mint & chip "ice cream"

I'm not usually one for quotations when it comes to food.  Like "'mac 'n' cheese'" or "orange 'chicken'".  Mac 'n' cheese is macaroni mixed with cream and cheese. Chicken is real meat from a real chicken.  Why are you using quotation marks? What are you really feeding me??

But this one needs some, if I'm going to be honest with you.

What if I told you this ice cream didn't have cream?  Or sugar?  Or eggs?  Or even green food coloring?  What if I told you the creaminess was from bananas, and the green color was from - of all things - spinach?


You'd probably want to be nowhere near it, if you're anything like me.  And I'd get that, because I love my properly churned, custard-based ice creams as much as the next enthusiast does (I still have daydreams about the honey lavender sundae at Bi-Rite).  But before you write me off as some crazy person who wants you to stick vegetables in your dessert, please, please, please give this a try.  Besides the time it takes to freeze the bananas (which isn't very long at all), the ice cream takes a minute to make.  In the meantime, you can go out to your local Trader Joe's or market of choice and pick up some spinach, mint, and chocolate if you don't already have some.  You can even blast the AC and some of your favorite tunes and have a ball on your way there.  I mean, come on.  You probably don't have anything better to do right now anyway, other than sweating in your computer chair and refreshing your Facebook page.

And doesn't some mint and chip ice cream by your side sound just about perfect for that sort of thing?

This is basically a spinoff of a classic 1-ingredient ice cream you can make just from frozen bananas.  Yes - you can make addictive, sweet, creamy, totally-convincing ice cream with merely bananas and nothing else.  Turns out that they have a smidgeon of fat in them, causing them to become creamy and mimic the texture of ice cream when frozen and blended!  When I first discovered this phenomenon a couple summers ago via thekitchn.com (and it has been getting quite a lot of attention since), I was obsessed and made it every other day, whirling some batches with natural peanut butter just because banana and peanut butter were meant to be.  I froze so many bananas that summer that sometimes we'd run out of bananas the day after we bought them - much to my mom's distress.

I came across this version just yesterday on Clean and Delicious (I check her blog every once in a while for useful tricks for nutritious eating - like adding ground flaxseed into meatballs to replace bad fat with good fat).  It was submitted by a viewer, and it's pretty genius - the spinach is mild enough that you (really!) can't taste it, and it lends a vibrant, all-natural green hue.  If you're skeptical, try half a handful, or just enough to give it some color.  I didn't have mint leaves on hand so I ended up using a drop of peppermint extract, but if I had it my way I would definitely use about 4-5 mint leaves instead; can't really get more natural than that.

When it's all said and done, if you really don't like it, you can at least say you've tried spinach ice cream once in your life.  That's got to count for something, right?



Mint & Chip "Ice Cream", slightly adapted from Clean & Delicious
serves 4

2 ripe bananas
a big handful of spinach (~ 40g), or less if you're scared
4-5 mint leaves or 1/4 tsp peppermint extract (use the extract sparingly - you don't want your ice cream to taste like toothpaste)
2 tbsp chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate
optional: 2 tbsp milk (almond/coconut/soy/real/etc.) to thin it out if using a blender

Get a small pan or plate and line with parchment paper (don't forget this - you'll have a hard time getting the bananas off otherwise).  Slice bananas into 1/2-inch coins and place in a single layer on the pan.  [This will make the freezer time shorter and give your blender/food processor an easier time blending them up.]  Freeze for about 1 hour or until completely frozen through.  Place the frozen banana slices, spinach, and mint leaves in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth and creamy (it'll get there, I promise).  Add in the chocolate chips and blend for another 5-10 seconds.  Scoop up and enjoy!  The texture will be of a soft-serve consistency, but if you want to scoop it like ice cream, you can put the rest in an airtight container and into the freezer for an hour or two to firm up.  The ice cream is best enjoyed within the first couple of days.