When it’s hot weather, kids love to slurp on a cooling ice lolly. These banana berry ice pops only contain 5 simple ingredients and have no added sugar. They also have a boost of protein from cashew nut butter which not only gives these ice lollies a lovely caramel flavour but also helps to keep blood sugars regulated. Cashew nuts also contain magnesium and tryptophan which are both important for keeping the mood stable.
This is a great chance to get lots of fresh healthy goodies into your kids and teens as shop bought ice lollies tend to contain up to 20 ultra-processed ingredients including glucose-fructose syrup and emulsifiers which can cause havoc on the metabolism and the gut.
Naturally dairy, soya and gluten-free, as well as vegan. Suitable from 6 months old as a teething aid. For babies under 12 months chop the berries very fine or blend in with the rest of the ingredients.
Get the lolly moulds with sticks here, or get heart shapes instead. I have both.
- 3 Bananas (overripe, peeled, quartered and frozen)
- 0.5 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 tsp Cashew Nut Butter (use smooth for fussy eaters, double to 2 teaspoons for less fussy eaters)
- 12 Blueberries (sliced in half)
- 2 Strawberries (finely diced)
- Take the banana pieces out of the freezer and leave to defrost slightly for 5-10 minutes.
- Place the banana pieces, vanilla extract and cashew nut butter into a high-speed blender and blend up into an ice cream consistency, which takes about 2 minutes. It’s quite tricky to begin with to break up the bananas as they are quite hard, but soon it comes together in a smooth paste.
- Pour into ice lolly moulds and scatter on some chopped blueberries and strawberries, pushing some down into the banana mixture.
- Pop in the ice lolly stick and freeze for at least 3 hours.
Cooks' Tips:
- Swap cashew nut butter for any other nut butter, tahini or sunflower butter. You can also blend in hulled hemp seeds, chia seeds or flax seeds.
- Ice lolly moulds: For this recipe I used Easy Cream Mini silicone moulds made by Silikomart. Get the lolly moulds with sticks here, or get heart shapes instead. They make a good range of different shapes and each box comes with a generous amount of mini wooden lollipop sticks.
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