This make-ahead Creamy Strawberry Banana Jello is easy and always a hit at parties. Sour cream and a quick spin in the blender makes it smooth and creamy. You can call it salad. You can call it dessert. I don’t care! We all know it’s delicious. Originally posted April 18, 2014.
You know why I love jello salad? Because you can legitimately serve dessert as a side dish with dinner and nobody bats an eye. Aunt Beatrice signed up to bring a nice green salad for Easter, but shows up with jello salad instead? It’s aaaall good. Â Salad is salad people. Don’t question it.
Eric didn’t like jello as a kid (he has since mended his ways). His grandmother always brought a special jello recipe to family events and would get so offended when he didn’t eat it. She was always trying to convince Eric’s mom to force him to eat it, as if it were something actually nutritious instead of straight up sugar and fruit.
My sister-in-law Sandi has made this jello for multiple events over the past year, and every time I end up back in her fridge eating it with a spoon after the party is over. It was her idea to blend it all up. I love how creamy it is. I am all about fruit in jello, and this one certainly has it, but without the inconvenience of chewing. (It’s like the smoothie of jellos. You could even add some spinach to make it healthy. Oh my gosh I’m just kidding.)
Don’t even worry about the sour cream. It makes it creamy and even adds a nice little tang.
This Creamy Strawberry Banana Jello is a good option for Easter. It’s super easy, and make-ahead to boot. It may not be gourmet, but you know what, I don’t think anyone will complain once they taste it. Jello is a classic, embrace it!
How to make Strawberry Banana Jello
This strawberry banana jello is stupid easy when you have the right ingredients and the right equipment. I love any recipe where basically just mix and pour. Just grab your blender of choice and get going!
Jellooooooo! You know you want this.
Add the boiling water and stir it up.
Don’t worry about mashing the bananas too much, the blender will do that. You just want to make sure to get the lemon juice all over it.
Dump it all in a blender.
And give it a whirl.
If the jello won’t come out, Â hold the mold in a large bowl of hot water for a couple seconds. That should do the trick.
P.S. Happy Easter to everyone! Here’s to remembering the reason for the season. I will be remembering with my family this Sunday that Jesus Christ is our Savior, and Because of Him we can be redeemed. I hope everyone, religious or not, can enjoy this season of joy, family, and rebirth.
More great Jello recipes to try!
- Check out this other jello I posted a while back: Coca Cola Jello Salad with Cherries
- Jello Pretzel Salad – I love the mix of the salty preztels with the sweet jello!
- Coca Cola Jello Salad with Cherries – Use a delicious coke to make this one
- Sea Foam Salad (Creamy Pear Jello) – A must have at all our family holiday gatherings
- Fluffy Lemon Jello Salad from Dessert Now, Dinner Later
Creamy Strawberry Banana Jello
Ingredients
- 1 6-oz package Strawberry Jell-O
- 2 cups boiling water
- 24 ounces frozen strawberries, whole or sliced
- 1 banana
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 cups sour cream, light or regular
- fresh strawberries, to garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Empty the jello package into a large bowl. Carefully pour the boiling water over the top, then stir until the jello is dissolved.
- Add the frozen strawberries and stir until mostly thawed. Pour this mixture into a large blender.
- In a small bowl, roughly mash together the banana and lemon juice. Add this to the blender.
- Add the 2 cups of sour cream. Blend for about 30 seconds, some lumps are okay.
- Prepare a jello mold or a 10-12 cup bundt pan with nonstick spray. (Or just use a pretty bowl, no need to spray).
- Pour the jello into the prepared pan, cover tightly, and refrigerate for several hours or overnight, until completely chilled.
- To invert the jello, place a plate over the mold and flip. If the jello doesn’t come out, fill a large bowl with hot water and hold the bottom of the mold in the water for no more than 1-3 seconds, then invert again. (This will help melt the outer edge, releasing the jello.)
- Serve the jello with fresh strawberries.
I miss jello!! I need to make this. There was a woman in my church who used to bring jello shapes to church picnics when I was a kid. She had a mold that made the shapes of the 50 states… so cool! Haha. Jello makes me feel nostalgic. It was something we never really had at home, so I looked forward to having it at picnics and friends’ houses. :)
I could be that woman, I own one of those 50-state jello molds! [it was free if you bought jello] I just made this jello for Easter, it was as delicious as it looks – but I put it in a boring bowl, I should have been more patriotic!
This is the prettiest Jell-o mold I’ve ever seen. I love the addition of fruit. So yummy! I don’t blame you for sneaking bites after the guests leave.
Love the colors…My kids would love this!
My family totally digs jello. It is a staple at dinners because my grandma has bad teeth. I made this but it was a fail. It did not set up. I am not sure what I did wrong because you know it is jello, but it was still pretty and looked good! I will have to try again.
Kayci I’ve failed you! I’m so sorry it didn’t set up. How long did you refrigerate it? My sister-in-law (who gave me the recipe) just told me yesterday that it takes longer than usual to set up. So maybe I will change the directions to say refrigerate for at least 8 hours. (I did mine overnight). I’m glad it still tasted good!
Well it would be in my scope of abilities to mess jello up! It did end up being almost like a smoothie, to which I could have added that spinach just fine!
I think I put a little extra banana in, maybe that was it? I did refrigerate it for a long time though. I mixed it up last night, put it in the fridge and kept it there till about 5 pm today.
So if all else fails it can be used as a smoothie!
Hm, it doesn’t seem like extra banana would keep it from setting up though would it? I guess you could just get straws for next time :)
We always have a fruit jello salad as a “side dish” at Christmas. It doesn’t count as one of the 7 desserts because it’s practically a vegetable, right?
I lurv jello, Karen, and this looks super intriguing. Spinach, begone from my jello. Stay far far away! And fingers crossed that I win the Blendtec although with my bad luck… I’m not gonna say anything to jinx my chances! Happy Easter, lady!
It’s like my son was reading your mind…he demanded I buy strawberry jello today, and conveniently, I already have all the other ingredients. Can I just use a regular Bundt pan? There’s no secret to it? (PS we just bought a Blendtec and I love it.)
Perfect!! Yeah I used a regular bundt pan. No secrets! A bowl works too.
Really fun and interesting color!
This is totally taking me back to being a kid! My aunt used to make a jello salad on Easter, sour cream and all! I would take big scoops of it and plop it on my plate right next to my ham and mashed potatoes. Kind of a weird combination now that I think about it, but seemed totally normal then.
Love your recipes!
Thank you Heather! I’m so glad you like them, thanks for commenting!
I love that you’re not too cool to embrace the jello.
I think I could totally get away with substituting the sour cream with Greek yogurt. In college we’d mix the jello with Cool whip and as it set up, the cool whip would rise to the top so that there were automatic layers. We thought we were culinary geniuses.
Yum! I for one love jello salads. They are just old-school goodness! I was at a family reunion at the end of last summer and one of my great-aunts brought this amazing lemon jello salad which for me, in the midst of about 50 different dishes was my absolute favorite, I think I went back for thirds! This looks really good, pinned it!!
Mmmmmm I like. All I want to say is J–E–L–L–O!!!!! Have a wonderful Easter with your beautiful family!!!
Oh my gosh, this just brought me back to my childhood! My mom used to make “jello mold” any time we had a party….it pretty much looked just like this. I have had it in years, but I think I might have to bust this out very soon.
Hi Karen, beautiful looking jello salad, love that all the fruit is blended, very nice. Happy Easter to you and your family!