Elderflower and gin sorbet recipe

This is a great recipe for dinner parties - your guests will be so impressed that you made a fun, slightly alcoholic sorbet, and when you tell them it’s flavoured with elderflowers you foraged yourself… they’ll be blown away! It’s great as a refreshing tipple after dinner, or you could serve this elderflower and gin sorbet as a lovely ‘amuse bouche’ to set the tone before a meal. Either way, it’s sure to impress and entertain!

I should point out, that as a nutritionist, this is not exactly a balanced dessert. It’s mostly sugar with a bit of alcohol, and has no fibre, protein, or many micro-nutrients. But I’m a big advocate of a balanced lifestyle - basing your diet around loads of whole plant foods, while making sure to enjoy the small things in life in moderation. I always tell my clients that avoiding restrictive habits leads to a really positive relationship with food, meaning you’re much more likely to keep to your healthy habits for life, rather than entering the all-too-common crash dieting cycle.

There’s only a small amount of gin in this recipe, and you could definitely omit it for an alcohol-free sorbet. Bear in mind that the alcohol does help it set a little softer, so if you do leave it out, remember to take the sorbet out of the freezer a few minutes before serving to make it easier to scoop.

If you have an ice cream machine (you can buy small household ones quite cheaply) this would work brilliantly in it. Otherwise you can follow the steps below for great sorbet without a machine.

For tips on foraging your own elderflowers, check out this guide by The Woodland Trust.

Elderflower and gin sorbet recipe (vegan)

Ingredients (serves 8):

• 1.5 cups sugar

• 2 cups water

• 1 cup (40-50g) fresh elderflowers

• 3/4 cup fresh lemon juice

• 4 Tbsp gin

Method:

Heat the sugar and water in a large lidded pan over a low heat, stirring until all the sugar has dissolved.

Remove from the heat and mix in the elderflowers. Put the lid on the pan to cover and allow to infuse overnight.

Strain the mixture through a sieve to remove the elderflowers, then add the lemon juice and gin.

Chill the mixture in the fridge, then freeze in your ice cream machine as per the manufacturer’s instructions.

If you don’t have an ice cream machine, place the sorbet mixture in a tub into the freezer. Every 30 minutes, take out of the freezer and stir/mash up with a fork. After a few times doing this, and the sorbet is firm, smooth it over and level out the sorbet and serve or keep in the freezer until ready to eat.

Nutrition (per serving):

• Protein: 0.1g (Women: 0.2% / Men: 0.2%)

• Iron: >0.1mg (Women: >0.1% / Men: >0.1%)

• Calories: 169 (Women: 8.5% / Men: 6.8%)

• Sugars: 38.1g (Women: 42.3% / Men: 31.8%)

• Total Fats: 0.0g (Women: 0.0% / Men: 0.0%)

• Saturated Fat: 0.0g (Women: 0.0% / Men: 0.0%)

• Salt: 0.0g (Women: 0.0% / Men: 0.0%)

• Fibre: 0.1g (Women: 0.3% / Men: 0.3%)

Vegan Tofu Lemon Posset

Vegan tofu Lemon Posset

If you have friends round for dinner, it’s great to have a dessert you can make in advance, leaving you free to join in with the chat and laughter, rather than working away in the kitchen and leaving your guests to entertain themselves.

Well now you can blow your friends’ minds with this seriously tasty vegan tofu lemon posset recipe, which you can make the day before and simply bring out when you’re ready for dessert. It’s literally just a case of chucking the five ingredients into a food processor, and tipping the posset mixture into some ramekins to set in the fridge, so it’s ridiculously easy too. You can even make these tofu lemon possets up to four days in advance and store them in the fridge ready to go for a quick vegan dessert throughout the week :)

Did I mention they’re absolutely delicious? They have a good lemony zing which is balanced by the subtle sweetness from the agave. And the silken tofu provides the beautifully creamy texture that you’d expect from a good posset.

Because these vegan lemon possets are made with silken tofu instead of traditional double cream, they’re much higher in protein too. That’s right, this vegan dessert is higher in protein than the dairy-based original, with around 20% of your protein requirements in just one small dessert.

Vegan Tofu Lemon Posset Recipe

Ingredients (makes 4 vegan lemon possets):

• 2 x 300g packs silken tofu

• 100ml agave syrup

• 2 lemons

• 4 Tbsp coconut oil

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

To serve (optional):

• Handful of raspberries

• Chopped pistachios

• Icing sugar

• Vegan biscuits

Method:

Melt the coconut oil gently in a pan. Once melted, chuck the oil into a food processor along with the tofu (drain the excess liquid), the juice and zest of the two lemons, agave syrup, and vanilla extract.

Blitz until smooth, then pour the lemon posset mixture into four ramekins and pop in the fridge to set for at least an hour, or ideally overnight.

To serve, top with some berries of your choice and chopped pistachios for a dash of colour and some texture.

*Make sure to get the right tofu - silken tofu is much softer and creamier than solid tofu. It’s usually found in the world-food aisle in small rectangular cartons

** When zesting your lemons, don’t zest too deeply - only use the outer-most yellow part of the peel which is full of the lovey citrus oils. Go too deep and you get to the white bitter pith which you don’t want in your posset

Nutrition (per vegan tofu lemon posset):

• Protein: 10.2g (Women: 20.4% / Men: 18.5%)

• Iron: 1.2g (Women: 6.8% / Men: 13.8..5)

• Calories: 302 (Women: 15.1% / Men: 12.1%)

• Sugars: 18.1g (Women: 20.1% / Men: 15.1%)

• Total Fats: 22.0g (Women: 31.4% / Men: 23.2%)

• Saturated Fat: 11.4g (Women: 62.0% / Men: 38.0%)

• Salt: 0.1g (Women: 1.7% / Men: 1.7%)

• Fibre: 0.3g (Women: 1.0% / Men: 1.0%)

See the Nutrition Info page for more details on % of Dietary Reference Values for men and women.