Vegan Banana and Chocolate Ice Cream: 2-Ingredient Decadent Treat

Yield: 1

A rich and creamy dessert combining ripe bananas and luscious chocolate, perfect for a joyful homemade treat.

Ingredients

2 bananas, ripe
2 tsp cacao powder

Instructions

Cut the ripe bananas into big chunks and freeze them overnight (or longer).
In a blender, blitz the frozen banana with the cocoa powder until smooth.

Notes

You can add some peanut butter or some cacao powder to spice it up a bit.

Vegan Banana and Chocolate Ice Cream: The Creamy Classic Reinvented

This vegan banana chocolate ice cream recipe delivers everything you love about classic ice cream — creamy texture, rich chocolate flavour, and natural sweetness from bananas.

From Ancient Roots to Modern Scoops

Ice cream is one of those desserts that feels timeless — but its origins trace through centuries of invention and craving. Historical records suggest frozen desserts were enjoyed in ancient China, Persia and Italy. For example, in ancient Persia, people combined snow with fruit-flavoured syrups. Over in Italy, by the 17th and 18th centuries, gelato and frozen sweetened dairy treats were becoming refined artisan products. By the 19th century, with the advent of refrigeration and ice harvesting, ice cream as we know it started spreading widely across Europe and North America.

In the United States, the popularisation of ice cream took off in the 1800s as ice-houses, rail transport of ice, and mechanical refrigeration made it accessible. In the UK, similarly, the trend transitioned from elite luxury to everyday indulgence. Today, when you scoop up a bowl of vegan banana chocolate ice cream, you’re enjoying the legacy of centuries of innovation and delight. Today, when you scoop up a bowl of banana and chocolate ice cream, you’re enjoying the legacy of centuries of innovation and delight.

Why Making Vegan Ice Cream is Challenging

Though ice cream seems simple — cream, sugar, flavouring, freeze — turning it vegan introduces significant hurdles. The key issue is that traditional ice cream relies on dairy milk and cream. These provide fat, emulsifiers, stabilisers (such as natural ones like milk proteins), and help create smoothness, structure, and the characteristic melt-in-the-mouth richness.

When you remove milk and cream, you lose that native fat/protein matrix. Plant-based alternatives (such as coconut milk, almond milk, oat milk, cashew cream) can provide fat, but often the texture becomes grainy, icy, or melts too quickly. As one review explains: “texture… the best vegan ice cream makers know that cream is key. We’ve all experienced that gritty, icy texture that befalls lesser plant-based frozen desserts.” Vegetarian Times

Additionally, the flavour profile needs balancing: milk has its own subtle sweetness and flavour neutrality, which gives the other ingredients space to shine. Some plant milks carry a stronger taste (e.g., coconut or almond), which can interfere with the desired banana + chocolate interplay. Then there’s the stabiliser/emulsifier issue: dairy proteins help retain air, structure ice crystals, and keep melt behaviour in check. Replicating that with plant-based ingredients requires greater formulation skill (and often more cost).

In short: vegan ice cream must replace milk/cream’s fat & protein matrix, match desirable texture, deliver flavour and melt behaviour — which is no trivial task. That’s why creating perfectly smooth vegan banana and chocolate ice cream takes balance, patience, and clever use of plant-based ingredients.

Why This Banana and Chocolate Combination Works

In this vegan banana and chocolate ice cream recipe, bananas supply natural sweetness, body, and smoothness when frozen and churned.

Best Vegan Ice Creams in the World

While making great vegan ice cream is tough, the market has improved dramatically. Some top brands have earned accolades. For example, the “World’s 10 Best Vegan Ice Creams 2022” list includes: Magnum Dairy Free Almond (UK), Valsoia Gran Cookie (Italy), and Ben & Jerry’s Netflix & Chilll’d Non-Dairy (USA). Vegconomist

In the UK, a taste-test review by Vegan Food & Living scoured supermarket options and found vegan ice creams that rival dairy versions in texture and flavour. Vegan Food & Living
Some standout brands include:

Van Leeuwen (US) — using coconut/cashew/oat bases, noted for “you’ll get nearly the same mouthfeel when chowing down on a scoop … as you do with dairy.” Eater
Ben & Jerry’s (non-dairy line) — almond/oat milk bases, generous mix-ins; rated highly by vegans. Delishably
Smaller artisan brands: e.g., UK brands listed by Reddit-users among favourites: “My favourites are Oatly and Jeni’s …” Reddit

These successes show that the vegan ice cream challenge is being met — and in some cases surpassed. For home cooks, it proves that making smooth, rich vegan banana and chocolate ice cream at home is absolutely achievable with the right balance of ingredients.

Nutritional & Fun Facts

Bananas provide potassium, vitamin B6 and fibre; they also act as a natural sweetener when well ripe. Chocolate (especially darker varieties) delivers antioxidants, though of course the sugar and fat content mean this remains a treat. Because this vegan banana and chocolate ice cream uses banana + chocolate rather than heavy cream, it may have slightly fewer saturated fats…

Fun fact: the phrase “I scream for ice cream” is more than a rhyme — freezing-dessert chatter goes back centuries. And bananas were once luxury fruits in Europe in the 1800s; combining banana and chocolate gives your dessert a little heritage vibe.

Conclusion: The Future Is Creamy, Cruelty-Free, and Delicious

This vegan banana and chocolate ice cream captures the best of both worlds: centuries of ice cream heritage and the future of sustainable indulgence. With ingredients like ripe bananas and rich dark chocolate, you get all the creaminess of dairy — without compromise.

Explore more frozen treats on Plant Powere Recipes, such as my daughter’s favourite Raspberry Sorbet or Pistachio Gelato — proof that vegan desserts can be luxurious, health-conscious, and kind to the planet.

Vegan Banana and Chocolate Ice Cream: 2-Ingredient Decadent Treat