Healthy Chocolate Banana Ice Cream
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Published Jun 08, 2020, Updated Jan 21, 2024
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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 banana 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 – I recommend peeling and chopping your bananas before freezing so they’re easier to blend! Check out my how to freeze bananas guide for tips and tricks!
- 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 – any brand of almond butter works – just make sure the only ingredients are almonds and salt! I like the Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s brands.
- cacao powder – or cocoa powder works!
- cacao nibs or chocolate chips – optional but I love the texture it adds. If you use chocolate chips, I recommend Lily’s chocolate chips as there is no added sugar.
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?!?
Get Creative!
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?
Healthy Frozen Treats To Try
- Blueberry Frozen Yogurt
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Ice Cream
- 3 Ingredient Icebox Cake
- Frozen Banana Snickers
- Mint Chip Avocado Ice Cream
- Vegan Blueberry Cheesecake Bars
- Greek Yogurt Popsicles
- Cottage Cheese Ice Cream
Healthy Chocolate Banana Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 3 frozen bananas, chopped into chunks
- ¼ cup almond milk, unsweetened chocolate or vanilla
- 1 Tablespoon almond butter
- ½ – 1 Tablespoon cacao powder, or cocoa powder
- ½ Tablespoons cacao nibs or chocolate chips, optional
Instructions
- Place bananas, almond milk, almond butter and cocoa powder into a food processor 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.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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!!
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.
I didn’t even know the unsweetened chocolate almond milk was a thing! I will def have to try this.
So simple and yet so delicious. I’ve got to try this!! 🙂
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. 🙂
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.
Ohh I’ve made chocolate banana ice cream but I haven’t actually tried it with the chocolate almond milk! Definitely trying this soon!
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. 🙂
As soon as our food processor arrives I am making this! Holy YUM!!
How are you surviving without your food processor???
Ooh this looks fantastic! Nice cream for the win!! 🙂
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. 🙂
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. 🙂
This sounds utterly delicious! Will definitely have to make some!
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.
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 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!
We just tried it and it’s delicious! My daughter especially loves it. Thank you for clarifying 🙂
YES, absolutely YES. I love adding chocolate protein powder in my banana ice cream to add some more protein and thickness too!
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!
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.
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.
This is quite amazing! I make it all the time to cure my sweet tooth. ☺️
Yay! So glad that you like it, Sandy. Enjoy.
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.
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?
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.
Love this idea! Let me know how it turns out.
I tried it with my Vega Mocha flavoured protein instead of cacao powder and it was so yummy!
…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.
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 “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’!”
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 love my Yo-nanna, frozen banana mill….wonder if this would work in that ? ( you can bet I am gonna try)
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!
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
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!
Yum! Yum! Yum! Very soft but so good!
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!
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. 🙂
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.
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. 🙂
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.
Mmm so good and dairy free.
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!
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. 🙂
Definitely need to make this healthier version for my ice cream obsessed boys!
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. 🙂
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. 🙂
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. 🙂
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. 🙂
Summer needs to sick around all year long so I can eat this banana ice cream all.the.time.! So tasty and guilt free. Love love love!!
So glad you’re loving this ice cream, Erica!! Thanks for taking the time to come back to leave a comment + star rating. I so appreciate it!
How much does this make? Like how large is each serving?
Thank you for sharing this🥰If i could have i would have given more than 5 🌟! The recipe was very easy to be made anytime with at home ingredients. Loved it! I replaced cocoa with coffee and almonds with walnuts (whatever was at home 😋) but it was amazing! Just one caution – it tastes wonderful but keep a control on quantity… its too heavy🤪
Ahh yay!! That makes me so happy to hear. So glad you’ve been loving this recipe! Thanks for the review. I so appreciate it. 🙂
Just in time, thank you
Sooooo good!
This is delicious! A hit with my whole family. Thank you!
I’m so glad you enjoyed this ice cream, Alanna! Thanks for the review 🙂
Hi! Is there a way to make a nut free version? Thanks!
You can use tahini or sun butter, or simply skip the nut butter!
So happy with how this turned out! Made it as a quick dessert for my kiddos since I had all the ingredients on hand. Added the optional half tbsp of cacao nibs as well. We all loved it, and will be making it again, for sure. Thanks!
Woo!! So glad this banana ice cream was a hit! Thanks for the review, Patricia!
I love it and super easy
Yay! So pumped to hear this ice cream was a hit, Justine! Thanks for trying it out and coming back to leave a review. It means so much to me!
Wow that was really good ice cream. I’am buying bananas every week now! Thanks to you… I have good ice cream to eat🤗
Yay!! So happy to hear this ice cream was a hit, Teri! Thanks for trying it out and coming back to leave a review. It means so much to me!
Hi can these be made as ice blocks?
Cheers
I don’t see why not!
Very tasty recipe. I added some vanilla essence and then mixed cacao nibs through the finished mixture. Also, I substituted the almond butter for natural peanut butter, Delicious.
Happy to hear this ice cream was a hit, Charlene! Thanks so much for trying it out and coming back to leave a review. It means so much to me!
Looks delicious
excellent post thank you for sharing
Thanks for the recipe! I make it all the time now and experiment with different mix-ins. It’s even creamer if you use coconut milk or coconut cream instead of almond milk.
Oh, coconut cream is such a great idea! Thanks for sharing and leaving a review, I appreciate it so much, Lauren!
We love this recipe. So easy and delicious!
Yay! I am happy that you are loving this recipe, Jo. Thank you for sharing your review + star rating, I so appreciate it!