Mint Chocolate Pistachio Blizzard (Dairy-Free & Soy-Free)

This tasty healthy summer treat is dairy-free, soy-free, only five ingredients, and done in five minutes.

(Rachel – The Vegan-Eatin’ Daughter)

This summer my husband is coaching a select summer baseball team with a rigorous schedule. Since he’ll be so busy, I thought it might be fun for me and Jackson to come along with him for a few of his tournaments. We could check out a new town and spend some family time together between games.

As it turns out, the cities he plays in are a little hard up for entertainment. In my internet search of one town, the highlighted “Family Activity” was a trip to Dairy Queen for ice cream. Sorry honey, we’ll just see you in July when you’re schedule let’s up.

I’m not knocking DQ. If you were raised in a small town in Texas, like I was, you probably do have lots of memories at the local Dairy Queen. I can recall several trips as a child, stopping on our way home from ball games. I remember our high school cross country coach always treated us to Blizzards when the season was over. After months of getting up at 5:00 am to run around a cold dark track and spending our Saturdays running through muddy trails, we’d go celebrate. We lined up and one-at-a-time placed our order, then waited eagerly to be handed an upside down cup filled with thick ice cream blended with our favorite mix-ins.

Now that I don’t eat dairy, being treated to a DQ blizzard is a thing of the past, but with Banana Soft Serve “Ice Cream,” my days of enjoying delicious cool treats with tasty mix-ins are far from over. In just minutes, frozen bananas blended up in the food processor turn into a thick creamy cold treat, just like soft serve ice cream. I combined two of my favorite ice cream flavors, Mint Chocolate Chip and Pistachio, for this sweet, salty, cool combination.

I wouldn’t recommend flipping your cup upside down, but I would totally recommend sticking a spoon in and chowing down. With banana as the main ingredient and healthy mix ins like pistachios and dark chocolate (antioxidants, hellooo!), it’s practically health food.

This soft serve “ice cream” is simply frozen bananas and pistachios blended together, garnished with a mint chocolate swirl and a cherry on top.

Serves 1

Ingredients

2 bananas ~1 cup (chopped and frozen)*
1/4 cup pistachios, roasted and salted
1 t. sugar
3 squares of a mint dark chocolate bar (I used the Endangered Species brand–it’s vegan & delicious)
2 t. coconut cream (~1 t. non-dairy milk would work too)

Optional Garnishes: chopped pistachios, cherries dipped in the chocolate sauce & cooled, fresh banana slices, sprig of mint

Directions

In a food processor, blend bananas until they whip together like soft serve ice cream, stopping to scrape the sides as needed. Add in pistachios and sugar and blend again until pistachios are chopped up.

In a small bowl, combine chocolate and coconut cream. Microwave for 8 second intervals, stirring between, being careful not to let the chocolate burn.

Pour half of the pistachio soft serve into a pretty glass, top with half of the chocolate, then repeat, gently swirling the chocolate at the top. Garnish with chopped pistachios and a cherry on top (optional). Fresh banana slices between the layers of soft serve are good too.

Serve immediately.

Note: This doesn’t re-freeze well.

*Freeze bananas that are ripe, but not overly ripe for this recipe. The ones that are really soft and ripened are great for baking and smoothies, but not for this recipe.

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