Ice-cream with only one ingredient? Oh yeah, you heard me! And with added carob powder, it’s extra good for you too! Ice cold dessert any time of the day sounds so wrong, but that’s totally right! I had mine at 10am in the morning for my tea-break before I left for work. And I felt good about it because it was vegan, guilt-free, and refine sugar-free! I felt even better knowing that there was Organic Carob in it! Some of you might be curious about what exactly is this Carob I mentioned.
Carob is a tropical pod with sweet caramel-like edible pulp. It is most often used as a substitute for cocao in dessert making. It’s similar to cocoa powder in colour, and can be substituted one-for-one in recipes. However, it contains 1/3 less calories as compared to standard chocolate! It is listed as one of the ultimate superfood along side acai berries, chia seeds, ginseng etc. It helps to lower cholesterol and regulate blood sugar, which is a common problem in our population.
Carob contains great source of calcium, three times as much calcium as milk, and is low in fat. It is rich in protein as well as vitamins like A, B, B2, B3 and D. Carob is an excellent source of calcium, phosphorus, potassium and magnesium and contains iron, manganese, barium, copper and nickel. It contains antioxidants, high in fibre, and protein.
What’s more, Carob is stimulant-free. So no worries about caffeine and theobromine with the little ones, and people who are sensitive to caffeine! Because Carob is naturally sweet, it is a great alternative to refine sugar/chocolate. Due to the sweetness of Carob, when using it for baking and cooking, the amount of sugar added to the recipe can be reduced.
So does it taste like chocolate/cocoa powder? What does it taste like? The answer is no, it doesn’t taste exactly like cocoa powder or chocolate. Carob has a really nice earthy caramel like taste. If I were to put it, it’d have to be kind of like a cross between maple syrup and gula melaka. Very palatable. The carob powder has a lighter brownish hue to it which in turn would probably trick the mind thinking it is cocao.
Besides this recipe, I used the carob powder to make French toast, and drizzled carob syrup on the French toast in place of maple syrup for the family. My girls loved it so much, they have been asking me to make them French toast every single morning. I was amazed by how this one ingredient banana ice-cream turned out. Sweet, creamy, and absolutely delicious!
The girls, and the husband were raving about how good it tasted. And I actually felt good about serving my girls dessert, knowing it’s so much healthier than regular ice-cream! Check out Forever Young Enterprise for more carob recipes like ogura cakes, smoothies if you would like to know how you can use carob products in your baking. The carob products they carry are gluten-free, nut-free, dairy-free, caffeine-free, non-GMO, and Halal certified. All their carob products have no added sweetener, and are suitable for consumption by diabetic patients because of their low glycemic index value (GI value of only 15!) and low glycemic load value (GL).
In collaboration with the good people at Forever Young Enterprise, the distributor of these amazing Australian certified organic carob products, I am hosting a giveaway of 2 sets of carob products for you to try out. Each winner will receive a 200g of raw carob powder, a 200g of roasted carob powder, and a 250ml bottle of carob syrup. To take part in the giveaway, simply complete the widget below.
Visit Forever Young to find out more about Carob products, or purchase some of this amazing superfood.
One Ingredient Healthy Banana Ice-cream
Ingredients
- 3 large ripen bananas sliced
Optional
- 2 tbsp roasted/raw carob powder
- Chopped walnuts
- Carob syrup to drizzle
Instructions
- Slice your bananas into 1/2 inch rounds.
- Place in ziplock bag and freeze until frozen. (2-3 hours or overnight)
- Blend frozen bananas in food processor together with carob powder.
- Scraping down sides some time to make sure well blended.
- At first the banana pieces will look crumbled or smashed. Scrape down the food processor and continue blending until smooth and creamy.
- Eat immediately if you like soft-serve ice-cream.
- Or transfer back into air-tight container to freeze for another hour or so before serving if you like a more solid ice-cream.
- Serve sprinkled with walnuts, and drizzle some carob syrup.
Notes
This giveaway ends on Tuesday, April 12, 2015 at 12:00 a.m. Singapore time (GMT+8). There will be 2 winners selected by random.org and will contacted by email. Each giveaway set includes: 200g raw carob powder, 200g roasted carob powder, 250ml carob syrup. The winner will need to respond within 48 hours. If there is no response from the winner after 48 hours, another winner will be selected. The winner will be directed to Forever Young Enterprise for collection/delivery; therefore, it is open to Singapore entrants only. This giveaway is sponsored by Forever Young Enterprise Pte Ltd.
