Gluten-free, vegan banana pudding
[This post is sponsored via my new partnership with Blue Diamond Almond Breeze. Each month, I’ll be creating a recipe using their fantastic Almond Breeze almond milk. Read on for a vegan and gluten-free banana pudding!]
Banana pudding is one of my all-time favorite desserts. The bummer is that many restaurants don’t serve it.. unless you’re at some type of cafeteria. I’m ok with that. Along with wishing that it was more accessible, I found myself wondering about the sometimes-sketchy ingredients, so I decided to take things into my own hands and make some. My mission was to create something vegan and also gluten-free.
Vegan Banana Pudding
The key to the creamy texture:
Almond Breeze almond milk + soaked raw cashews.
Soaked raw cashews and young Thai coconut meat are two fantastic vegan options to add creamy texture to a dish. For this recipe, I knew the cashews would help to thicken the mixture, and also yield a light, nutty flavor. I added the cashews to the high-speed blender, along with a banana, a date, maple syrup, and almond milk.
I blended the mixture on high,
layered it with gluten-free vanilla cookies,
and allowed it to set overnight.
Creamy pudding, slices of fresh banana and wafers, which have softened and chilled. Comfort food at its finest (aka very comfortable as I plant my face into the dish).
Here’s the recipe if you’d like to give it a try!
Hope you love it 🙂
Gluten-free vegan banana pudding
A dairy-free alternative to the classic comfort food. Make the night before — it tastes even better the next day!
- Prep Time: 15
- Total Time: 15
Ingredients
- 2 cups raw cashews, soaked at least one hour or overnight. Drained and rinsed
- 1 cup Almond Breeze almond milk
- 1 medjool date, pitted
- 3 bananas (2 sliced, 1 whole)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup maple syrup (or any sweetener you love. Honey would work well, too)
- pinch of sea salt
- 1 package of your favorite vanilla cookies or wafers
- Dairy-free whipped cream and cinnamon, for serving
Instructions
- 1. In a high-speed blender, blend the cashews, one banana, the date, pinch of sea salt, sweetener, Almond Breeze, and vanilla on high until smooth and creamy.
- 2. In a 9×13 baking dish, add the remaining banana slices and cookies to cover the bottom of the pan.
- 3. Pour the pudding mixture on top, cover and allow to cool in fridge overnight.
- 4. Serve with whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon.
What’s your all-time favorite dessert of comfort food? Have you ever made at all home?
I’m a HUGE molten chocolate cake fan, but don’t think I’ve ever made it at home… need to change that.
Have a wonderful day.
xo
Gina
This post was sponsored by Blue Diamond Almond Breeze- my favorite almond milk! As always, all opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting this blog and the sponsors that help to support our family.
45 Comments
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Just wondering if there’s a typo here:
“1/2 cup maple syrup (or any sweetener you love. 1 tablespoon of honey would work, too)”
1/2 cup of maple syrup wouldn’t substitute with just 1 tbsp of honey. Should it be more honey or less maple syrup?
yes! fixed it– thank you:)
Super!
Are you concerned about the ingredient Carrageenans that is in most almond milks ? Just wanted to hear your thoughts …I now banded store bought almond & coconut milks and creamers due to Carrageenan and opt for making my own almond milk from scratch .
This is such great timing! I was just talking to someone on Sunday about much I love banana cream pudding but that I hadn’t tasted it in years since I was vegan and gluten free. I’m so excited to try this!
let me know what you think!
This looks so yummy! I was just wondering if you used sweetened or unsweetened almond milk? If I use unsweetened, do you think I’d need to add more dates?
Thanks!
Maggie
i used unsweetened too, and it was perfectly sweet!
This looks awesome! I’ve been looking for a dairy-free pudding recipe to make for the little miss 🙂 Thank you!
Love almond milk–just made a smoothie with it.
That sounds delicious and light. Thanks for sharing.
