VEGAN ICE CREAM

Traffic in Lagos city was the golden opportunity for street hawkers to sell their goods to tired, hungry and mostly frustrated travellers. It was also the golden opportunity for tired, hungry and (not so frustrated) kids to bag a snack or two. Now, I loved sweets and biscuits and unnatural-looking sausage rolls as much as the next kid, but my thing was fresh fruit. One look at the bananas on sale and you just knew that they'd been picked from a tree that same morning (give or take...). Imperfect and mottled as they were, nothing could beat the rich, sweet taste - much unlike the plastic, tasteless variety that exist in a few shops I could mention. There was an art to eating the fruit too. I'd eat around the edge and pretend that the soft, gooey centre was ice cream. What can I say, some conjured up imaginary friends, I conjured up imaginary food. Anyway, it turns out that I was on to something all those years ago.

Here is the one-ingredient, dairy-free, scarily accurate replica of creamy, indulgent ice cream. And once again, there is a little bit of an art to getting it just right!

Ingredients

(serves 4)

- 4 ripe bananas

- Topping of your choice (dark chocolate chips? chopped pecans? organic maple syrup? Go wild...)

Cut the bananas into small pieces and freeze in a plastic container for 2-3 hours. 

Place the frozen banana pieces in a food processor and blend. Watch in awe as the mixture turns creamy (the consistency of whipped, swirly ice cream).

Scoop into a bowl and serve with your favourite toppings.