Bananas
Banana smoothie – great for breakfast
Place a large banana (or two small ones), 200ml very cold milk – skimmed if you wish, a tablespoon of porridge oats and a couple of ice cubes in a blender and whizz for about a minute. Pour into a glass.
Banana and orange smoothie
Put a large banana, the juice of two oranges, 200ml white grape juice, the juice of half a lime or lemon, and a few ice cubes into a blender and whizz till smooth. Makes a couple of glasses.
If your blender is powerful enough to manage, put peeled, chopped bananas into the freezer overnight, then you’ll be able to have ice cold, creamy smoothies for breakfast and can leave out the ice cubes.
Banana bread – a great way to use overripe bananas
Preheat the oven to 180oC, Gas Mark 4.
Get a bunch of ripe bananas weighing 450g, then peel and mash them. Add 100g butter (make sure it’s at room temperature , 225g self raising flour, 150g caster sugar, a good pinch of salt and 2 eggs – mix all this together. The quickest way to do this is in a food processor, but by hand isn’t too difficult either.
When it’s all thoroughly mixed, stir in 175g dried fruit. Spoon the mixture into a 1kg loaf tin, spread it out evenly with a spoon, then bake for 1 ½ hours, or until a skewer pushed into the centre comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack before you start slicing.