BEET SORBET

1. Preheat the oven to 425 F (~218 C ). Wash and dry any produce if you haven’t already. If your beets still have the greens and stems attached, cut them off but leave 1 inch (2.54 cm) of stem. You can pickle the stems as a relish or use them in stocks and you can cook the greens in many dishes (saag paneer is my favorite way to use them!). Get out a powerful blender or food processor.

2. Brush the beets with oil fit for a high smoke point (avocado, canola, mild olive oil that isn’t extra virgin) and wrap them in aluminum foil. For medium sized beets (2-3 inches in diameter) roast for 1 hour until tender and easily pierced with a fork. If beets are larger than that, check every 10 minutes after 1 hour passes. For smaller beets, roast for 45 minutes. 

***while the beets roast***

OPTIONAL: If using ginger or fruity teabags instead of 3 cups plain water, heat water and prepare tea before starting step 4 (perhaps while the beets cool). Start steeping desired spices and herbs in the tea.

3. Once the beets are quite soft and tender to a fork poking them, let them cool before removing skin and making puree. Roughly chop the beets into smaller chunks and the skin will usually peel off easily with a paring knife. Once you’ve properly flayed your beets, run them in a powerful blender or food processor until smoothly pureed. (15 minutes)

4. Heat the 1 cup sugar (200 g) and 3 cups water/ginger tea (~710 ml) in a small saucepan over low heat until the sugar has dissolved completely. If mulling spices for extra flavor, let mull for at least 10 minutes. Increase the heat to medium so the water boils. Boil for 1-2 minutes before removing from heat so it cools completely.

***while the syrup cools***

5. Once the syrup has cooled, strain out all herbs or spices while pouring the syrup into a mixing bowl. Feel free to reserve any appealing, intact spices and herbs to garnish. Whisk the beet puree into the cool sugar syrup. Add the 5 tbsp lemon juice and 1 tsp vanilla.

6. Pour contents into a container that is shallow and can fit 2 liters/9 cups of volume. You may need to use 2 containers. Seal and freeze for at least 4 hours (overnight is fine). Keep in mind that after step 5, you will need to freeze it again for at least 4 hours. Shallow containers are key; you definitely don’t want jars full of frozen syrup! If making a half batch, you can probably get away with using ice cube trays or silicon molds.

7. Take the containers full of frozen sorbet out of the fridge and let them soften for 15 minutes. Dislodge the frozen block (it may come out in chunks). I used a large metal spoon to carve the perimeter of my frozen block. Use a large, sharp knife to chop the sorbet into 1 inch cubes.

8. In batches, fill the blender or food processor with sorbet cubes and process them until the contents are all smooth and you’ve broken down the ice crystals. Take your time and really make sure you’re breaking down all the lumps. For a standard size food processor I needed 4 batches. (10 minutes). 

9. After all of the cubes are smoothly processed, pour the contents into a container that can fit 2 liters. Alternatively, you can distribute them into re-used, sanitized sorbet containers. You can also pour the blitzed sorbet into silicon molds or ice cube trays to use as bases for dessert drinks (see under the photo gallery below). Freeze for another 4 hours.  Remove the sorbet from the freezer about 15 minutes before you plan to eat it, so it can soften a bit. Feel free to garnish with fresh mint, fresh tiny basil leaves, a tiny rosemary sprig, crushed candied ginger, or candied orange peels.