I mentioned in another post that I recently acquired one pound of mint- that’s a lot of mint! I was forced to come up with lots of different ways to use it. I chopped it and served it on salads and sandwiches. I hosted a mojito party at my apartment. I tried to come up with a vegetarian substitute for lamb, and failed.
Then I made some ice cubes!
I started by measuring roughly one cup of mint leaves and dumping them into my mortar (or is it my pestle?)
I decided to grind them in the mortar and pestle to release more of their flavor. Unfortunately, they do turn a brownish green color so the ice cubes are more flavorful but not as pretty as they would be with pure un-smooshed mint leaves. If you want pretty, playful, bright green mint leaves suspended in your ice cubes, skip the mortar and pestle step.
I did not grind them entirely. I just mashed them up to release the mint essence. Then I divided the mint among 2 ice cube trays (28 cells total). To one tray I added a few frozen pomegranate arils per cell. Just for fun.
Then I filled them with water and froze them for 4-6 hours.
These ice cubes are great in sparkling water with lime.
I am looking forward to using them in iced tea and lemonade too!
But I still had a bit of mint leftover, and I had this other problem on my hands.
Yes, smashed raspberries. They’re so pretty but so. . . ugly. What to do?
You guessed it. . . Cocktails!
These slushy raspberry mint daiquiris have an intensely delicious flavor and they cool you down so quick, you have to give them a try this summer. Added bonus – serving of fruit!
Raspberry Mint Daiquiri (serves two)
Ingredients:
- 1 cup crushed ice
- 1 cup fresh raspberries
- 4 oz light rum (go for 3 oz if you’re trying to be good)
- 1 oz lime juice
- 2 Tbsp cane sugar (or equivalent sweetener of your choice)
- 10 mint leaves
- 1/4 cup club soda
Preparation:
- Combine first six ingredients in a blender and blend until all of the ice chunks are gone. If you have a great blender (I don’t), blend until smooth.
- Add club soda to blender and pulse a few times until combined. This will fizz up the drinks.
- Note: if the raspberry seeds bother you, puree the raspberries separately first and then strain through a fine mesh strainer. Or let them sink to the bottom of your glass and move your straw off the bottom, like I did.
Enjoy!
Don’t worry – I’m not drinking alone. . .
That’s better!
Stay cool, my friends.