Easy Summer Desserts: Mango Sorbet and Tea Popsicles for Hot Days

Kevin: Michelle, it's summertime, and the weather is wonderful, and I'm hosting parties because this is the time when we can have backyard parties, and it's such a wonderful time of year. I love it.

Michelle: It's so funny you should say that, because I don't remember getting an invitation to your backyard this summer.

Kevin: Well, if you lived in town, you would. I think you are actually coming to my backyard later this summer, when you're going to be in town. Oh, yes. Yeah, so don't you complain, don't call me a liar, you're invited to my backyard when you're in town.

Michelle: I am? I didn't know I was invited to your backyard. I knew we were going on an outing.

Kevin: Yeah, you're always invited to my backyard, Michelle.

Michelle: Okay. Please. All right. So, what are you going to make me?

Kevin: So, well, I don't know what I'm going to make you, but I know what I'll make you for dessert. Yay. So, we're just going to have a little recipes for noobs for this summer short, so it's a summer short recipe for noobs. We're mixing all of our episode styles together. I love it. Recipes for noobs. Noobs. Noobs. Noobs. Noobs. Noobs. And now, it's Recipes for Noobs with Kevin and Michelle.

Michelle: You know what? I just have to introduce this topic. Wasn't there a movie in the 90s where the main character always ate dessert first when she ate her meal in case she didn't live to eat dessert? That was always her thing. She always ate her dessert first and her main course second because she says, well, just in case I die before I get to dessert, I'm eating my dessert first.

Kevin: That's vaguely familiar, but I can't think of what that was. Oh, that's right.

Michelle: So, yeah.

Kevin: So, that's what we're doing. I'm going to focus on the dessert because that's like the most fun part.

Michelle: If anybody remembers what that movie's called, write us.

Kevin: Please, because that's going to bother me now. I'm going to have to watch every single 90s movie to figure out what that was. So today, I'm going to share a super, super easy dessert because I'm into super easy food. It is fresh, it is delicious, and it's great for either like a very simple weeknight dessert or if you're entertaining, it's an amazing showstopper, but it's still easy and it's delicious. Oh, perfect. Sure. Maybe I can make it for my book club. Yeah, for sure. It's actually very reminiscent to your pea gazpacho recipe where you basically just throw everything into a blender. I love those kinds. Yes.

Michelle: Those are perfect for summer because you don't have to turn anything on. You don't have anything heating.

Kevin: Exactly. Exactly. So basically, you take out a high-speed blender or food processor or something. Then you go to your freezer and you open your freezer and you get a bag of frozen mango. You can use fresh mango, but actually, I find that that's too much work, cutting up all the fresh mangoes.

Michelle: It is a lot of work, and when you're just going to blend it anyway.

Kevin: It doesn't make as much difference. So you take a bag of mango, throw it in your blender. You'll need about a quarter cup of water, plus or minus, I mean, vary that, but you want a little bit of water. You can add sweetener if you want, sweetener of your choice. Sometimes I add a tiny bit of maple syrup, but honestly, it's often sweet enough as it is.

Michelle: Yeah.

Kevin: And then just a little bit, like one tablespoon of lemon juice, and that just brings out the sweetness a little bit more. You've got the balance of the sweetness and sour. Then blend it all up. Make it smooth, smooth, smooth, smooth, smooth. You can add a little bit more water if it's not quite the right consistency, if it's a little bit too thick. Then you simply pour it out of the blender. And generally, I put it on a baking sheet. If you have a freezer that's large enough, or it can be a smaller baking dish or something, but the trick is you don't want to just put it in a bowl because then it'll be too thick and it'll be harder to mix it up because you want to stop it from freezing solid. So in the tray or the baking dish, put it in the freezer and about every hour or so, you just stir it up just to break up any icicles that have formed. You'll do that maybe two or three times, and then it'll be fine, and you just leave it in the freezer. And then when it's ready to serve, take it out maybe a few minutes before just to let it settle a little bit, give it a little stir. It'll be this nice, delicious, creamy texture. It'll be a sorbet texture, but it's this beautiful, beautiful golden yellow color. To me, it's the presentation. It's the colors. It's just this beautiful, beautiful, bright, bright yellowy orange. Yeah, it sounds yummy. Serve it in bowls, and then you can top it up with, I find it's nice with a little bit of red and a little bit of green to offset the yellow. Strawberries. So it can be strawberries, my favorite, sour cherries. It can be raspberries. It can be another fruit all together. And then just a sprig of mint, or you can also use basil if you want, just to bring out that green to offset the yellow, and people will be impressed by it. Or you can even use just chopped mangoes, like chopped fresh mangoes on top, some cubed.

