Banana Cardamom Milkshake

- Merrill

Recently, I got an email from my friend Alexandra, who inspired this post about banana pudding a few months ago. She was planning to make banana pudding for a party over the weekend and wondered if I thought it was a good idea to add some cardamom. I enthusiastically gave her two thumbs up, and then proceeded to obsess over the idea for the next few days. Banana and cardamom seemed like such a winning combination -- I knew there must be other ways to put it to good use.

After some thought, and inspired in part by our Soda Fountain contest, I decided to try making a banana cardamom milkshake. Happily, it didn't disappoint. This recipe is dead simple and good for summer, when I personally don't feel like putting a lot of elbow grease into most of my cooking. It's creamy but also a little refreshing, due in part to the addition of a little lime juice, which brightens things up. Feel free to adjust the cardamom to your taste, as well as the milk to ice cream ratio -- I went for a shake that's not too thick, reminiscent of a smoothie but richer.

Banana Cardamom Milkshake

Makes one large milkshake, or two smaller shakes

• 1 large banana, peeled
• 2 scoops good vanilla ice cream
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• Juice of 1/2 lime
• Seeds from 4 cardamom pods, crushed
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See the recipe (and save and print it) here.