This recipe is inspired by the recipe found in Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Intestinal Health Through Diet
- 2 cups cooked white beans, drained
- 2 frozen bananas, partially thawed
- 1/4 cup honey [affiliate link]
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla [affiliate link]
- 1 cup fresh whole strawberries
This recipe assumes you have already soaked your white beans overnight, and cooked until tender.
Place white beans into your food processor and whir until smooth. Cut bananas into chunks, add honey, egg yolk and vanilla and process until smooth. Add the strawberries and blend until you're happy with the results. I let the processor go until most of the strawberries were blended, but there were still a few chunks left. Place in an ice cream freezer and stir until the ice cream thickens to soft serve consistency. I prefer the Donvier Ice Cream Maker; I keep the insert in my freezer so I can make “ice cream” anytime the mood strikes.
This ice cream got rave reviews from my husband, who in spite of saying “Food is FOOD, just eat it!” is rather picky. I didn't tell him the “secret ingredient” until the next morning. He was very surprised that there were beans in the ice cream and he thought it was a good substitute.
The bean taste is completely masked, if anything, the banana comes through as the dominant flavor. Mouth feel is good. This ice cream does turn very hard once it is frozen, so you will definitely need to let it set out about 15 minutes before serving, and it would work great for smoothies also.
If you are interested in the nutritional information, click here to my recipe Calorie Count by About.com.
- 2 cups cooked white beans, drained
- 2 frozen bananas, partially thawed
- ¼ cup honey
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup fresh whole strawberries
- This recipe assumes you have already soaked your white beans overnight, and cooked until tender.
- Place white beans into your food processor and whir until smooth.
- Cut bananas into chunks, add honey, egg yolk and vanilla and process until smooth.
- Add the strawberries and blend until you're happy with the results.
- I let the processor go until most of the strawberries were blended, but there were still a few chunks left.
- Place in an ice cream freezer and stir until the ice cream thickens to soft serve consistency.
Fanatastic! Thanks for a great recipe. I tried making it and my grand mother loved it. She even asked me where I got it from. Thank you Starlene.
Hi! I must admit, I’ve never seen an ice-cream recipe using white beans. This is definitely a “must try”. I wonder if using soy beans would make it even creamier? Guess I’ll have to give it a go. Cheers!
Hi E Leigh: Actually it wouldn’t be GAPS legal if you used soy beans as soy is not allowed on GAPS. Starlene
wow, despite loving bean pies for many years i’ve never thought of bean ice cream. i have to make this today. and now, starlene, i must leave your site for today as you’ve given me too many things to do!
You’ll have to let me know how you like this. I found that I can’t tolerate beans too well, they are too carb-y for me but I think the mouth feel was nice on this recipe. ~Starlene
I just started GAPS and have dried navy beans. Do I soak these and cook them first?
Hi JL, yes, you need to soak the beans first. Thanks for taking the time to ask, I’ve modified the recipe to make sure it is clear on that. 🙂 ~Starlene
Can this be made without banana? Is there something else that could be substituted in place of banana (for texture, I assume, as well as masking any bean flavour)?
Melissa, you might try some other kind of fruit. Maybe applesauce? If you try, let me know how it turns out! 🙂 Starlene
Applesauce is a great idea, thanks! I’ve used avocado in (non-GAPS) smoothies for a creamy texture, and might try that too. But that might make it a funky colour 🙂
Too bad avocados don’t come in white!! Just imagine! You could probably use all strawberries in this, too. Or peaches. Mmmmm…
It sounds like the beans don’t need to be cooked after soaking, am I right?
Brenda, I’m terribly sorry, that is an error! I have corrected the instructions, the beans should be soaked overnight and then cooked until tender. I like to make mine in the crock post on low for however long it takes for them to get tender. I have made them with broth as the liquid, or just plain filtered water. No salt or tomato while cooking as they will take forever to get soft or might never get soft. It’s okay to add onions or peppers but of course if you are making ice cream, plain water or plain broth without any seasoning would work best. Thank you for asking so that I could make that correction! ~Starlene
Thank you for your response. If I’m making ice cream, filtered water too me would seem like a more computable cooking liquid instead of broth.
Filtered water would probably work best. Sometimes I make broth with no onions or garlic, salt or anything and the flavor is pretty bland. After cooking the beans in it and draining there isn’t really much broth in the ice cream. It just seems it could make the beans a little more healthier to cook them in broth. 🙂