Carrot cake ice cream? Sort of!

This banana-based frozen dessert is creamy and delicious. Best of all, it’s a no-cook recipe that requires minimal kitchen skills. All you need is a blender, four simple ingredients and a few spices. The spices are the same ones used to make traditional carrot cake. Plus this sweet treat actually contains carrots – perfect for when you want to sneak a few extra veggies into your family’s diet. It’s packed with dietary fiber, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, yet low in calories. It’s a win-win!

Layne’s Carrot Cake Soft Serve, serves 6

Choose organic Ingredients when available:

4 overripe bananas, peeled and frozen, thawed for 15 minutes

2 ounces milk of your choice (plant-based or cow), if needed

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated ginger, (or 1/8th teaspoon ground ginger)

1/2 cup frozen carrots, partially thawed for 15 minutes

1/3 cup walnuts

Place the thawed bananas into a food processor or blender and pulse until smoothly blended. If needed, add milk. (If you have no time to thaw the bananas, microwave for ten seconds.)

Add vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, carrots, walnuts and process until blended. Sample the batter and add extra spices, carrots or nuts to taste.

Enjoy immediately as a custardy soft serve. Store leftovers in the freezer in an airtight container. If the soft serve becomes too hard to scoop, microwave for ten seconds. It won’t go bad, but for best taste and consistency soft serve should last for no more than a week or two in the freezer.

Nutrition Facts per serving (105 grams): 124 calories, 4.4 grams fat, 13 mg sodium, 366 mg potassium, 20.5 grams carbohydrates, 3 grams dietary fiber, 10.7 grams sugar, 3 grams protein, 32 percent daily value vitamin A, 13 percent daily value vitamin C.

THE AUTHOR: Layne Lieberman, RD