Basil Sorbet

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Basil Sorbet I hear you say? Yes, its AH-MA-ZING! We had some with a meal when we went to Cornwall for a weekend away and we loved it so much, I HAD to recreate it. It is a fresh and light idea to surprise your friends with.

Basil sorbet is the green alternative to the classic lemon sorbet. It can be served at the end of a meal or even halfway through, ideal for cleaning the mouth and stimulating the digestion process. Or make it part of a starter, (perfect with heirloom tomatoes).

This is denser and less watery, more similar to ice cream. The preparation procedure changes just a little because everything is blended with an immersion blender instead of stirring. If you want to make the sorbet softer you can add a whipped egg white and the result will be very similar to a fruit ice cream (which I haven’t tried yet).

Let me know if you make it and what you think of the flavour. Now that I’ve got purple basil growing in the greenhouse, I can’t wait to make purple basil sorbet!

Ingredients

Basil leaves
small and soft fresh basil leaves, a big bunch should be enough
1 cup of sugar
250ml of white wine
1 cup, I used a white Burgundy
Lemon juice
of a whole lemon
Lemon zest
of the same lemon
Ice cubes
couple of handfuls

Directions

  1. Choose the small and soft ones (a cup should be enough) finely chop them and then cook them in a saucepan with the sugar and the white wine.
  2. Bring to a boil and cook until all sugar has dissolved.
  3. Let the mixture cool for a couple of hours and then remove the leaves and add the lemon juice & zest, stir in well.
  4. Pour everything into a freezer container and let it cool before putting it in the freezer for about three hours (I did mine in the freezer over night).
  5. Pour the frozen slush into a blender (nutribullet type thing for me) and add some ice cubes. Blend it all together until creamy.
  6. Add (more ice cubes if needed +) the rest of your basil leaves, blend well.
  7. Pour back into your container and put in the freezer, stir every so often with a fork or blitz again with more ice cubes (if needed).
  8. Basil sorbet can be served on its own or as I’m doing, as an accompaniment to homegrown heirloom tomatoes, ripe off the vine.