Recipe :: Swiss Chard & Walnut Ice Cream

As you may remember, my Swiss Chard is growing like gangbusters and I've been thoroughly enjoying it in quiche along with Canadian bacon, leek and fresh eggs from my chickens. But the chard is growing so much that I knew I had to come up with another use for it. I've sautéed it and mixed it in with omelets, but I wanted to come up with something new and exciting that the whole family would love.


I have been tinkering with this recipe for awhile and it's finally perfected and I'm excited to share it with you. Presenting…

Swiss Chard & Walnut Ice Cream! I like to serve it over a nice warm sponge cake. It's become our family's favorite homemade dessert! Here's the recipe:



Swiss Chard & Walnut Ice Cream

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of fresh baby Swiss Chard (try to stick to the white/green chard)
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
2/3 cup sugar, divided
4 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Put the baby chard in a blender with the milk and pulverize until well blended. Transfer to a pan and bring to a bare simmer, remove from heat, cover, and let stand for 30 minutes. Strain the milk into a bowl and reserve. Clean the saucepan.

Combine the heavy cream, 1/3 cup of the sugar and salt in the clean saucepan and bring to a bare simmer. Whisk the yolks with the remaining 1/3 cup of sugar in a large bowl. When the cream is hot, very gradually pour it into the yolks and sugar, whisking vigorously at the same time so the yolks don't curdle.
When all the cream has been added, return the whole mixture to the saucepan. Heat slowly just to 170 degrees (or when it coats the back of a wooden spoon). Pour into a large metal bowl and add the reserved, chard-flavored milk.

Cool over an ice bath and allow to chill in the refrigerator for 3 or 4 hours.

Churn in an ice cream machine according to instructions. As the churning finishes, add the walnuts.

Freeze 4 hours or overnight. For details and a step-by-step photo tutorial, click here

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I encourage you all to blend your greens and come up with your own awesome ice cream flavors. It's really something to impress company too - the spinachy, earthy, leafy vibe is such a nice way to top off a meal! It's especially delicious after spending an afternoon doing my other favorite activity when I'm not gardening - photographing wildlife!...specifically the rare Florida Sun Badger - something I had a run-in with on THIS VERY SAME DATE last year.

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Now that it is no longer April 1st, I thought I owed it to some late readers to put the hidden message (available from all the links in the blog post above) right here out in the open so there is NO confusion! (especially since I have people who seem intrigued and now want to try this salady-ice cream).


I'm lactose intolerant, for corn's sake! I'd NEVER be making ice cream, let alone any salady ice cream! APRIL FOOL!!