked everything I needed and made me feel good knowing it was a healthier option too! The consistency reminded me of a frosty which was delightful. Thanks!
★★★★★
Ahh yay!! That makes me so happy to hear, Cassidy. I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe. Thanks for making it and for coming back to leave a comment + star rating. I so appreciate it. 🙂
Healthy Chocolate Banana Ice Cream is definitely one of the most fun and delicious things I have ever made. 😁My husband couldn’t believe it was homemade and I almost didn’t share it with him! Brittany, this is straight up magical, Thank you So Much!!!
★★★★★
Ahh that makes me so happy to hear, Jennifer. I’m so glad this recipe was a hit!! Thanks for making it and for coming back to leave a comment + star rating. I so appreciate it. 🙂
Made this with peanut butter and soy milk. So delicious!
★★★★★
Ahh yay!! So glad you enjoyed this recipe, Debbie. Thanks for trying it and for coming back to leave a comment + star rating. I so appreciate it. 🙂
Definitely need to make this healthier version for my ice cream obsessed boys!
★★★★★
My 3 year old & I make “banana ice cream” on a regular basis, so we were very excited to try this exciting version of it! Just like all of the other EBF recipes we’ve tried THIS WAS AMAZING & super easy of course. Love that all of your recipes and quick and simple but still healthy and yummy!
★★★★★
Ahh yay!! That makes me so happy to hear, Kelsey! I’m so glad this recipe was a hit. Thanks for trying my recipe and for coming back to leave a comment + star rating. I so appreciate it. 🙂
Fantastic!! This was so easy and incredible! I prefer it without the chocolate chips. Thank you for sharing!
★★★★★
You’re so welcome, Jasmine!! So glad you enjoyed this recipe. Thanks for making it and for coming back to leave a comment + star rating. I appreciate it!
Mmm so good and dairy free.
★★★★★
can I substitute coconut butter for almond butter?
I think coconut butter will work just fine as a sub for almond butter. It will give it a coconut flavor, but I’m sure that will be tasty with the chocolate and banana.
Couldn’t wait to get home from my 4 mile power walk this afternoon and enjoy this wonderful healthy ice cream. The flavor was wonderful not too sweet chocolate chips I added or just the perfect touch satisfied my sweet tooth! I will definitely be making it a lot. Love all of your recipes!
★★★★★
Ahh yay!! I’m so glad you enjoyed this ice cream, Melissa!! Thanks for trying it and for taking the time to leave a comment + star rating. I really appreciate it. 🙂
Chocolate Banana Ice Cream: How would I be able to lower the grams of sugar, other than omitting the cocoa nibts? Leave out the almond butter? Recipe sounds wonderful. I’m currently doing Weight Watchers and the sugar will make it very high in points. Thanking you in advance, Pamm
Hey Pamela – If you use a natural almond butter that only has one or two ingredients it shouldn’t have added sugar in it (maybe 1 gram of sugar max) so that won’t really change the sugar content of this recipe too much. I would omit the cocoa nibs / chocolate chips if you’re trying to lower the sugar content.
Just made this. It’s incredible! I have celiac (and it’s GF) and my husband has type 2 diabetes. He found out in Sept of 2019 and is beating it with diet and exercise. He love his new banana ice cream!!
Blessings,
Julie
Ahh I’m so glad you guys are loving this banana ice cream, Julie. Thanks for taking the time to come back and comment. 🙂
So good! I only had plain, unsweetened almond milk so used 1 tbsp. of the cocoa and it was excellent. I had it right away and out of the freezer. I will definitely be keeping this recipe on hand.
Thank you!!!!
★★★★★
Yay!! I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe, Anthea. Thanks for making it and for coming back to leave a comment + star rating. I appreciate it!
Yum! Yum! Yum! Very soft but so good!
★★★★★
Amazzzzing!! My husband and I have been trying to eat healthier and thought we’d give this a recipe a shot. I love my sweets and Seriously we could not believe how good this was!! I don’t see myself buying ice cream again when I can just make this. Thank you for sharing!
★★★★★
Since I had plain unsweetened almond milk, I added a scoop of dark chocolate protein powder instead of increasing the cacao powder.
Yummy! Thanks for a recipe that is healthy . Also nice, even though I love banana bread, to not have all that extra banana bread around to eat!!
★★★★★
I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe!! Thanks for trying it and for coming back to leave a comment and star rating, I so appreciate it. <3
Thank you for this GREAT idea! I added a little more cacao and almond butter, but the result is still a delicious, healthy treat!
★★★★★
Yayyy!! I’m so glad that you tried and enjoyed this recipe, Shannon. Thank you for coming back to leave a comment and star rating. The ratings are super helpful to other readers so I really appreciate it!
I love my Yo-nanna, frozen banana mill….wonder if this would work in that ? ( you can bet I am gonna try)
YUM!!! My husband and I are enjoying this tasty treat right now. I subbed coconut milk and peanut butter for almonds since we can’t eat almonds. I needed to double the milk to get the right texture in my food processor and it’s super tasty and creamy. I haven’t had anything similar to chocolate ice cream in close to 4 years, so this is especially special. Thank you!
I “discovered” frozen banana “ice cream” a year ago, but haven’t made it much, having recently discovered many unhappy allergies. However, I can eat sunflower butter, which is amazingly delicious, so am going to try the ice cream with that in place of almond butter. It’s a bit runny, so I may need to add more banana, but as my former mother-in-law, a Kentucky hill woman, used to say, “Ain’t complainin’, just explainin’!”
