Eight Acres

In summer we can usually buy cheap watermelons (I am yet to master growing them myself, I think I am missing the key ingredient - water), but usually we can't eat the whole thing.  I like to make granita.   Granita is like a chunky form of sorbet .  I use less sugar than most recipes and I just blend the whole watermelon (rather than juicing it), so you get all the fibre.  I also put in some ginger, lemon and herbs ( mint , lemon balm and winter tarragon ).  Pete thought that it tasted too "herby", but I think it complements the watermelon and I love to use my herbs.  On a hot summer's day, I'm glad to have some real-food granita to cool me down, rather than a sugary, artificial ice block. I use our handchurn ice cream maker , it takes about 20 minutes to make 1 litre from pre-chilled mixture, but if you don't have an ice cream machine you can just put it straight in the freezer and scrape the sides down every half hour. Watermelon Granita Cut u...

This post is linked to Freaky Friday on Real Food Freaks. Queensland summers are HOT and if you're not eating sugar and processed foods, that means no ice cream or ice blocks to cool you down.  But don't worry, I have found a solution by fiddling with a sorbet recipe.  I just don't add the sugar, and I blend the fruit so that it keeps most of the fibre. I just mix up any fruit that we have around, things like banana, mango, and pineapple are good, especially if I can get cheap orange or mandarins to bulk it out.  Melon and mint is yummy too, I haven't tried berries (as they don't last long around here), but I would imagine they'd be yummy too.  I squeeze and citrus and then I blend the other fruit.  Mix it all up and put it in the freezer in a little pot with a lid.  As long as you give it a stir every few hours, it won't freeze into a totally solid block.  When you want to eat some, you just scrape off some of the fruity ice into a cup and enjoy...