Strawberry Ice Cream
The beginning of July is my favourite time of year in London. Summer has officially arrived, the entire city becomes captivated by Wimbledon and British strawberries are finally in season.
Between late May and mid July, British strawberries are in their prime. They are vibrant red, juicy and full of flavour, in no way resembling the hard, white centered berries misleadingly labelled strawberries eaten during the winter months.
Strawberries are a nutrient rich fruit packed with immunity boosting vitamin C, with 1 cup containing over 100% of your recommended daily intake. The Vitamin C in strawberries also helps in the production of collagen (bye wrinkles!) as well as protecting the eyes from sun damage and cataracts. If like me, you are constantly battling inflammation and trying to keep your C-reactive protein levels down, then strawberries may just be your knight in shining armour. A recent study found that women who ate at least 16 strawberries per week were 14% less likely to have elevated levels of C-reactive protein, so if you are suffering from arthritis, IBD or any other form of inflammation related illness, it’s time to up your strawberry intake, and I have the perfect recipe to help.
This strawberry ice cream is deliciously smooth and creamy. The soaked cashews act as a thickening agent, and provide no flavour, leaving just the deliciously sweet stewed strawberries to pack each scoop with fruity flavour. Strawberries have a high content of water (92% which is actually the same percentage as watermelon) which causes the ice cream to freeze quite hard, so be sure to remove it from the freezer 10 minutes before serving. Take the opportunity to fill your freezer with bags of freshly washed strawberries, while they are in season. They are great to use all year round in smoothies or ice cream!
If you make this recipe let me know in the comment section below, I would love to hear what you think or take a photo and tag me (@everylastbite_) on Instagram, I love seeing your photos!
Strawberry Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups cashews soaked in water overnight
- 4 cups chopped strawberries
- 2 tbsp honey or other liquid sweetener
- 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Place the strawberries in a bowl and mix with the honey and vanilla extract. Cover and allow to macerate for at least 1 hour.
- Drain the cashews and blend in a blender until smooth, you may need to add a splash of almond milk if the cashews are not breaking down. Continue blending until the mixture is completely smooth.
- Place the strawberries in the blender and puree.*
- Pour the mixture into a pre-chilled ice cream maker and use according to the instructions
- Once the ice cream has finished churning serve immediately or transfer to a container and store in the freezer.
Notes
Using a little bit of olive oil can help it from completely freezing ☺️
Would you know how to make this without an ice cream maker? Recipe looks scrummy! Cx
Thanks! I think you may need to add a bit of alcohol such as vodka which is tasteless and will help ensure the ice cream doesn’t freeze completely hard. Once blended place the mixture into a tupperware container and place in the freezer, stir it once or twice while waiting for it to freeze to get some air into the mixture. Hope that helps!
Freezing the strawberries should help too. I’m going to try this with frozen mangoes or some other tropical fruit. By the way, I love your site Carmen.