Tell me what food processor you recommend for something like this some of them are so expensive
I have a Cuisinart 9 cup food processor and use it all the time. Here’s the one I have: http://bit.ly/2zW5QMZ
…I love this idea….sounds so yummm. However, theres very litle ” almond’ in Almond Milk that you buy, and you can actually make your own. I lived in CA, in the area where there was Blue Diamond Almond Farm and Plant, but I did research on it, and havent used Blue Diamond in a long time…; I am not criticizing, I am only stating an option. I realize the post was in partnership with Blue Diamond, and I respect that,to the end that it helps make your site possible…that is the reason I stated it was not to criticize, only to share information.
I’m allergic to almonds and coconut while trying to go Paleo. Any suggestions for this recipe?
I’m sure you could use any other kind of nut butter. I’m going to try this with chocolate protein powder/shake instead of the chocolate almond milk. I’m not allergic, but I like the idea of adding a little protein.
I tried it with my Vega Mocha flavoured protein instead of cacao powder and it was so yummy!
Love this idea! Let me know how it turns out.
Hi! I am really planning to add this on my list for my soon-to-be business 🙂 I hope its okay to use this as part of my food testing and tasting hehehe but i should ask, if i put this in freezer how many days it would last?
This was so good. My husband and I enjoyed this with our evening tea. My 8 year old son was eating his Reese’s peanut butter cup ice cream sandwich and tasted ours. Now he wants some next time. Yeah, healthy ice cream snack.
★★★★★
This is quite amazing! I make it all the time to cure my sweet tooth. ☺️
Yay! So glad that you like it, Sandy. Enjoy.
What if I don’t find Almond milk and almond butter…..can I substitute with normal milk and butter ?
Hi Maya! You can use regular milk and another nut butter like peanut butter in place of the almond butter.
OMG!!! I was looking for a low cal sweet treat. This was so good! I’ll make it over and over again!
Oh yay!! I’m so glad you liked it, Tina!! Enjoy.
This is amazingly delicious!!! I actually used chocolate cashew milk instead of almond…..soooooo delicious! I also sprinkled some wheat germ on top …..even better!
★★★★★
YES, absolutely YES. I love adding chocolate protein powder in my banana ice cream to add some more protein and thickness too!
We just tried it and it’s delicious! My daughter especially loves it. Thank you for clarifying 🙂
This looks delicious and I would love to try it. I have evrything other than the chocolate almond breeze but I’m down for a quick grocery store trip. Quick question, can you double check the nutrition on this? The carbs and sugars seem off. 7 g carbs, 47 g sugar?
Hi Heather! I hope you love the ice cream!! The nutrition info is confusing, the amount comes after the term so there’s 7 grams of fat, 47 grams of carbs and 24 grams of sugar. I put lines in so it’s easier to tell which number goes with which!
Looks amazing! How long can you keep this in the freezer for?
Thanks Daniela! It tastes the best when served right away, but I’m sure you could store it in the freezer for a few weeks. It does tend to get really hard when frozen so you’ll need to take it out of the freezer to thaw a bit (like 15 minutes or so) before serving.
This is some smart nice cream! Almond butter?! I’m sure it makes it extra creamy… thanks so much for this, it is pinned and getting made!!
Yay! Hope you like it, Alison.
This sounds utterly delicious! Will definitely have to make some!
Would a blender do the trick? My vitamix is currently in the mail on the way to extremely excited me! <3
Yes! I love my Vitamix and it should definitely work for this recipe. 🙂
I live in Fredericksburg so I was SO happy to see the Carl’s love lol 🙂
Oh man, Carl’s is the absolute best!! 🙂
I grew up on Carl’s as well, and have many fond memories attached to it. I took my brother to Carl’s yesterday for Father’s Day (he now lives in Richmond). Unfortunately, I have developed a bad reaction to cow’s milk, so I paid the price for my scoop of strawberry creaminess. But finding this dairy free version of creamy deliciousness is making my mouth water. Thanks!
Awww, I love this connection! Carl’s is so good and I haven’t been in way too long. You’ll have to try this banana ice cream and let me know what you think of it. 🙂
Ooh this looks fantastic! Nice cream for the win!! 🙂
As soon as our food processor arrives I am making this! Holy YUM!!
How are you surviving without your food processor???
My favourite! I also love adding a cheeky spoon of crunchy peanut butter in there!
Me too, lady! Love me some peanut butter and almond butter. 🙂
Ohh I’ve made chocolate banana ice cream but I haven’t actually tried it with the chocolate almond milk! Definitely trying this soon!
I make banana ice cream all the time in the summer too. Chocolate almond milk would be an awesome addition to this and coffee! Thanks for the idea. We just moved and I can’t find my food processor blades. Of all the things to lose! I’m about thisclose to ordering new ones.
I just bought the unsweetened chocolate for the first time last week. I didn’t think I would love it but I did. I will absolutely have to put some into my cold brew! Great idea!!
Isn’t it good?! Definitely try it in your coffee — you won’t be disappointed. 🙂
So simple and yet so delicious. I’ve got to try this!! 🙂
I didn’t even know the unsweetened chocolate almond milk was a thing! I will def have to try this.
I always crave ice ceam in the summer. My new fave is a specialty ice cream shop in Austin called Lick. It’s fabulous. But I like making my own treats too. Thanks for the recipe!
Oh yum! I visited Austin a few years ago (and had amazing food!) but I don’t think we went to Lick.
You keep telling me to make this, and I have no excuse now that I have a ton of frozen bananas in the freezer… Now I need to get my hands on some unsweetened chocolate almond milk (which, what the heck… I’ve never bought either.. I’m thinking it wasn’t available until recently?)!
Do it!!