Who doesn’t love banana smoothies? They make a healthy up-and-go breakfast drink or fuel your recovery after a workout. The basic ingredients are simply bananas and either dairy or plant-based milk. But the secret to a great banana smoothie is perfectly ripe bananas. Underripe and your smoothie won’t be sweet enough. Overripe is ideal but the bananas must be used quickly before becoming rotten. I find the best way to get my bananas just right is to freeze bananas and have a supply waiting in the freezer.
The Best Way To Freeze Bananas
You can toss whole bananas into the freezer. I’ve tried it so you can learn from my mistakes. The result is an unpleasant brown mush. You have to defrost the whole banana to be able to peel it, so that’s not going to work if you want to use your bananas frozen to make a thicker smoothie.
Another method is mashing your banana and pressing it into ice cube trays before freezing. I find it’s fiddly and you get an icy layer on the top of your banana cubes that spoils the creaminess of your smoothie.
Instead, I use this super-easy method:
- Wait until your bananas are speckled on the outside and perfectly ripe. A little overripe is fine.
- Find a baking sheet that will fit into your freezer and line it with parchment paper.
- Peel your bananas and cut them into 1-inch chunks.
- Place the banana pieces in a single layer on your baking sheet.
- Pop the baking sheet in the freezer and freeze the banana pieces until solid. (A couple of hours or overnight)
- Once frozen, carefully remove the banana pieces from the parchment paper and transfer them to a freezer-safe ziplock bag or airtight container.
- Use within 3 to 6 months.
That’s all there is to it! You now have a big bag of banana chunks you can toss into the blender to make your favorite smoothie recipes!
