3 Ingredient Matcha Strawberry Nice Cream Cups (Vegan Dessert)

Name: Matcha Strawberry Nice Cream Cups
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Ingredients: 1 cup strawberries (sliced); 4 bananas ((frozen and sliced)); 4 teaspoons matcha ((green tea) - adjust amount for your desired taste preference.); Homemade Coconut Whipped Topping

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Let’s kick off the fruity berry season with our healthy 3-ingredient Matcha Strawberry Nice Cream Cups! Creamy frozen banana ice cream is infused with antioxidant rich matcha (green tea), swirled with fresh strawberries, and topped with a homemade coconut whipped cream. With just 5 minutes of prep and no churning, you can enjoy a guilt-free vegan Japanese dessert without any added sugar.

Matcha strawberry nice cream cups topped with homemade coconut whipped topping and berries.

Yep! It’s so healthy that you can eat it for breakfast. You get that little kick of caffeine from the matcha, healthy fruits and boost of energy to power through your day. This easy matcha dessert is thick and creamy like regular ice cream but it’s made with blended frozen bananas instead of cream and sugar.

If you love soft serve ice cream, you’ll love diving into this green tea ice cream straight from the food processor by the spoonful. Alternatively, you can freeze it for a couple of hours for a scoopable dessert. The choice is yours, but we won’t judge!

Want an extra special treat? Try this matcha ice cream recipe with a crispy strawberry jam roll cookie or a drizzle of magic chocolate shell.

Jump to:

What You Need To Make Vegan Matcha Ice Cream
How to Make Matcha Banana Ice Cream?
Assembling Dessert Cups
Recipe Tips
Food Processor Hacks
Got Leftovers?
Things to Note
More Healthy Frozen Treats
Matcha Strawberry Nice Cream Cups
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s)

Ingredients to make a vegan matcha ice cream laid on a grey table.

What You Need To Make Vegan Matcha Ice Cream

Equipment - A food processor works the best and is the key to making banana ice cream in a flash. You can also use a high-powered blender, but it must be powerful. We used a Ninja all-in-one 1500-watt blender and food processor for this recipe.

3 Easy Ingredients

Frozen bananas
Matcha green tea
Strawberries

Frozen Bananas

4 medium sized ripe bananas are needed to get a full-sized food processor moving. If you have a mini food processor you can usually get away with 1 to 2 bananas. When you have more bananas than you can eat, peel them, chop them and freeze them to make black sesame nice cream, smoothies, and mocha banana ice cream.

Fraser Tea ceremonial matcha is a green tea tin.

Matcha Green Tea

Living in Japan opened our eyes to the incredible world of matcha, making us true enthusiasts. We have been enjoying matcha drinks and eating matcha pancakes, brownies, and crispy truffles long before they became popular in the USA. Ever since we discovered the way of tea with traditional matcha tea ceremonies (chadō), we may have become matcha snobs. (smiling)

Japanese matcha is the special ingredient that takes this banana ice cream to the next level. The combination of earthy, smooth, vegetal, and slightly sweet matcha green tea with frozen bananas and floral, sweet, and sour strawberries is simply sublime. As HUGE matcha lovers, we like to add one heaping teaspoon of green tea powder for each frozen banana.

Currently, we’re enjoying the smooth and pure taste of Japanese Ceremonial Matcha First Harvest Organic Green Tea from Fraser Tea. For those new to matcha or looking to make delicious matcha lattes, Fraser Tea’s Matcha Organic Green Tea is a fantastic budget friendly option. Plus, all Fraser Tea Products are USDA Organic, kosher, and it’s a family-owned right in Michigan, USA.

Fresh Strawberries

You won’t believe how delicious matcha and strawberries are together! When you take a scoop of the creamy matcha nice cream with a sliced strawberry together, it’s like a match made in heaven. You can certainly add a few frozen strawberries, other seasonal berries or skip it all together.

How to Make Matcha Banana Ice Cream?

Showing bright green matcha powder before and after sifted.

Sift the matcha powder

Frozen sliced bananas in the food processor and showing them after it turns to a sand like appearance.

Add frozen chopped bananas to a food processor or high-powered blender.
Pulse until frozen bananas looks like rough sand.

Added matcha green tea powder to the granulated bananas in the food processor.

