Creamy banana ice cream that tastes like a pina colada! Made of frozen coconut milk, banana, and pineapple, its a light, healthy, delicious dessert!
(Recipe originally published March 5, 2014, but pictures and post text have since been updated)
I want to get this out in the open right off the bat. This piña colada banana ice cream isn’t truly ice cream. Its more of “ice cream.” The catch? It doesn’t actually contain any dairy since the base is coconut milk instead – surprise! The coconut milk and banana makes it nice and creamy though so it’ll satisfy that same ice cream craving you have on these hot summer days.
If you haven’t had banana ice cream yet, you’re in for a treat my friends. And adding coconut milk makes it oh so dreamy and delicious! And with the addition of pineapple, I’m in heaven, sheer piña colada heaven. And its naturally vegan, vegetarian, paleo, gluten free, dairy free, you name it. This healthy dessert fits pretty much all dietary restrictions.
At first glance, the nutrition label may make you wonder what I’m talking about in calling this banana ice cream healthy since the primary fat type in coconut milk is saturated, which is normally given a nutrition thumbs down. The type of saturated fat in coconut milk is different than the type in animal products though! This article summarizes this in layman’s terms, but in an even shorter summary, your body processes it differently than it would with, say, pork fat, and its just better for you.
In this recipe I used full fat canned coconut milk, which has less added chemicals than aseptic cartons and is thicker and better for cooking than the fresh packed watered down drinking versions like So Delicious and Silk.
Even if it is full of healthy fat, the calories make this a treat and not an every day recipe (at least for those working your tooshie off for swimsuit season – PS, I don’t fit in this category this year). Banana ice cream works fine with low-fat coconut milk, it will just be less creamy and more icy-like. And the toasted coconut adds some extra coconutty goodness, so don’t skip it! …
