Friday, March 16, 2012

A green bowl

Any idea what this might be?


Something with avocado?

You could be forgiven for thinking that, given my recent avocado dessert experiments.

But no, no avocado involved.

Basil perhaps? A creamy-looking pesto?


Nope, no basil either.

Spinach?


Yes, spinach.

But not spinach dip.


Welcome to green ice cream!

I'm not sure it will take off in ice creameries, but it was a fun twist on my banana soft serve playing...

Green spinach ice cream
Probably not something to serve to guests...but an enjoyable way to eat a vegetable serve
Makes 1 bowl

Combine ~100g frozen spinach, partially defrosted (equivalent to about 200g fresh),
1 1/2 medium frozen bananas,
1 tsp good quality cocoa,
~1/2 tsp agave, honey or other liquid sweetener (just a drizzle really),
and process until smooth, adding milk or yoghurt if needed.





The taste experience was, it must be said, slightly odd. I have never jumped on the green smoothie bandwagon as I don't really have a suitable blender, but I imagine this would be similar to a green smoothie only in ice cream form. My brain didn't expect to taste spinach mixed in with a sweet (ish), ice cream (ish) dish, but once  I got over that it was enjoyable.

If you wanted vegetable ice cream but not the spinach taste, I imagine that halving the spinach quantity would achieve that. You could also add more sweetener or other flavours. There wasn't a detectable cocoa taste here so I'm not sure how much the cocoa added; I may have noticed if it wasn't there though.

I think it's likely that I'll be sticking to fruit-based combinations for when I want a 'real' ice cream experience, but this may just appear again...

Have you added vegetables to anything 'odd' lately?
What was the last green dish you ate?

17 comments:

  1. Very odd indeed but love the idea! I love frozen banana ice-cream, so why not play around with adding some greens in? Love it. I always have heaps of spinach in my salads...nothing weird there :)
    Heidi xo

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    1. I am so relieved that this has been received favourably by some...and that I have a friend in spinach non-weirdness ;)

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  2. I feel kind of embarrassed that I knew from the first photo that this was spinach and banana ice cream.

    Dear holy god we bloggers are weird sometimes.

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    1. Bahaha...creative, Miss Hannah, creative! But I will concede, sometimes weird too. This was definitely a weird day in my kitchen :p

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    2. No.... I'm pretty sure we're weird. :P

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  3. what a creative idea! I love the way you wrote this post- definitely had me guessing!

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  4. Yup, you really haven't convinced me with this one, but points to you for creativity!

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    1. Teehee, given you don't even like banana-based ice creams to start with, I do think this is probably one to miss!

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  5. Sorry Kari, I'm sitting this idea out :)

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    1. To which I can only say, fair enough Liz, fair enough :)

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  6. Oh wow! I had no idea that was ice cream. It has an interesting list of ingredients for ice cream. I would love to give it a try. xx

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    Replies
    1. I'm glad I kept you guessing :) And thank you for the enthusiasm!

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  7. I recently saw a fudge flavoured by parsley - just in case you are looking for any other green colourings for your ice cream!

    I really like green smoothies but feel more wary of spinach in ice cream - maybe that is just because it is now so common to see green smoothies about and I feel more comfortable with making smoothies than ice cream! If you do want to get into smoothies - a cheap hand held blender and a tall thin jug work very well.

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    Replies
    1. Mmm, you may be unleashing a torrent of green recipes Johanna - I hadn't thought of parsley. You've also made me think that perhaps I should give my blender another try - I do actually have one but it's not up to much processing. I'd guess it would work with frozen defrosted spinach though, so perhaps I should experiment.

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    2. I don't challenge my blender much in smoothies - berries, bananas, spinach are some of the things I most commonly blend - even frozen berries seem to do well - am sure yours could do some simple smoothies and then you might see how far you could push it

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    3. I'm sold :) I foresee smoothies in my near future...

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