Ice Cream Week Continues with Berry Sorbet

Welcome to Ice Cream Week here at Quick and Easy Cheap and Healthy!

Ice cream is the topic of the hour, all week long. I’ve got some sorbets to share, plus some fun ice cream flavors I’ve been experimenting with, and some other ideas for what to do with all the ice cream you make.(Note: All the recipes are intentionally dairy-free; but with the exception of the sorbets can be made with regular old cow’s milk and cream should you desire.) Come back every day this week for a new recipe!

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Would you believe that this is yet another recipe whose pictures are on that blasted memory card that is who-knows-where?! I have yanked out my hair, searched through every possible hiding spot in this residence, even crawled around on my hands and knees and I can’t find it anywhere. Ugh. Oh well, here’s a picture from the source:

We’re coming to the end of berry season on the east coast here, but the good thing about sorbets is that they often start with frozen fruit anyway, so all you need is a bag or two of frozen berries from the grocery. However, if you happen to have some fresh local berries like I did earlier this month, then so much the better!

When I set out to make my berry sorbet (I used strawberries), I was actually kind of shocked at how much sugar (or corn syrup, for goodness’ sakes!) people threw into their sorbets. Most fruit is sweet enough on its own; it doesn’t need to be doctored up quite so much. Of course, the tart factor might be increased after some time in the freezer, but even so, I found this recipe to be plenty sweet enough, especially when I served it with a sprinkling of homemade granola and a few chocolate chips.

I used this no-sugar-at-all berry sorbet recipe, and it turned out great! It only uses a tablespoon of honey, which means that it is not even an indulgence. It calls for coconut water - I just used the bit of coconut milk left over from a can after I had refrigerated all the cream out of it. Of course, if you have coconut water, you can use it, or you can use plain water. You can try using milk or cream instead, but then it won’t technically be a sorbet anymore. And… we have again a banana in the ice cream! I really think the bananas help to make a nice creamy consistency, and the flavor goes very well with the berries in this recipe.

If your berries are already frozen, this is one of the QUICKest ice cream recipes around. You can even eat it immediately if desired, since all the main ingredients are frozen to begin with.

It’s also one of the EASY-est, especially since you don’t really even need an ice cream machine (although I think it helps with the texture, too).

It’s CHEAP during berry season, but otherwise, not so much. Frozen berries are available for a good price year-round at Trader Joes.

This is such a HEALTHY ice cream, you don’t even need to feel the list bit guilty about enjoying it! It’s an additional serving of fruits, after all!