By linda 17 Comments
I’ve been wanting to make something with beetroot for the longest time. I know, I know, I’m obsessed with anything edible that has a cool color. I can’t believe I’ve never used beetroot before though!
It has such an earthy and lovely flavor, especially paired with ginger and lemon. It might not be for everyone, but I absolutely love how different it is. I also baked a cake with beetroot using my favorite carrot cake recipe. The batter was a bright pink color so I figured maybe it would keep at least some of the color? Nope, it turned completely orange/brown.
I don’t know much about chemistry but something definitely changes during the baking. It probably has to do with the pH and my guess is my recipe didn’t have enough acidic ingredients in it. I think I need to do more research before trying again, and I already know what my next beetroot recipe will be, and it will definitely involve chocolate.
Makes a little more than 1/2 quart
If you don’t have a juicer and still want to make this recipe, you can use a blender or food processor to puree the beetroot and ginger together with a little bit of water. Strain the mixture and reserve the juice. You might need to use an extra beetroot or so to get the 100 ml of juice needed for the recipe. If you want to make ice cream sandwiches, I used this recipe for butterscotch gingerbread cookies.
If you don’t have an ice cream maker, pour the mixture into a freezer proof bowl and place in the freezer. When partially frozen (after 1-2 of hours), take it out and beat with an electric mixer to break up any ice crystals. Repeat several times during the freezing process. Freeze until firm enough to scoop. It will likely be a bit more icy than when you use a machine for churning but it’ll still be delicious!
INGREDIENTS
ICE CREAM
- 200 g raw beetroot (about 2 medium beets – 100 ml freshly pressed beet juice)
- 15 g fresh ginger (approximately a 2,5 cm/1 inch piece)
- 300 ml (1 1/4 cup) heavy cream, 35-40% fat
- finely grated zest from 1 lemon
- 2 tbsp. lemon juice
- 1 tbsp. cornstarch
- 200 ml (3/4 cup + 1 1/2 tbsp.) milk, 3% fat
- 90 g (1/3 cup + 1 1/2 tbsp.) granulated sugar
- pinch of salt
- 1 tbsp. vodka (can be omitted)
INSTRUCTIONS
BEETROOT & GINGER ICE CREAM
- Trim the edges of the beet roots. Peel them if they are very dirty, if not, washing them is enough. Cut them in smaller pieces and process them in a juicer together with the ginger. In a medium bowl, combine the beet juice, cream, lemon zest and juice.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch with 2 tbsp. of the milk.
- Heat the remaining milk, sugar and salt in a small saucepan until it comes almost to a boil and the sugar melts. Whisk in the cornstarch slurry and cook over low heat, stirring vigorously, until mixture thickens. Remove from the heat and mix with the beet juice and cream mixture. Stir until combined.
- Let mixture cool completely. If you wish to speed things up a little, put the bowl in an ice bath and stir until cool. Cover the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap and store in fridge until completely cold, preferably overnight.
- Stir in vodka if using. Churn the ice cream in an ice cream maker according to your manufacturer’s instructions.
- Transfer ice cream to a freezer container. Smooth the top with a spatula, then loosely cover the surface of the ice cream with wax paper and freeze until almost solid, about 2-4 hours.
Reader Interactions
Comments
Adrienne saysNeat.
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- linda says
Thanks! 🙂
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- Mélanie says
Amazing recipe with wonderful colors. And your photographies… A beauty Linda !
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- linda says
Thank you so much Mélanie! You are too kind 🙂 :-* The color of beet is amazing!!
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- Vija says
I dont have ice cream maker. Is there Anything else that I can use! ?
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- linda says
Hi Vija! I added a little note about that in the recipe 🙂
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- Bea says
This looks absolutely AMAZING Linda! I love sneaking beetroot into my berry smoothies and I do think it adds very interesting and delicious flavour. Is there any ice cream maker you’d recommend? I’ve been dying to get one for ages and now seeing this recipe I know I must 🙂
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- linda says
Thank you so much Bea!! I totally agree that it adds something extra, and some beautiful color too of course! I use a Cuisinart ice cream maker with two bowls which I bought when I made my ice cream book like.. 6 years ago. It’s great because you can make two flavors at the same time and the bowls are small which is perfect since I have a tiny freezer. I was thinking about getting the Kitchen Aid ice cream attachment but it wouldn’t fit in my freezer and also I never make that much ice cream.. If I were to choose one today I’d probably pick one where you don’t have to freeze the bowls for so long or even better, not at all!
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- Chloe says
That is a STUNNING colour. I don’t have an ice cream machine or a juicer or a freezer so I’ll just have to admire it from afar, but it is beautiful.
On his latest baking book, Sweet, Yotam Ottolenghi has a recipe for a beetroot cake and he uses a crushed Vitamin C tablet to ‘fix’ the colour so it doesn’t change upon baking. I think it adds the acidity you mention needing above
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- linda says
Super interesting! I need to get that book 🙂 Thanks so much for the tip!
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- Sandra Lopes says
Hello from Portugal!!
This is the most beautiful blog I have ever seen…
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- linda says
Aww, thank you so much Sandra!! That’s sooo sweet of you!
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- Megan says
I would not have imagined these colors from beetroot being so beautiful or putting beet and ginger into an ice cream. But as I read through the blog and imagined it, I was intrigued to want to taste it! Plus, vodka. Your photography is spot on as usual.
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- linda says
It’s so good!! Thank you so much for your kind comment 🙂
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- Juana Alvaro Ramírez says
Hola linda
yo ya la hago dos veces , esta 2da vez añadí coñac en vez de vodka , ya que no disponía de ese licor y me quedo delicioso , yo utilice la opción batidora eléctrica .
Gracias por tus consejos e ideas , me ha servido mucho para seguir con mi proyecto de tener mi cafetería .Pd no les dije a mis invitados de que era el helado hasta que se acabaron y me pidieron mas 🙂
Saludos
JuanaReply
- Andrea says
Hi linda, how are you? I would like to make this amazing recipe. I became a fan of the beet when I loose to much blood (Endometrial Polyps) and my red blood dropped a lot, and certainly the beet has helped me to raise the levels of red blood cells. I ate the beets of thousands of forms, but never thought making ice cream!! Now I much better, but anyway I have to do this ice cream!!
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- linda says
Hi Andrea! I’m great, how are you? 🙂 I’m so glad to hear you are doing better!!
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