a frozen banana is instant soft-serve

The next time you have a banana that is halfway to mush, don’t throw it out, but don’t make banana bread either. Try this secretly vegan ice cream instead. I learned this technique from Faith Durand and The Kitchn, via Food52’s Genius Recipes column. Our founding editor, Kristen Miglore, broke down the magic-slash-science as such: “As the blades slice through the frozen banana, pectin chains form and the banana churns up into the spitting image of soft-serve ice cream, with the most intense banana flavor this side of Chunky Monkey.” And who doesn’t want that? These days, I make it as often for breakfast as I do for dessert. Sometimes I stick to the one-ingredient classic. Often I add a wildcard ingredient, or three. Don’t worry about measurements. Just follow this basic route—the detours along the way are up to you.

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Step 1

1.

Step 2

Peel a very ripe banana. (Or, if your bananas are small, scale up to 1½ or 2 bananas per portion.) Break the fruit into pieces, pop them in a baggie (bonus points if it’s reusable), and throw it in the freezer.

Step 3

2.

Step 4

As soon as the fruit is firm—or the next day or week or month—stick a serving dish in the freezer. Transfer the frozen banana to a food processor (if the pieces have fused together, roughly chop them first). Pulse until crumbly.

Step 5

3.

Step 6

Toss in up to two mix-ins (see below). Keep blending, scraping down the sides as needed, until the mixture is almost as floofy and creamy as soft-serve. Which, now that you mention it, is what you just made.

Step 7

4.

Step 8

Scrape the mixture into the frozen dish and grab a spoon. Or sprinkle or drizzle up to two toppings (see below).