Add matcha green tea.
Scrape down the sides of the food processor and continue pulsing.

smooth and creamy Matcha nice cream in the food processor and showing it adding to a loaf pan to freeze for later.

Switch to blending. Blend until smooth stopping to scrape down the sides of the food processor as needed.
Enjoy as a soft serve straight away or transfer into a freezer safe pan, cover and freeze for 2 to 3 hours for a firmer scoopable ice cream.

Assembling Dessert Cups

Adding strawberry to glass vintage dessert cups and then the matcha nice cream on top.

Layer the sliced strawberries in a dessert cup or glass.
Add the prepared matcha banana ice cream.
Top with coconut whipped topping and more berries as desired.

Frozen matcha ice cream getting scooped.

Recipe Tips

Use ripened bananas for the sweetest ice cream. A few brown spots are a very good thing – it means that they are extra sweet. Perfect for ice cream or our eggless marbled chocolate peanut butter banana bread.
Bananas should be completely frozen solid before placing them in the food processor.
Add matcha per your desired taste preference. We used one heaping teaspoon full for each banana. It’s easier to start out with less and add more after tasting the ice cream.

Food Processor Hacks

If you have a small mini food chopper (2-5 cups) you can usually get away with 1 to 2 bananas for the blade to run smoothly.
On the other hand, if you have a 6-9 cup capacity food processor, you will need at least 3-4 bananas to get the blade going.
Gently pulse the food processor a few times until it turns to the textured sand consistency. Be patient.
Stop and scrape down the sides a few times to get it going.
The magic happens as the food processor blades warm lightly. You will notice changes from a dark course green color to a vibrant lighter green, smooth and creamy.
You should not need to add any non-dairy or dairy to get the banana ice cream mixture to blend until smooth. However, if it is not getting creamy after 3 to 4 times scraping down the sides, you can add a teaspoon of non-dairy or dairy of choice at a time until it does.

Got Leftovers?

Store your leftover matcha strawberry nice cream in an airtight container in the freezer. If you freeze the matcha nice cream longer than 2 hours, you will need to leave it sit for 5 to 10 minutes at room temperature to make it scoopable.

Fun Treat - Chop and mix fresh strawberries into the leftover matcha nice cream. Pour or spoon into a popsicle mold and freeze for another day.

Soft serve matcha ice cream in a loaf tin.

Things to Note

Matcha Strawberry Nice Cream Cups are freshest when enjoyed straight away or on the same day after freezing for a couple of hours.
If left at room temperature, the banana nice cream will start to oxidize and of course melt. This will change the color from a pretty bright green matcha to a duller browner matcha ice cream. It still tastes delicious but just not as pretty.
Always sift matcha before using in a recipe. All matcha, even the highest quality ones, will have clumps. This ensures that the matcha will be infused throughout the banana ice cream.
If serving for company, we are all about making the matcha nice cream in advance and allowing it to freeze for a couple of hours covered. Then, all you need to do is scoop it into dishes and garnish with strawberries when your guests are ready for a healthy treat.

More Healthy Frozen Treats

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Matcha banana ice cream layered with fresh strawberries in a clear dessert cup.

Matcha Strawberry Nice Cream Cups

Enjoy our 3 ingredient Matcha Strawberry Nice Cream Cups made with creamy frozen bananas. Ready in 5 minutes for an easy, vegan dessert.

5 from 4 votes

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Course: Desserts

Cuisine: Japanese

Diet: Gluten Free, Kosher, Low Fat, Low Lactose, Low Salt, Vegan, Vegetarian

Prep Time: 5

Total Time: 5

Servings: people

Calories: 129kcal

Author: HWC Magazine

Equipment

▢
food processor or high powered blender

Ingredients

▢ 1 cup strawberries
sliced
▢ 4 bananas
(frozen and sliced)
▢ 4 teaspoons matcha (green tea) - adjust amount for your desired taste preference.

