Wednesday Real Food Recipe – Strawberry Basil Ice Cream

Everyone needs a treat sometimes. I never want to live in a world without ice cream, but most of the ice cream you find on the grocery store shelvesis packed with artificial crap. This ice cream does have white sugar in it, but not much, and we eat so little sugar at our house that I refuse to feel guilty about this little bit.

A few years ago Marquis and I stumbled on a place selling strawberry basil ice cream, and we thought it sounded so strange that we just had to have it. Apparently not many people liked the uniqueness of it because they were surprised when we ordered it and they didn’t have it the next time we went in, but that one taste was enough for us to know we wanted more. When Marquis found this recipe, we decided to try it, and I’m so glad we did! This recipe is also egg-free, which is just what we need for the egg allergies in our house.

As a little side note before you try this ice cream, I really wanted the basil flavor to shine through, so I used a little bit more than the recipe called for and let it steep longer than directed. I also was super aggressive when straining out the basil leaves to make sure I got every bit of basilness into that ice cream. Unfortunately, there was too much basil! So I would suggest not being so aggressive with the basil, and next time I’m going to double the strawberries.

I know the thought of basil in ice cream is rather… unconventional. But if you think about it, basil is in the mint family, and you see mint in desserts all the time. I dare you to try this out, you just might be as pleasantly surprised as we were to discover this yummy flavor combo!

Check out the recipe right here. 

I’m serving up the best Real Food recipes every Wednesday. Do you have a recipe you would like to see featured here? Send me an email at Emily@thatswhatieat.com