Mint Chip Ice Cream and Steamed Potatoes with a Minty Dressing

Slowpoke! That should be my nickname. Captain Slowpoke. Tomorrow is the last day to enter this month's SOS Kitchen Challenge and here I am entering just now, almost at the last minute. It's almost disgraceful! But still, I made a savory dish *and* a dessert, so I'm hoping that will earn me some brownie points. Or in this case minty points! Let's start with the savory for a change! :)




Steamed potatoes with herby mint dressing

This is the easiest dressing ever! It works great with steamed potatoes and it was also super tasty with my weekly baked tofu splurge. Assuming that you already know how to steam potatoes, here is the recipe for the herby mint dressing.

Mint and Parsley Dressing For Steamed Potatoes

1/4 cup fresh mint leaves
1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves
1 garlic clove
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 steamed or baked potatoes, cut into six or eight pieces each

1. Mince the mint and parsley leaves. Mince the garlic as fine as possible.

2. In a small mixing bowl whisk together the olive oil, balsamic vinegar and fresh lemon juice until well combined.

3. Add the paprika, salt and black pepper to taste. Stir in the minced herbs and garlic and let the dressing rest for 10 minutes.

4. Pour over the steamed potatoes and toss to coat.

That'll do pig. That'll do. This was enough dressing for two steamed potatoes which weighed about 6oz/170g each, raw. Serve hot and sprinkle with more salt and pepper if needed.

Oh, what'd ya say? You just ate these garlicky potatoes but you didn't remember you had a date with one of the Cullens? Oh no! Quick! Have a bowl of minty ice cream to freshen up your breath!

Mint Chip Ice Cream
Coconut Milk Mint-Chip Ice Cream

Mmmmminty! This is my new favorite ice cream flavor! I've never been a mint ice cream person, but I am a convert. Even Mr. Wing-It loves it! At first he found it too herby, but now he's coo coo for minty ice cream! This recipe was inspired by David Lebovitz's non-vegan mint chip ice cream.

Coconut Milk Mint Chip Ice Cream

1 cup fresh mint leaves
1/2 cup turbinado sugar
1/2 cup water
1 14 oz can full fat coconut milk
1/4 cup raw baby spinach leaves (really packed! 12-15 leaves)*
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1/4 to 1/2 cup grain sweetened chocolate chips**

1. In a medium saucepan combine the mint leaves, sugar and water and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Let it steep for 15 minutes.

2. Pour the contents of the saucepan into a blender jar, add the coconut milk, baby spinach, vanilla and salt. Liquefy for about a minute or until smooth. It should look nice and green now!

3. Strain the mixture into a medium size mixing bowl (if possible, one with a spout for easy pouring.) Let it cool in the fridge for an hour or until the bottom of the bowl feels completely cold.

4. Once chilled, strain it again into your ice cream maker's bowl, and freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. It took just about 30 minutes in my awesome Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker. Place a food storage container (where you want to keep your ice cream) in the freezer. Don't have an ice cream maker? That's cool, Mr. Lebovitz tells you how to make ice cream without an ice cream maker here.

5. A few minutes before the ice cream maker is done churning, melt the chocolate chippers in the microwave in a dry glass bowl. I don't do double boilers (yawn.) It took my microwave 90 seconds on low power, stirring every 30 seconds, to melt the chips completely.

6. Now comes the fun part! When the ice cream maker is done churning, remove your food storage container from the freezer and spread about half of the ice cream on the bottom. Drizzle about half of the melted chocolate all over the ice cream and stir to break up the chocolate into tiny chips. Beat it into submission if you have to! Repeat with the other half of the ice cream and the rest of the melted chocolate.

7. When you're done having fun breaking up the chocolate, cover the bowl and freeze the ice cream until firm.

I always take it out of the freezer about five minutes before serving so it's not too hard and it's way easier to scoop.

* It won't taste like spinach! Honest! The baby spinach is just there to give the ice cream a nice green color, because it's so purrrrdy that way!

