‘Really hits the spot’: Tom Hunt’s brown banana ‘ice-cream’. Photograph: Tom Hunt/The Guardian. Food styling: Tom Hunt. View image in fullscreen ‘Really hits the spot’: Tom Hunt’s brown banana ‘ice-cream’. Photograph: Tom Hunt/The Guardian. Food styling: Tom Hunt. Waste not Food How to turn past-their-best bananas into a glorious ‘ice-cream’ – recipe Bananas often go off quickly, so use up over-ripe, brown specimens in a sugar-free dessert that will satisfy any sweet-tooth cravings
Tom Hunt Wed 2 Sep 2026 14.00 CEST Last modified on Wed 2 Sep 2026 14.15 CEST Share Prefer the Guardian on Google W ith two young kids, we get through a lot of bananas in our household. Perhaps surprisingly, though, most of them are frozen: our daughters eat them straight from the freezer most evenings, with frozen berries and yoghurt, for pudding. We normally order a stack of bananas every Saturday, and before the end of the week they inevitably start to turn brown. At this point, we peel, slice and freeze them for the children’s evening yoghurt, though sometimes, when we have a real excess, I turn them into today’s incredibly satisfying “ice-cream”. Its silky-smooth texture really hits the spot, and satisfies any ice-cream cravings without recourse to added sugar or excessive fat. The trick is to freeze the bananas in a single layer on a flat tray, so they don’t freeze into a homogeneous mass, then transfer to a container to enjoy as and when.
This has to be in my top five everyday desserts, not least because brown bananas are very gooey and sweet, have a rich and creamy texture and a satiating flavour. Portion for portion, it feels luxurious and indulgent, even without the extra sugar, saturated fat, gums and stabilisers found in much commercial ice-cream and other ready-made desserts. Of course, blended fruit is itself a readily absorbable sugar, but the trade-off is worth it for the extra fibre, potassium, manganese and other vitamins. It’s also a fraction of the price of shop-bought ice-cream.
This is best eaten fresh from the blender, but if you need to store a bumper batch, remember to take it out of the freezer at least 10 minutes before you want to scoop it.
1 or more brown bananas Half the bananas’ weight in liquid – water, yoghurt, milk or a plant-based alternative
Toppings, all optional and to taste Chopped nuts Coconut flakes Grated chocolate
Peel and chop the bananas into 2cm-thick slices (this makes them easier to blend later), then spread out on a tray and freeze for at least five hours. Once frozen, store in a sealed container in the freezer.
To make the ice-cream, weigh the amount of banana you’ve taken out, then add half its weight in liquid – that is, water, yoghurt, milk or a plant-based alternative. Transfer to a jug blender and blitz smooth, but not for too long or the fruit will melt too much; stir, if need be, to get an even blend. Serve immediately as it is, or leave to soften like a Mr Whippy -alike soft serve, or freeze for an hour or more for a firmer, scoopable texture, adding any optional toppings of your choice.