Refreshing, zingy, cooling, healthy strawberry popsicles recipe with mint and lime. These easy to make popsicles are packed with vitamin C and vitamin K as well as fibre, folic acid, manganese and potassium. This healthy strawberry popsicles recipe is made with just three easy to find ingredients – strawberries, mint and lime.
Are you ready to make them?
How to make strawberry popsicles recipe with mint and lime
Making our strawberry popsicles recipe takes almost no time at all, in fact, it takes less than 5 minutes.
Just put all of the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Then pour the popsicles mixture into the moulds and freeze overnight or for at least 4 hours.
What if you don’t have the popsicles/ice lolly mould
If you don’t have an ice lolly /popsicle mould, you can still make these popsicles, however, we recommend getting a mould soon as you will be making these all the time, trust us. But in the meantime, if you don’t have a popsicle mould, you can pour the mixture in paper cups and place the wooden sticks in the middle.
Store-bought versus homemade strawberry popsicles recipe
When it comes to the store-bought popsicles, they tend to contain artificial flavors, additives and too much sugar. This plant-based and super healthy strawberry popsicles recipe is 100% naughty-free as it’s made with natural sweetener, fresh mint and beautifully ripened organic fruit which makes it the best and healthy cooling dessert to enjoy in the summer.
These popsicles are:
- Deliciously cooling
- Zingy
- Packed with vitamin C
- Packed with cancer-fighting antioxidants
- Easy
- Addictive
What happens to nutrients when fruit gets frozen?
Generally, freezing preserves nutrient levels. When you freeze fruit and vegetables you can be assured that you will still consume the same amount of vitamins and minerals as you would have if you ate the same fruit or vegetable when they are fresh. Sometimes and actually in most cases, frozen fruit or vegetables have more vitamins and minerals compared to fresh. This is because fresh produce loses vitamins and minerals over time.
Nutritious and delicious strawberries
Summer for many is not the same without strawberries. Their fragrant aroma, gorgeous sweet flavour, and vibrant colour make strawberries almost irresistible. Whether eaten freshly, frozen or blitzed, the refreshing taste of strawberries makes it one of our most beloved fruits, for both adults and kids alike.
Strawberries are available all year round however the best time to harvest is in June. The June strawberries are just so much more flavoursome – they are juicer, sweeter and completely addictive.
Strawberries aren’t actually berries as their seeds are on the outside – with an average of 200 seeds per fruit. Berries have seeds on the inside so, when it comes to strawberries, each seed is considered to be its own separate fruit.
This wonderful red fruit berry is low in calories and is full of vitamin C as well as B6, K, fibre, folic acid and potassium which are all essential nutrients that support the body’s daily functioning. Strawberries are also packed with significant amounts of phytonutrients and flavonoids that are important for our heart health and prevention of cancer.
Picking the best strawberries for your popsicles
When choosing strawberries there are a few things to look out for. First of all, strawberries do not ripen once picked, so look for a deep bright red colour. Try to avoid strawberries that look dull or have brown, yellow or green patches. Wonky shapes are great as long as they are plump and not bruised and free of mould.
Mint, mint and more mint
Mint is a herb that has a wonderful flavour and aroma and when added in small amounts it can pair well with other ingredients and elevate the overall flavour quite dramatically.
Mint can be used in so many different ways. Mint sauce as a condiment, mint yoghurt for a cool Indian dip, orange and mint dressing, mint tea, peppermint and chocolate chip ice cream the list goes on.
Many Mediterranean salads include mint in their recipes and many desserts use a bit of mint for a garnish as do many cocktails. Perhaps the reason it is used to refresh the palette is because of the cooling effect the essential oils impart on us.
Peppermint originates in Europe and is easily cross-pollinated which produce exciting hybrids. There are over 25 different types of mint from spearmint to lemon mint and even chocolate mint. There are also many ways to use mint which then can be used in flavourings, perfumes as well as toiletries, a cooling mint shower gel, for example, is amazing to refresh the senses in the morning, so adding a little to an iced lolly popsicle will rejuvenate the senses too.