Toppings (Optional)

▢ Homemade Coconut Whipped Topping

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Slice your strawberries and line up the strawberries on the bottom and sides of your dessert cups.
Sift matcha and set aside.
Place frozen sliced bananas in the food processor. Pulse in food processor until it looks like finely ground sand. (See Notes)
Add matcha green tea to the frozen banana mixture. Stop the food processor 2 to 3 times to scrape down the sides as needed.
Switch to blending mode on food processor. Keep blending until the frozen bananas and matcha turn from granules of sand into a smooth and creamy soft serve ice cream consistency. You will know you are getting close as the frozen bananas will turn from a dark green to a lighter green color. (See Notes for Recipe Tips)
For a soft serve ice cream texture, immediately scoop the matcha banana ice-cream on top of your strawberries in the dessert cup and enjoy.
If you prefer a more scoopable ice cream texture, transfer the matcha nice cream to a covered freezer safe container for 2 to 3 hours. When you are ready to enjoy, scoop the matcha banana ice cream into a cup with strawberries.
Garnish with coconut whipped cream or non-dairy whipped topping. Enjoy!

Video

Notes

Recipe Tips:

Use a food processor or high-powered blender for best results.
Add matcha per your desired taste preference. We used one heaping teaspoon full for each banana. It’s easier to start out with less and add more after tasting the ice cream.
If you have a small mini food chopper (2-5 cups) you can usually get away with 1 to 2 bananas for the blade to run smoothly.
On the other hand, if you have a 6-9 cup capacity food processor, you will need at least 3-4 bananas to get the blade going.
Gently pulse the food processor a few times until it turns to the textured sand consistency. Be patient.
Stop and scrape down the sides a few times to get it going.
Then, change the food processor setting to blend. This was the smoothie/frozen drink button on our Ninja food processor.
The magic happens as the food processor blades warm lightly. You will notice changes from a dark course green color to a vibrant lighter green, smooth and creamy.
You should not need to add any non-dairy or dairy to get the banana ice cream mixture to blend until smooth. However, if it is not getting creamy after 3 to 4 times scraping down the sides, you can add 1 teaspoon of non-dairy or dairy of choice or even water at a time until it does.

Got Leftovers? Store your leftover matcha strawberry nice cream in an airtight container in the freezer. If you freeze the matcha nice cream longer than 2 hours, you will need to leave it sit for 5 to 10 minutes at room temperature to make it scoopable.

Fun Treat - Chop and mix fresh strawberries into the leftover matcha nice cream. Pour or spoon into a popsicle mold and freeze for another day.

Nutrition

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s)

How to freeze bananas?

There is more than one way to freeze bananas. Here are 2 ways to choose from…

Option 1: Lazy man version
First peel the bananas and then throw them in a freezer safe bag or sealed container straight away. You will have to chop the frozen bananas with a clever before using and sometimes they stick together. All in all, we find this the easiest method. By freezing the bananas whole, you know how much to add to your recipe.

Option 2: Sophisticated version that requires some freezer space.
Remove the banana peel. Chop the bananas in bite sized pieces. Freeze bananas on a lined baking sheet in a single layer for a couple of hours or until frozen solid. Then transfer the frozen bananas to a covered freezer safe storage container. The con of this method is that you don’t really know unless you have a scale how many slices are in a banana, especially if you have frozen more than one.

What is the difference between matcha and regular steeped green tea?

First and foremost, both matcha and regular steeped green tea come from the same tea plant called Camellia sinensis. But that is where their similarity ends.

What makes matcha different from regular green tea is how the tea plants are covered during the last few weeks before harvest. Covering the tea plants, helps to increase the bright green chlorophyll and it also increases the antioxidants and nutrients. Then, the entire leaf gets stone ground into a green tea powder. Matcha can be consumed as a beverage, enjoyed in a chia seed pudding, mixed into desserts, added to savory recipes and more.

Can guess the benefits of covering the tea plants? Yep – you reap all the benefits of extra antioxidants, including L- theanine that promotes relaxation along with the caffeine kick for a “chilled buzz” or “focused energy”. Because you are consuming the whole leaf in a ground powder, matcha has a more intense flavor, caffeine, and higher nutrient count compared to regular green tea.

Regular green tea leaves are not covered during the last few weeks before harvest and they go through different processing. Basic green tea leaves are either kept whole for loose-leaf tea or placed in tea bags for steeping. Once the green tea is steeped you can enjoy the healthy nectar of the tea. As you are not consuming the whole leaf like with matcha, it has less antioxidants and caffeine compared to matcha but still packs a healthy boost to your day.

Matcha Strawberry Nice Cream Cups