Persimmon Nicecream is a favorite sweet treat in our house reserved for that time of year when persimmons are available. Don’t have persimmons around?–You can substitute for most any other fruit for another delicious nice cream flavor.
Persimmon Nicecream
Nicecream is a regular sweet feature in our family. The simple frozen fruit-based desert is easy to make, the ingredients are affordable at the market, and it’s loaded with whole plant nutrition. Persimmon Nicecream, on the other hand, is a truly special treat reserved for that special time of year when the sweet orange tree fruits come in season. (Scroll down for the 3-ingredient recipe!) I was inspired to make this Persimmon Nicecream because there are a few lovely persimmon trees growing at one of the education gardens where I teach. Persimmon tree with ripe fruit–West Covina, CA, Earth.
I have loved watching the persimmon trees change through the seasons watching the juicy fruits plumpen up and turn their brilliant hue. I snapped the photo below of the tree I harvested from when the fruits were starting to ripen. You can see the sweet sugar seeping out of a crack in the fruit below. This is about how ripe and juicy a Japanese Hachiya persimmon needs to be before attempting to eat the fruit. This is how ripe and juicy a Hachiya persimmon needs to be before you freeze it for this recipe. If not you will get a bitter-tasting concoction.
Unlike the more squat-shaped American Fuyu persimmon which can be eaten while still firm like an apple, the Japanese variety which is shaped like a giant red/orange acorn is extremely bitter if tasted unripe. The high tannin content of this persimmon requires it ripen all the way until it almost appears to burst open with sweet juice. At this point the tannins will be replaced by sweet sugar and your patience will be rewarded with a soft super-sweet package of nutritious fruity goodness.If you need more help visualizing a perfectly ripe Hachiya persimmon check out this one that splatted on the ground when I tried to free it from the branch above my head. It was a little too high for my reach and as soon as I touched it it fell, splat. Your persimmon should be so ripe it would splat like this if it fell to the ground.
Darn, a perfectly ripe persimmon gone to the ants and bees, but it does illustrate the ripeness factor nicely. I had some help harvesting the persimmons below on a ladder from the tree’s higher branches. We picked a lot of them when they were not quite ripe to let them finish ripening off the tree–over 100 fruits all together for making smoothies in the children’s education garden. You can harvest persimmons and allow them to finish ripening off the tree. Check daily because they will ripen quickly especially if stored in a warm spot.
Next for your Persimmon Nicecream you will need bananas. Bananas are easy to find any time of year at market and are probably the most affordable fruits you can get. I love trying different varieties of bananas like this baby banana variety pictured below. I was fun to find these twin bananas. Into the freezer they go… Bananas are one of the three ingredients in Persimmon Nicecream and give this recipe the creamy texture we love.
We make a lot of smoothies and nice cream in our house so we keep our freezer stocked with peeled bananas. You can store them in a plastic bag, ziplock, tupperware, or whatever you got that works. I use this plastic tub from the dollar store. You can see I have some persimmon and peeled bananas ready to go into the freezer here. It’s always a good idea to keep a stash of frozen bananas so you’ll be ready for a nutritious smoothie or nice cream treat anytime.
One lesson I learned from my trials is that Hachiya persimmons should be halved or smooshed a bit before being frozen. If you try to freeze a ripe one whole they will come out of the freezer looking beautiful like the ones below, but probably won’t fit into your blender. If you freeze the Hachiya persimmons whole they might not fit in your blender.
A better technique still is to slice them into thinner blender-friendly rounds before freezing. This batch was super easy to blend up when it was nice cream making time. Slice your persimmons into rounds before freezing to make them blender-friendly.
Besides frozen bananas and persimmons this recipe has just one more ingredient: plant milk. It doesn’t really matter what type of plant milk you use. I like coconut or almond milk best but whatever you like should work great. The recipe is: INGREDIENTS:
1 frozen persimmon
1 frozen banana
1 cup of plant milk (almond milk works great)
INSTRUCTIONS:
Blend everything up.
Serve it in a bowl.
Could it get any simpler? TRY THIS:
Add some fresh sliced fruit or a handful of shredded coconut or nuts on top. or add some more plant milk to make it thinner for a smoothie and fill up a glass. Nice cream makes me happy! I love putting a smile on my son’s face with this simple and sweet recipe.
Hope you enjoy this simple, tasty, nutritious recipe that is perfect for a healing diet or for everyday wellness on a whole foods plant-based diet. ***** Healing With Plants is a holistic health education website empowering people to heal themselves at home, with plants. February is Heart Health Month in America. Heart Disease is the leading cause of preventable deaths today. Many people have regained their heart health simply by eating more plants and at Healing With Plants we are spreading the good news! Follow Healing With Plants on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for more healing whole foods plant-based recipes and inspiring stories that testify for the amazing healing power of plants. SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSaveSaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave
Reya (Steele) Andrews is a holistic health writer, educator, and publisher at Healing With Plants. Reya is a certified Holistic Nutritionist (AFPA), is certified in Plant-based Nutrition, and teaches nutrition science and healthy food preparation. Find her book, The Frugivore Diet, on Amazon.
