It’s still August. I’m not letting summer go down without a fight. So I’m making (and eating) lots of ice cream and ignoring all those pumpkin recipes that are coming across my Pinterest feed. Calm yourselves folks! We still have a couple weeks left to savor!
So I made ice cream. And I added one of the most quintessential ingredients of summer: zucchini.
Don’t click away. I’m not a weirdo. I’m just a person that really loves ice cream and wants any excuse to eat it. And adding a vegetable means I can eat even more of it because it’s healthy, right? RIGHT?!?!
Question: Does this ice cream taste like zucchini?
Answer: Meh. Not really.
You know how baked goods made with zucchini don’t really taste like zucchini. This is kind of like that. The ice cream has a teeny bit of earthy-ness and a very subtle green hue. But I certainly wouldn’t describe it as “zucchini flavored”. Although I’m still totally down with it. Even if just for the novelty of eating and serving your guests ice cream with zucchini in it. I used one of my favorite ice cream bases to make this ice cream, so it’s totally lick-the-drips-off-your-fingers delicious, even if it does have a vegetable in it!
Cheers,
Liz
Ingredients
- For the Ice Cream
- 1 cup half and half
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 3/4 cups sugar
- 1 1/4 cups shredded zucchini
- 16 ounces full fat sour cream
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/8 tsp. salt
- 1 tablespoon vodka (optional)
- 1 cup mini-chocolate chips
- Special Equipment
- Ice cream maker
Instructions
- Before you start, make sure the canister of your ice cream maker is frozen. To freeze completely, the canister should be in the freezer for at least 6 hours before you attempt to churn your ice cream.
- Make the ice cream base. In a heavy bottom saucepan over medium heat, combine the half and half, heavy cream, sugar and shredded zucchini. Stir until the sugar is dissolved and small bubbles start to form around the edge of the pan. Do not let the mixture boil. Remove from the heat and stir in the sour cream, vanilla extract and salt. Cover the ice cream base with plastic wrap and refrigerate it until well chilled, at least 4 hours or up to 12 hours.
- Once chilled, pour the ice cream base into the canister of your ice cream maker. Churn until the mixture is nearly frozen and the consistency of soft serve (about 15-20 minutes). Add the mini-chocolate chips and the vodka and churn for another 1-2 minutes, or until the chocolate chips are evenly distributed.
- Transfer the ice cream to a freezer safe container and freeze until it becomes firm, about 2-3 hours. Enjoy!
Liz, OMG, I am swooning over this ice cream! I love that you put zucchini in it (because that makes it…healthy, right?). And also the sour cream. I bet this tastes like the definition of summer 🙂
Thanks, Amy! Summer indeed! I’m not letting it go just yet!
This is awesome, Liz! I saw your ice cream photo on Intagram and have been anxiously waiting for it to hit your blog. Great photo!
Thanks Jennifer! It was a fun experiment. Now that I’ve done corn and zucchini ice cream, I’m wondering what other veggies I can put in there (beets, carrots?).
Love this! I’d totally be up for serving guests some zucchini-filled ice cream. Maybe zucchini ice cream with zucchini brownie chunks? 🙂 I have a couple end of the season zucchini ready to be used up soon – Might just pull out the ice cream maker for this!
Thanks, Sarah. Brownie chunks = brilliant. We are speaking the same language here! Sounds delicious!!!
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Zucchini ice cream? You are seriously brilliant. I have that classic problem of way too many zucchini coming out of my garden, so this has me all excited. 🙂
Thank you! Yeah, it was a fun experiment! Always have to be thinking of new ways to use up that dang zucchini!