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6 Super Healthy Green Ice Cream Recipes for Kids

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Wow your kids with these vibrant and fun frozen treats made with frozen fruit and leafy greens! Green produce like spinach, kiwi, avocado and kale bring super nutrition and gorgeous color to these healthy desserts. Grab a spoon and dig in!

Leafy greens are the ultimate super food, and most kids don’t get enough. In your quest to get more leafy greens into your kids’ diet, frosty green desserts can be a valuable trick up your sleeve!

Beyond your typical green smoothie, green ice creams boast more creaminess, more sweetness, and a more scoopable consistency than what you might be used to blending up.

Try these bright and fun frozen concoctions with your picky eaters, and get those greens in!

6 Super Healthy Green Ice Cream Recipes for Kids. You wouldn't know there is kale in them all!

Tips for Freezing Leafy Greens

Frozen leafy greens are perfect for smoothies and ice cream, because their brittle texture gets ground up easily by the blender blades.

You can freeze fresh bunches of kale (or your own garden kale!) easily. First rinse it and dry it well. Then par-freeze it for a couple of hours on a baking sheet. Lastly, transfer the leaves to a freezer-safe bag.

You can also simply throw an entire bag of chopped kale or spinach from the store right into the freezer! Keeping a couple of bags of frozen greens on hand lets you buzz up green smoothies and ice creams with little advance planning.

Got some in your freezer right now? Use it up in these tasty and gorgeously green frozen treats!

Tropical Coconut Green Ice Cream

6 Super Healthy Green Ice Cream Recipes for Kids. You wouldn't know there is kale in them all!

For the tropical coconut we combined these ingredients in our blender:

  • 1 cup coconut milk
  • 1 cup frozen spinach or kale
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1 cup frozen pineapple
  • 1 frozen banana
  • Flaked coconut for garnish

Blend it all up, then pour into a container and freeze at least 4 hours. After frozen, remove from freezer and then wait about 10 minutes to make scooping easier.

Creamy Avocado Green Ice Cream

6 Super Healthy Green Ice Cream Recipes for Kids. You wouldn't know there is kale in them all!

We started with our original recipe for avocado ice cream here, and modified it based on your feedback. Here’s the latest and greatest version:

  • 1 cup coconut milk
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 avocado
  • 1 cup frozen kale or spinach
  • 1 tablespoon maple syrup
  • 1/2 cup plain yogurt.

This one was super creamy!  It almost didn’t need to be frozen.  Kind of like soft serve.  But we froze it for about 2 hours anyway, and it was even better!

Vegan Almond Pistachio Ice Cream

6 Super Healthy Green Ice Cream Recipes for Kids. You wouldn't know there is kale in them all!

This one isn’t mine, but I couldn’t have a round up of green ice creams without pistachios!  So, I found one from Somer at Veged Out that looked amazing! Check out her super healthy, vegan Almond Pistachio Ice Cream here.

Healthy Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

6 Super Healthy Green Ice Cream Recipes for Kids. You wouldn't know there is kale in them all!

MMmmmm! Do your kids like mint chocolate chip? Some kids love it, some don’t. Either way, this one was easy. We used:

  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 cup frozen spinach or kale
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1/2 cup mint leaves
  • 1 frozen banana
  • 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Blend milk, greens, vanilla, honey, mint, and also banana in a high powered blender. Then Fold in chocolate chips. Scoop into bowl and freeze for 2-4 hours.

Fresh Creamy Lime Ice Cream

6 Super Healthy Green Ice Cream Recipes for Kids. You wouldn't know there is kale in them all!

This one does taste fresh and amazing. We used:

  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 lime, juiced (we just squeezed the lime juice into the blender)
  • 2 dates, pitted
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup frozen spinach or kale

Blend all ingredients in a high powered blender.  This one will be super runny.  But just pour into a bowl and put in the freezer. It will take at least 5-6 hours to freeze to our desired consistency.

Kiwi Sorbet

We’ve been making this one for years!  Fruit and honey is really all you need, and maybe your kids don’t even need the honey!?  Check out the steps over on our Kiwi Sorbet post here.

6 Super Healthy Green Ice Cream Recipes for Kids

 

 

Natalie Monson

I'm a registered dietitian, mom of 4, avid lover of food and strong promoter of healthy habits. Here you will find lots of delicious recipes full of fruits and veggies, tips for getting your kids to eat better and become intuitive eaters and lots of resources for feeding your family.

Learn More about Natalie

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26 Comments

The lime juice doesn’t separate the milk? When I was very little I was determined to make ‘ice cream’. I went about this by adding orange juice and sugar to milk and boy did I end up with a big surprise when I opened the freezer. How does this not happen to your lime ice cream?

It didn’t.. Maybe we blended too fast and it froze too quickly?!? I’ll make more today to test it, but it turned out just like the photo above.

When the recipes call for 1 cup coconut milk… is this from a can of coconut milk or a carton for drinking?

Will coconut milk work in the mint chocolate chip recipe? I am lactose intolerant and would love to try it with my son! Thanks!

Excited to try the Mint Chocolate Chip!I just have a question – you mentioned 1 tsp vanilla ..is this vanilla ice cream?vanilla essence?

Looking forward to hearing from you!

@Marci The cooked and frozen kale might be too concentrated.
@Beth, I used the milk in the can, but you should be able to do it from the carton as well.
@Stacie Definitely! It should taste pretty close to the same I imagine.
@Donna- It doesn’t. It’s just what I used.
@Reina- Sorry, vanilla extract!

I’ve frozen fresh mint and it’s bitter. How did you avoid this?
I’ve frozen it in ice cubes for drinks, and other use same day servings. So I know it wasn’t just old.

From what I’ve read, mint becomes bitter when it’s heated. Are you freezing, and then using it in cooking? You could also just mix it in right before you eat the ice cream.

These ideas are fabulous! Can’t wait to make them, but I was conserned about freezing veggies, using them in the recipies ( and by that time they might melt) and freezing them again….do you think it is safe?

How about green tea ice cream? It is one of DH’s favorites, but I’ve never seen one in the grocery store that isn’t full of garbage.

These all look amazing! I’m curious if any of them have ever been made in an ice cream maker?

Hi Amy, thanks for your post.
My son and I have a common interest in ice cream, so I always want to add to my recipe collection new creamy, tasty ones and especially nutritious too. And btw I have a suggestion for you guys, try adding the lemon to mint chocolate chip, mint born to combine with lemon, trust me.

Susie

Hi.. my kid is extremely suspicious of any food that is green.. if I add cocoa powder to the avocado ice cream recipe, how much would I need, and would I need to change anything else? Thanks

We haven’t tried this- you could start with a couple tablespoons and go from there. Also, cocoa powder can be quite bitter- you may need to adjust the sweetener! Good luck!

HI, i’m looking to try to make the avocado ice-cream but my kids don’t like the coconut milk taste. Would it be ok to substitute it with full cream milk? Thank you