During the summer my friends and I sometimes venture to the Del Mar Plaza in Southern California where they serve some of the best mojitos in town.  Recently we were there before heading to the Del Mar Race Track and it’s sort of a summer tradition now to get a mojito pre-track while we’re looking over our favorite ponies racing that day.

Mojitos are typically served with soda water, ice, sugar, rum, chunks of lime and mint, all mashed together into a tasty adult beverage.  I’m a fan of them as tradition with friends during the summer, but they’re really just a treat for me… they’re loaded with sugar calories and obviously the booze… so a tip I have if you do enjoy mojitos and want to cut down on the calories, ask to have it made with no added sugar and add your own 100% stevia packet to it after you get it.  I have to thank my friend Scott’s girlfriend, Carla, for that tip – worked great for me with taste and cuts back on a lot of sugar.  Another way to do them with a different base is using a kombucha, and more specifically, the Maqui Berry Mint flavor by GT. Very tasty!

So that’s my little back story to why I had mojito on my mind – summer time, the heat, tradition with friends, and I just so happened to find some fragrant fresh mint and a couple limes in the garden!  Overall I wanted to put a unique spin on the mojito flavor with a homemade ice cream, something we can all enjoy as a summer time treat.

As per usual with the healthy treats you’ll find on this blog, this ice cream is real food remixed with real food ingredients and none of the added junk we can find in store-bought ice creams like pasteurized dairy (dead food), processed sugar, additives, preservatives, artificial flavors & colors, and more.

This ice cream recipe is paleo, vegetarian, vegan & raw ingredient-friendly, ReBoot-friendly (reward day only), dairy-free and gluten-free.

Fresh picked garden mint (smells amazing when fresh!) and limes

Ingredients

1 can full fat coconut milk (13.5 oz can)

1 cup fresh mint (push it down a bit for 1 full cup)

2 tablespoon fresh lime juice (this was 1 lime squeezed for me)

1/2 lime grated zest

3 tablespoon raw, unpasteurized honey (or maple butter or syrup)

2-3 teaspoon rum extract (optional)

*links above are brands I personally use and recommend

Kitchen Notes

1.  Rum Extract:  make sure you get a natural rum extract, not an imitation.  Rum extract is not like actual rum, it’s only the flavor and has very minimal, if any, alcohol content.  I sampled without rum extract and it definitely has that lime/mint mojito essence to it… but a mojito is known for that combo flavor with rum.  So even though I mentioned optional above, I’d recommend the rum extract.  I sampled at 2 teaspoons of rum extract blended as well as 3 teaspoons, and both worked.  My suggestion is when you get to step #3 below, start with 2 teaspoons blended then taste it.  If you want more, add the other teaspoon.

I should note too if you’re strict paleo or raw foodie, rum extract isn’t technically either (thus why optional), it’s processed/heated-reduced rum…similar to how vanilla extract is made.

2.  You’ll need an ice cream maker (this is the one I use) OR you can try one of these six ways of making ice cream if you do not have an ice cream maker.  Directions below are for using an ice cream maker.

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Directions

1.  Pick the leaves off your mint stems and juice your limes.

2. Add the coconut milk, mint and lime juice to a blender and blend for a minute.

3. Add your honey, grated lime zest and rum extract and blend for one more minute.  We want to make sure we get the mint leaves very fine so you don’t get a chunk of leaf when you eat your ice cream.  Really whiz it up well!

4.  Have a little swig of the mixture here for the mojito taste.

5.  If it’s to your liking, add your mixture to the ice cream maker for 20-25 minutes, or until ice cream is ready.

6.  When it’s all done, add to a container and store in the freezer.

Pretty simple, right?  What I love about homemade ice creams is for the most part, they’re add ingredients to a blender, whiz up, then set-it-and-forget-it in the ice cream maker.  Takes a matter of minutes to prepare and you’ve got high quality, real food ice cream where you know what ingredients are going into your body.

Enjoy! …and if you’re looking for some other real food remixed ice cream flavors to cool down with this summer, try out these flavors:  french vanilla, triple chocolate chunk, apple cinnamon, and my favorite, pistachio.