Rhubarb Ice Cream

by Joelle from Lavender Salts

I have a confession: I L-O-V-E ice-cream. What’s not too love? It’s creamy, smooth, comforting… I love it so much that I don’t share it (but that’s really a whole other story…) I also love local food and try my darnedest to eat in season as much as possible.

Imagine the mild panic I felt when I realized that the ice cream I was eating wasn’t sitting right and causing some uncomfortable cramping. **DENIAL!!!**

Sure enough, a visit to the Naturopath resulted in the most impossible recommendation ever: eliminate dairy. Uh… I’m sorry, what?? No cheese, no ice cream, no lattes… It was accompanied with eliminate sugar but that, I thought, was a challenge I could handle. I told him it was just not possible, I mean this was last summer, at the START of the ice cream season!! But he recommended a slow purge, make it a life-style change and ease into it. So I did. And I felt great!

What did I do about the ice cream you might ask? Well, I ventured into the land of coconut milk. I know what you’re thinking: um? How local are coconuts in Canada? Right. Well, we can’t all be perfect. We do our best as consumers and vote with our dollars. I joined a Food Co-Op and order my coconut milk in bulk. It’s organic and Fair Trade so it’s supporting a local community in Sri Lanka and I can feel good about that. I balance it out with local flavours. So local in fact, this ingredient grows in my side-of-the-house garden!

Rhubarb Ice Cream

2 cans of coconut milk (400 ml) – not light kind
2 cups chopped rhubarb
6 medium egg yolks or 4 large
2/3 cup sugar (divided) – note: you could also try 1/2 cup agave (divided) if avoiding refined sugar
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Rhubarb compote

1. Chop rhubarb and place in saucepan with maple syrup, 1/3 cup sugar and cinnamon.
2. Heat on med-low until stewed, purée until smooth then transfer to a bowl and cool.

For the ice cream

1. Heat coconut milk on med-low until smooth then increase to medium and bring to just before boiling. Watch it closely, you don’t want it to boil!
2. In a glass bowl, whisk egg yolks with remaining sugar until pale yellow.
3. Temper the eggs. Basically what this means is whisk eggs with one hand while slowly pouring in about half the warm coconut milk, then pour the eggs back in the pot with the remaining coconut milk. Keep whisking until it’s fully incorporated.
4. Heat until the mixture begins to thicken. It will not thicken like a dairy custard but will coat the back of a wooden spoon.
5. Prepare an ice bath. When the custard is ready, strain into a clean bowl and sit in ice bath. Whisk in rhubarb compote and chill for about 20 minutes.
6. Place some plastic wrap directly on the mixture and chill in the fridge for a few hours. You just want the mixture to be very cold. I’ve left it overnight, it’s not a problem.
7. Before placing the custard in the ice cream machine, you’ll need to give it a good whisk. Churn according to manufacturer’s instructions.
8. It will be soft when you remove it from the machine so transfer it to a container and freeze for about an hour. If it is frozen solid when you pull it from the freezer, let it sit for 5 minutes and it will be easier to scoop.

I served this ice cream in a waffle bowl topped with stewed strawberries. It would be delicious with strawberry shortcake!!