It is the aerial parts of the mint that is used for the flavour, that is the flowers which can be steamed to produce mint oil and the leaves also be steamed, infused or cut directly into food.
The main essential oil is menthol which is a volatile oil that has numerous health benefits. The essential part refers to the oil itself which encapsulates the main scent of the plant and the volatile aspect refers to the fact that it can evaporate easily at low temperatures (which is why they are so easy to detect on the nose) It is these oils that can invigorate the senses giving you a more alert state and less fatigue. Studies have suggested it can also help brain function too as they are exceptionally anti-inflammatory. There are other plant compounds in leafy herbs such as mint that also have health benefits such as the antioxidant benefits that come from the polyphenols known as flavonoids. These are plant compounds that can be responsible for a plants colour and help the plant to survive against the cold and other antagonists such as pests and fungus. It is these compounds that when consumed (even in the small quantities that you would have by adding mint to a recipe) will help with eradicating the harmful effects of free radicals in the body that if not neutralised quickly enough can trigger mutations at a cellular level which can then lead on to cause chronic diseases such as cancer.
Some other health benefits of mint have shown it to be beneficial for digestive problems, have an antispasmodic action and also effective for pain relief.
If you ever think that you have a recipe just right then maybe think again. There is always a little room to add a herb such as mint to add more than just flavour.
Health benefits of lime
One of the best antioxidants that is abundant in fruits is vitamin C. Citrus fruits such as lemon, limes and oranges contain a high amount which then helps the body with hundreds of metabolic reactions, one of which increases the production of collagen which is a major structural protein that is essential for our cells repair, especially in bones, teeth and our skin which can help with anti-ageing.
Citrus fruits such as limes are a good ingredient to form part of an alkaline diet. Even though citrus fruits are high in citric acid they are part of a food group that will alkalize your body. This is because when the body converts food into energy there is a chemical reaction that leaves behind metabolic waste and this waste is either acidic, alkaline or neutral. When the residue or ash is left behind whatever its Ph level is will affect your body’s acidity. The more acidic you are, studies have shown the more susceptible you are to illness and disease. The more alkaline you are in moderation, therefore the more protected you are to potentially lower the risk of cancers and other acute illnesses.
Vitamin C also regenerates vitamin E and as such will increase the body’s defence against oxidized cholesterol that is associated with the hardening and furring up of arteries. Studies have also suggested that people with the highest intakes of Vitamin C are less likely to develop certain cancers.
People who do not consume many fruits have a higher susceptibility to colds and coughs, poor healing, prevalence to bruising. A lack of vitamin C can also result in hair loss, dry lips, inflamed, bleeding gums and lethargy. Consuming vitamin C through a homemade strawberry popsicles recipe is a fun, delicious and easy way to introduce more vitamin C in your diet.
Have you made this strawberry popsicles recipe?
We’d love to see your healthy strawberry popsicles! Please leave a comment below, share or tag using @anticancerkitchen on Instagram and hashtag it #anticancerkitchen.
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Ingredients
- 2 cups of fresh strawberries (500g)
- A handful of fresh mint, or 1/4 cup lightly packed
- Juice of 1 lime
- A dash of Agave syrup (optional)
Instructions
Wash all the fruit and mint.
Then remove the green stem from the strawberries. Put them in the high-speed blender together with the mint. Optional! Add some Agave syrup for more sweetness but it all depends on the sweetness of the strawberries.
Cut the lime in half, crosswise. To squeeze the lime juice, you can easily use a fork. Pick the fork onto the half of the lime. Hold firmly in one hand, squeeze and turn the fork at the same time. You can also use a citrus juicer.
Add the juice into the blender and blitz all the ingredients until smooth (for approximately 45 seconds).
Then pour the popsicles mixture into the moulds and freeze overnight or for at least 4 hours.