Michelle: I figured you were going, you were going to land on sorbet here, but the step that I'm surprised about that I have never done is the step where you take it out of the blender or the food processor and put it on a baking sheet or in a pan to freeze and stir. I have not done that step. So you're just guaranteeing the consistency that you want to hold together. That's smart, Kev.

Kevin: And it's also, and also it makes it more of a make-ahead dish. I have not heard of that hack. Oh, really? No, it's amazing, because then if you're holding a party or something, you don't want to be making it right before immediately and putting it in, because that's a pain.

Michelle: And that's what I usually end up doing. I usually end up making it, not that particular one, but if I'm making nice cream or something, like you always have to make it right away and serve it right away. Otherwise, it's only got the consistency you wanted for like 10 minutes.

Kevin: Exactly. Whereas this allows it to be more freezer stable.

Michelle: Yeah, yeah.

Kevin: And so you just have to remember, put the timer on, because I have forgotten that. And if you forget, all you do is you just take it out of the freezer for 10 or 15 minutes and then you stir it and then put it back. But if you stir it about once an hour, that's all it needs to keep that nice, creamy sorbet consistency without the ice forming. And it's a delicious make-ahead dessert that really impresses people.

Michelle: That is, it would be so refreshing on the palate. And, you know, the simplest things usually are the most impressive, especially if you serve it in cute little bowls or something like it's all about the presentation. The little sprig of mint on top, like you said.

Kevin: Well, that's the thing that the green of the mint contrasted to the red berry.

Michelle: And you don't need very much for that. They can just be little, like little decadent servings. So you can actually serve a lot of people with that with very little effort.

Kevin: Oh, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. You just need one or two like ice cream scoops worth and everyone's impressed. And it is a nice, light end to your meal that's so summery and so fresh. And yeah, it cleanses your palate. It's got the sweetness and the sourness of the mango. And it just works so well.

Michelle: I can think of a couple of cool adaptations to that. Like, let's say you're a person that's been really active that day of substituting some of the water with coconut water to make it an electrolyte-rich dessert, because that wouldn't change the viscosity of it.

Kevin: No, not at all.

Michelle: That would be good. And, you know, it occurs to me too, Kevin, that you could, if you had kids, I mean, the kids would enjoy that regardless of the way that you served it, but you could turn that into a popsicle.

Kevin: Oh, easily.

Michelle: I like, if you had a popsicle, I often, I haven't in a while, but especially when my kids were living at home, I used to get one of those popsicle molds and I would make a strong infusion of a nice fruit tea or a flavored green tea. And you can add extra sweetness to it if you want to. I sometimes did, sometimes didn't. You just make a little simple syrup out of some maple syrup and water and mix that in after you got the tea and taste it. But you make a concentrate so that it's literally a concentrated flavor and you steep it hot, but then let that steep cool and then pour it into the molds and you make ice tea popsicles. And that's a nice and refreshing way to, a super simple hack that's like so cheap and so quick.

Kevin: What a great idea. I've done that with, I mean, I love the idea. I want to do that now because I do have popsicle molds and I've done that with just some fresh lemon juice. If you mix just fresh lemon juice or lime juice, a little bit of maple syrup and water. And then I usually put a few berries in to the mold just so that they're suspended in the popsicle. That just makes it more fun.

Michelle: Yeah, I've done that too. Just so that there's a little something you discover when you're biting into it. Right?

Kevin: Yeah, exactly. But I love the idea. I've never tried it with tea before.

Michelle: Oh yeah, it's great with fruit tea, with ice tea or even a green tea. I mean, I would enjoy just the plain green tea popsicle, but other people are looking for something sweet and something a little bit more fruity.

