3 Healthy Sorbet Recipes (Lychee, Raspberry & Blueberry)

Healthy Sorbet Recipes

When temperatures soar, a delicious cool Italian ice treat is just what you need. Our red, white, and blue healthy fruit sorbet recipes are a great way to celebrate the 4th of July or any old time you want an easy vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free bite of cold deliciousness. If you are looking for more patriotic desserts this summer, be sure to try our Strawberries with Cream Cheese Filling or Rainbow Fruit and Yogurt Layered Ice Cream.

How to Make Sorbet Without an Ice Cream Maker?

These easy vegan sorbets do not require an ice cream maker. As a matter of fact, all you need is a food processer or a high-speed blender and you are well on your way to healthy dessert heaven.

I like our Ninja Professional Plus Kitchen system. It's a high-speed blender and food processor all in one. This device works fabulous for making other delicious no churn “nice creams” like our No Churn Dairy Free Mango Swirl Ice Cream, Mocha Banana Ice Cream and our Matcha Banana Strawberry Ice Cream Cups.

Ingredients

Can you guess the 3 ingredients needed to make a sorbet?

1. Frozen fruit
2. Water
3. Sugar or sugar alternative of choice (If the fruit is super sweet, we skip this ingredient)
4. Garnishes are cute but totally optional. Sometimes, we garnish with a piece of the fruit on top. Dried osthamus flowers (guihua) are delicious topping for our lychee sorbet and a delicious addition to our Framboise Osmanthus Rose Vinaigrette.

Frozen Fruit Options are Endless

Have you ever tried lychee sorbet? Once you do, we bet this exotic fruit might fall in one of your favorite categories. Sweet and floral, this cool and tropical treat is just what you need on a hot summer’s day. You can use fresh seasonal lychee or even the canned version works well too.

Lychees are in season now and they are perfectly ripe, juicy, sweet, and slightly floral. Even better, they are easy to peel and eat. They have a small pit inside that is easily removed and then all that is left is the delicate and delicious flavors of the lychee. If you cannot find them fresh, you can find many canned lychees on the shelves at your local markets.

Lychee ticks the box for your White color, but what about the Red and Blue? We have got you covered with our blueberry and raspberry sorbets. Berry sorbets are a good option if you are restricting your carbohydrate intake.

Fruit Sorbet Ideas

While we have made only 3 healthy sorbet recipes today, there are so many other flavors to explore.

• Cantaloupe - (Can you guess how we served up our Honey Cardamom Cantaloupe Sorbet?)
• Honeydew
• Kiwi and lime
• Mango
• Pineapple
• Lemon
• Strawberry
• Watermelon
• Dragon fruit
• pomelo
• Butternut Squash - Really! Don't knock it until you have tried it in our Cardamom Ginger Butternut Affogato.
• Rambutan
• Jack fruit
• Durian?
• Tomato and basil (Would you like to try this as a palate cleanser between courses? After all, tomatoes are part of the fruit family)

How to Freeze Fruit?

Are you going fruit picking this summer? If you can’t get around to making our Apricot Freezer Jam Recipe or our Strawberry Rhubarb Refrigerator Jam right away, no worries! Did you know that you can freeze your fruit right at home? All you need is freezer space, and it is super easy to do. Here are the simple steps for freezing fruit. 

1. Wash your fruit.
2. Allow the fruit to dry. If you need to peel your fruit, remove a pit, or slice them into pieces, it is best to do that now.
3. Place your fruit on a lined baking sheet in a single layer. (We usually line our baking sheet with waxed or parchment paper)
4. Freeze fruit for 4 hours.
5. Next, enjoy your frozen fruit in a healthy sorbet recipe or store in a sealed freezer safe plastic baggie, vacuum sealed bag or sealed container in the freezer for up to 8-9 months.

Not only do we love to have frozen fruit on hand for sorbets but they are also delicious in smoothies like our Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie, Ginger Citrus Dragon Fruit Smoothie or our Berry Cherry Smoothie Blast.

Freeze Canned Fruit?

Just remove the fruit from the can and place in a sealed freezer safe container with the juice too. Place in the freezer for at least 4 hours or until frozen. When you are ready to use, take a large butcher knife to chop up the canned frozen fruit into more manageable pieces for the food processor.

How to Make Sorbet with Frozen Fruit?

Are you ready to get started? Go and grab your food processor or high-speed mixer, frozen fruit of choice, water and a little sugar or sugar alternative of choice. If you do not have a food processor, check out these other easy refreshing summer snacks for kids.

1: Place your frozen fruit into the food processor or high-speed mixer and puree until your frozen fruit looks like “fine grains of sand”.

2: Use a spatula or spoon to push the pureed fruit back down into the food processor.

3: Add water about 1 tablespoon for each cup of fruit or just enough for the fruit to move in the food processor and sugar or sugar alternative of choice. (Pro Tip: You can also keep this recipe refined sugar free by using honey or maple syrup.)

The amount of sweetener you need to add really depends on how sweet your fruit is.  For example, pineapple, lychees, and mangoes are super sweet and do not need any additional sweeteners. However, most find raspberries a little tart and prefer a little sweetener.

We don’t like our desserts overly sweet so you may need to add more sweetener to suit your personal tastes. As we were making the raspberry and blueberry sorbet recipe diabetic friendly, we used just a sprinkle of Stevia (Truvia).

4: Continue to blend your sorbet. You can watch it turn from a bright color to a slightly milkier color when fully blended. This is the prompt to let you know your sorbet is ready to eat. Check out our video below to watch this change in action.

5: Enjoy your sorbet as a soft serve right away or freeze covered for a couple of hours for a more scoopable dessert.