My favorite dessert is carrot cake, and I’ve never tried making it at home. Wonder if I could pull together a healthy version.
Looking forward to more Blue Diamond recipes.
Best,
Ashley
This sounds fantastic and I LOVE that it is vegan! So cool! 🙂
I love that this is vegan! Dairy and I don’t get along well. I’m a sucker for vanilla wafers too. That’s for the great recipe!
OH wow. this sounds like the perfect afternoon snack! I can’t wait to try it out. I’ve been on a HUGE banana kick lately. We just got a dehydrator, so I’ve been obsessing over dried bananas. I may have to sprinkle some in my pudding for a little crunch!
I’ve done something quite similar using chia seeds as the thickener. Yum!
Oh man this looks awesome! I’ve tried chia seed pudding and the texture was all wrong, but this looks right up my alley 😀
Do the cashews get soft when you soak them? I think nuts would kill my blender otherwise. I’m still dreaming of the day when I own a food processor (soon with our wedding coming up)! I definitely want to try this one, yum 🙂
yep, they soften up nicely! i’d soak them overnight.
THANK YOU! The BF is a big banana cream pie/pudding dessert fan so this will be an awesome healthy alternative for him! Legit making this this weekend 🙂
Holy yum! I could use some right now!
This sounds CRAZY delicious!
Totally a dessert I could have a few nights a week! 😉
This recipe looks great! I think chocolate chip cookies are probably my favorite dessert comfort food.
looooooove an old-fashioned, warm, chocolate chip cookie. THE BEST
Yum! This looks delish and I love that it’s not too difficult at all. I’ll have to get some cashews…I always walk past them because I end up eating them all too fast.
This looks so awesome! YUM!
I am crazy for banana pudding, I would ask for it for my birthday instead of cake! I love this GF version as well! Can’t wait to give it a try! Pinning!
This looks great! My favorite comfort dessert is rice pudding with raisins.
Sounds delicious! I haven’t had banana pudding in a really long time!
I love this recipe, and I love all the ingredients you used! Almond Breeze is an awesome company!
let me know if you try it! totally agree- they’re amazing 🙂
That dessert looks unreal! I have a love affair with chocolate mousse. However, I’ve never made it at home, I did however get on a week long kick of making black bean brownies for dinner (!) & they were amazing… I’m not sure how it worked it’s way onto my dinner menu & stayed, but it did. I tried not to feel too bad about it since it was a semi-healthy “dessert”. To each their own. 🙂
chocolate mousse is one of my faves, too! but then again, i love anything chocolate 🙂
Yum! My dad is vegan, I’m definitely keeping this recipe around for him to try:)
banana pudding is my favorite dessert… EVER!
This is the second time in 2 days that I’ve seen a post/photo of banana pudding with vanilla-wafery cookies. Must be time to make some!
Looks so good.
L x
http://workingmumy.blogspot.com
This looks delicious!! Love banana pudding, especially the homemade kind I’ve discovered in the South, but the traditional kind destroys my digestive system. Can’t wait to try this!
One of my all-time favorite desserts is a brownie sundae, which I do make at home. Another one that I’ve never made at home? Crème brûlée. I don’t own ramekins, nor do I have a torch, but I wouldn’t mind trying some day.
Banana flavored anything has always been my favorite. I just made this with 1/4 cup agave (it was all I had left) and it was delicious. I found myself wanting to lick my vitamix. All I have at home right now are animal crackers, so that is what i used.
Where did you find your vanilla cookies?
boom. glad you liked it! i got those ones at whole foods
this looks amazing!! And, dating someone who is GF and DF, this is sure to be a winning treat!
Guilty pleasure but SO easy:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Lava-Cake-in-less-than-15-minutes/
I’m sure you could think of a creative spin on this! 🙂
dude. i’m on it.
I love banana pudding and this one looks perfect. I’ve made a peanut butter version with almond milk before. So good!!
This sounds amazing; did you make the recipe up? YUM!