Recipe: 30-Second Strawberry and Pink Peppercorn Ice-cream (Vegan, dairy-free)

My name is Lynda and I’m an Icecreamaholic. I think people who only eat ice cream in the summer are frankly amateurs. When giving directions, my landmarks are often gelaterias. I’ve been known to have it for breakfast. So when Kavey tweeted a pinterest board full of ice cream yesterday, I was practically licking the screen.

Mention of the Bloggers Scream For Ice Cream Challenge using spices intrigued me.  Oddly enough based on the amount I consume, I’ve never actually made “real” ice cream. I do however often make “instant ice cream” or FroYo whenever i need a quick fix, using frozen fruit and yoghurt..  Anyway I decided to give the challenge a go.

As we head into autumn this recipe is my last fling with summer flavours using a heap of strawberries that I’d just bought (a bargaintastic two punnets for £1 from my local market).  Black pepper perks strawberries up so I figured that pink pepper would work equally well. Apart from being a gorgeous colour, the peppercorns have a wonderful, slightly sweet yet spicy fragrance from the oil released when crushed. There is an ice cream for all seasons and this is a flavour to be licked whilst wiggling your toes in grass and a bee buzzing in the background. Definitely one I’ll be making when summer returns.

Recipe: 30-second Strawberry and Pink Peppercorn Ice Cream 

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp pink peppercorns
• 1/4 cup dried strawberries
• 1 cup of frozen strawberries
• 1/2 cup of chopped fresh strawberries
• 1 tbsp honey*
• 1 tsp vanilla paste
• 1 cup of Coyo (vegan coconut yoghurt)*

1. Crush peppercorns (I used a pestle and mortar)

2. Add half the dried strawberries to the mortar and grind with the pepper.

3. Put the mortar mix with the yoghurt, vanilla, honey and frozen strawberries into a blender and whizz for 30 seconds.

4. Add the chopped strawberries to the mixture.

5. Good to eat there and then though texture is quite soft. Otherwise put in freezer for a few hours which adds depth to the flavour.

* Greek yoghurt can also be used. Coyo has a very subtle coconut taste and imparts a lovely creamy texture (only down side is that it’s ridiculously expensive). This particular recipe is dairy-free and could be made vegan by substituting the honey for agave nectar or maple syrup.

I cook all the time and always sharing recipes with people verbally but this is the first recipe I’ve ever written down – considering how simple this one is much harder than it looks! So how did I do?