Sanjeeta KK is one of our favourite food bloggers! We love her vegetarian recipes, egg less baking and low cal festive desserts, which are easy, not so time consuming; and yet high on the health quotient... we're happy to share an article with some super summer recipes from Sanjeeta for you to try out! Enjoy!

Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it. ~ Russel Baker. Am sure many would be one to love summer for a good reason – Ice Creams! There was a time when the very word ‘Ice-cream‘ was banned in my house. Recurrent cough & cold and instructions from the music teacher to avoid anything cold for the children made sure that ice cream cease to exist in our house. For good long years both of us also avoided ice creams served during any party or functions lest our children will get tempted.

But now that they are grown up and have better immunity power the ban has been partially lifted. They are allowed to eat ice creams but have to gulp warm water immediately to reduce the effect of cold. Does this sound too cruel…Well, I have heard such weird stories from many possessive & protective parents. And I willingly admit that I am one among them

The magic of my baton is reducing exceedingly each day with my son entering into his teens. The rebellion teen in him feels it is utter crime to stop them from eating junk food and ice creams. So there I was on an ice cream spree last week to please my children…just in case..

Mango and watermelon with the gorgeous color and wonderful texture top the foodie chart of my family while coffee ice cream is a pure indulgence I would love to dig in again and again.

1. Light Mango Ice Cream with Custard Powder

Ingredients;

1 cup mango puree
2 cups milk
1/4 cup sugar/honey
4 tsp. custard powder/milk powder
A Few Goji berries/any other dried fruit
Method; Use mangoes which are sweet with dark colred pulp to make ice cream, this gives a lovely color to the ice cream and you will need less sugar in the recipe. Peel the mangoes and puree in a blender, leave a few mango slices for garnishing.

Boil milk, dissolve custard powder in 2 tbsp of cold water or milk. Add the custard powder mix in the boiling milk and keep stirring for one minute. Take out from flame and let it cool.

Add mango puree, small mango pieces, sugar/honey and Goji berries/raisins/crushed nuts or anything you fancy into the above custard and mix well.

Pour the ice cream mix in a food grade plastic and keep it in freezer to set. Take it out after 3-4 hours, blend it again and pour in the container to set. This process is to make sure there are less ice crystals in the ice cream, if you don’t have an ice cream maker.

Let the Mango ice cream set completely overnight before serving.

2. Watermelon Yogurt Ice Cream with Hung Yogurt/Curd

Ingredients;

2 cups Watermelon juice
1 cup fresh hung yogurt/curd
2/3 cup sugar/honey
1 tsp. lemon juice
½ tsp. lemon zest
Method; Blend bite size cubes of watermelon to make 2 cups of juice. Set fresh yogurt with full cream milk. Hung it in a muslin cloth and place it in refrigerator overnight to drain the water completely. Use Greek yogurt for better texture.

Take out the hung curd, it resembles a mass of soft ball almost like homemade cottage cheese.

Blend all the ingredients together in a blender for 3 minutes and pour in a plastic container. Freeze the watermelon ice cream till set. Take it out after 3-4 hours, blend it again and pour in the container to set. This process is to make sure there are less ice crystals in the ice cream, if you don’t have an ice cream maker.

Watermelon puree changes its color from bright red to lovely pink when yogurt is mixed in it.

Serve the watermelon ice cream in a tall glass with cubes of watermelon in it.

3. Creamy Coffee Ice Cream

Ingredients;

1 cup cream
½ cup warm milk
½ cup sugar
1 tbsp. instant coffee powder
1 tbsp. corn flour
Method; Beat the cream for a few minutes with a fork or egg beater. Dissolve the corn flour in a tbsp of cold milk and pour in the warm milk. Boil the milk over low heat stirring constantly, the milk will thicken in a few minutes.

Take off the flame, add coffee powder and sugar in it and stir it to dissolve completely.

Mix in the beaten cream and pour in a food grade plastic container to set in the freezer.

Take out the partially set coffee ice cream and beat it in a blender or with a fork to break the ice crystals. Set it again. Sprinkle chocolate chips or sprinkles over the coffee ice cream and serve.

My favorite dessert from the above list of ice creams is Mango, coffee, watermelon…in the same order.

Notes;

1. Add a tsp. of lemon juice to the ice cream mix if the fruits are very sweet.
2. You can always alter the combinations to make different flavors of ice creams.
3. Avoid serving coffee ice cream to children.
4. Replace the milk in mango ice cream with coconut milk and enjoy a scrumptious flavor.

Article Courtesy: Sanjeeta KK & www.litebite.in Pls check her site from more amazing recipes!