By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD

There are times during these last days of summer when I crave a frozen dessert. There are no pints of vegan ice cream in the freezer nor do I want to walk or drive to the store. I happily turn to one of my seasonal favorites – banana soft-serve.

     Some preparation is needed for this dessert to happen. It’s based on frozen bananas so when I have overripe bananas on the counter, I peel them, cut them into slices and put them in a container in the freezer.

     When I’m ready for dessert, I take out the equivalent of one frozen banana and put it, unthawed, in the food processor. I add a spoonful of cashew butter or any other nut or seed butter and sometimes a drizzle of maple syrup. I close the food processor and process until the mixture is creamy – it comes together around the blades. Other frozen fruits can be added before processing or you can slice fresh fruit and use it to top the soft-serve. Vegan chocolate chips and nuts are other possible mix-ins or toppings.

     That’s it – in about 3 minutes I have a cold, creamy dessert. It doesn’t keep well so it should be eaten right away. You can double or triple this recipe for more servings.

     The lovely cup holding the soft-serve in the photo is from vegan potter, Molly Cantor. See more of her work here: http://www.mollycantor.com/ and here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/MollyCantorPottery