Kevin: You know what I'm thinking? I think a great flavor could be hibiscus.

Michelle: Yes, absolutely.

Kevin: Because I love hibiscus tea. And it's tart.

Michelle: You like your tart flavors, don't you, Kevin?

Kevin: I do. I love my tart flavors. I would have, I've made lemonade popsicles for me without any maple syrup.

Michelle: Yeah.

Kevin: Just a lemon juice and water. Because I love that sourness. But with a little bit of maple syrup or something, the hibiscus tea could be delicious. Like a hibiscus tea popsicle.

Michelle: Now, just to plug my friends at Just Tea out of Vancouver, and they have a direct trade relationship with Kenyan farmers. And when it comes to the hibiscus, particularly the women's co-op, so it's a great ethical endeavor, they have pink hibiscus flowers that, you know, when I was operating my tea room and my tea company, the most beautiful, very rich bouquet of flavor. And they still have that nice tart, but they're not as sour as Egyptian hibiscus.

Kevin: Okay.

Michelle: So there's more of a sweetness there, but they're also pink instead of red.

Kevin: I've never seen that.

Michelle: So I would plug for that. That would make a delicious tea or iced tea or tea popsicle. We used to make tea with that all the time.

Kevin: Yeah. I fell in love with hibiscus when I was visiting Mali, because they would dry the hibiscus on their rooftops. So you'd look out and you'd just see, as far as you could see, it's just this carpet of red petals everywhere on every single rooftop. And it was just so beautiful.

Michelle: And it would probably be fragrant in the air, too.

Kevin: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it was just this beautiful, beautiful red. It's wonderful. And they make a drink called BESAP, which is basically cold hibiscus tea with a little bit of sweetener in it. And it's just scrumptious.

Michelle: That's delicious. Or hibiscus tea with a bit of lemon is nice. And then sometimes, because those bright pigments are like an anthocyanin type of antioxidant compound, which is super protective, by the way, but whenever you add a citrus, a lemon, that acid to it, it changes the color. So that's kind of fun.

Kevin: Oh, I haven't tried that. Oh, I'm going to have to try that now. Well, I think I'm going to have to go and make some hibiscus tea popsicles.

Michelle: So once again, we've got a food podcast with a travel podcast.

Kevin: Exactly, because food and travel are so interconnected. Let's face it. That's amazing. Well, I'm glad that we could share some of these easy, frozen dessert ideas. I hope that you can use them at your next outdoor summer garden party that you have.

Michelle: Absolutely. And I look forward to my subsequent invitations.

Kevin: Yes, absolutely. Of course. And if our listeners have any ideas that you want to share or photos, you can always reach out to us on Facebook or Instagram at Nutrition, the number four noobs, or an email at hello@nutritionfornoobs.com. And it is time for the dad joke.

Michelle: Now, just a second. You are going to post these in the show notes for people, right?

Kevin: Oh, of course. Yes, yes. The recipes will be in the show notes. Not to worry. So where can you get a degree in ice cream making?

Michelle: Ooh, Iceland?

Kevin: At Sunday school.

Michelle: I like that one.

Kevin: See, and I told you that there would be one joke, one dad joke in these summer shorts that would actually be somewhat topical. So we finally got around to it.

Michelle: It's actually related to the topic.

Kevin: Yeah, finally, finally. I'm a little tiny bit prepared.

Michelle: So thank you, Michelle.

Kevin: It's always a pleasure to speak with you. And until then, everyone, eat your greens.

Michelle: And be real, everyone.

Kevin: This has been Nutrition for Noobs. We hope you're a bit more enlightened about how your fantastic and complicated body works with the food you put into it. If you have a question or a topic you'd like Michelle to discuss, drop us a line at hello@nutritionfornoobs.com. If you haven't already, you can subscribe to the podcast on whatever your favourite platform might be. Also, please consider leaving a review or telling your friends. That's the best way to spread the word. We'll see you next time with another interesting topic. The views and opinions expressed on Nutrition for Noobs are those of the hosts. It is not intended to be a substitute for medical, nutritional, or health advice. Listeners should seek a personal consultation with a qualified practitioner if they have any concerns or before commencing any actions mentioned in the podcast.