anthimeria

When it’s cold, I eat a lot of oatmeal for breakfast. But – even with Toronto’s cooler-than-usual summer – it’s a bit warm mid-July for bowls of steaming oats.

Lately, bowls of oats have been replaced with bowls of frozen goodness.

I love frozen concoctions. The thought of it makes me cringe a little now, but when I was little I adored that first summer Slurpee (though I hated the glowing fluorescent tongue that came along with it). Garden raspberries found their way to the freezer and then mashed up into a make-shift sorbet. Same with grapes, which became little self-contained spheres of icy granita.

Lately for breakfast, I tuck into a bowl of green soup, but nothing tops cold banana-almond soup. A couple frozen bananas get whizzed in the blender with some unsweetened almond milk, a couple ice cubes and a huge scoop of raw almond butter. The result is unlike anything else – smooth, sweet, creamy, with flecks of nutty almonds and thick enough to eat with a spoon. Like a bowl of slightly-melted banana ice cream. It’s so, so good. Sometimes I top it with sprouted cereal for crunch, but more often then not I dig into a bowl as-is.

Frozen banana-almond soup

(makes 1 serving)

I keep a dozen or so very ripe bananas sliced and in the freezer, ready for whenever I want to make something sweet and frozen. Letting bananas get very ripe (i.e. brown and spotted) before freezing makes all the difference. I use almond milk and butter in this recipe, but other milks and nut butters would work equally well. Popping the mixture in the freezer for 30 minutes gives it a firmer ice-cream texture. It also makes great popsicles.

Ingredients

2 sliced, frozen bananas
1c unsweetened almond milk (Almond Breeze is great and easy to find)
1 heaping tablespoon raw almond butter (MaraNatha is my favourite)
a few ice cubes

Whiz everything but the almond butter in blender until smooth. Add the butter and blend to combine. Serve in a bowl with a spoon, or as a smoothie. Sprinkle with sprouted cereal or granola, for optional crunch.