** This recipe calls for grain sweetened chocolate chips because I'm a good girl and I'm playing by the SOS Kitchen Challenge rules, but any type of chocolate chips or baking chocolate will work. Wouldn't it be nice if they made maple sweetened chippers? Anyway, I only do 1/4 cup of chocolate chips because Mr. Wing-It doesn't like a lot of chocolate, but if I was going to make this only for myself I would probably go with 1/2 cup for extra chocolateness!



Mint Chip Ice Cream in a gluten free cone

That's it for my SOS Kitchen Challenge entry! I made it! YAY! I'm looking forward to next month's challenge already! Check out Ricki's blog and Kim's blog if you too want to participate in this fun challenge! And check out Ricki's Mint Chip ice cream too! :)

Now before I go have another scoop of ice cream, check out these amazing flourless peanut butter cookies courtesy of Ashley of the (never home)maker blog!

Ashley's Flourless Cookies

Ashley blogged about my Mutant Flourless Almond Butter Cookies and she even made her own awesome version! They are made with chunky peanut butter for extra crunchiness, and they are super delicious! I knew I wanted to make these peanut butter goodies as soon as I saw them on Ashley's blog. Go check out her pictures and you'll see why I couldn't resist! Thank you for sharing the peanutty goodness, Ashley! :D

OK - ice cream's meltin'... gotta run!

Comments

  1. Your mint coconut ice cream looks amazing! Those potatoes look great too! Mint? I never would have thought of that for potatoes. I love mint though. Love love love :)

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  2. Your recipes look amazing, and I am so glad you made it to the challenge! Those potatoes are calling my name (well, the dressing is, actually--the potatoes can come along for the ride!) And I LOVE the look of your mint chip ice cream--what a stunning photo! Those cookies don't look half bad, either. ;) Now I'm hungry! Thanks so much for this stellar submission to the SOS Challenge, River. :D

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  3. I wish I could eat your blog. *sigh* ;)

    Iam intrigued by the spinach in the ice cream!

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  4. SHUT UP.

    You just had to post this to rub it in after my mint chocolate chip fail. Alright, you're forgiven, but only because you gave such a great, detailed recipe. And amazing photos that almost make me taste the ice cream. Almost.

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  5. As a recent convert to "veganism", I found my way to your site, and now after seeing your picture of the mint ice - cream, i want to go out and buy an ice cream maker lol. thanks .

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  6. Your ice cream looks awesome! Do you have any issues wit hit being to soft?

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  7. Those potatoes look freakin amazing, I love potatoes so much.

    Your ice cream looks lovely too.

    cookbook cookbook cookbook! hee hee! x

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  8. Carissa - Thank you! Mint is so yummy, it's the king of the herbs because it can be used both in sweet and savory dishes! I love it too! :)

    Ricki - YAY! I'm glad you like my first-of-many submission! This was a lot of fun and I can't wait until you guys reveal the next SOS ingredient! :)

    Susan - I wish I could eat your blog *and* snorgle your kittehs! The spinach in the ice cream is very sneaky, you don't even know it's there. Mr. Wing-It who hates spinach can't even taste it at all! *WIN* :D

    Katie - I'm not rubbing it in! I'm not, I'm not! Will you forgive me if we share a couple of ice cream cones? You know, like a peace pipe but without the sharing of germs? :P

    Marina - Welcome to Wing-It! The cuisinart ice cream maker was one of the best investments we ever made! Really, we use it a few times a week! We got it on sale too so it was a steal! :D

    HayMarket8 - Thank you! Nope. If anything it's too hard! I always take it out of the freezer a few minutes before serving so it can soften a little. Unless I just want to stab it with a knife and eat the little bits that come off because I can't wait five minutes! :D

    Sal - Oh man, I love me some taters! I could eat them every friggin' day! More cookbook chants! Hee hee! You guys made me want to at least give it a shot. I'll probably need a couple of testers at some point... want to test my tater recipes? :P

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  9. Wow that ice cream sounds awesome! I love that you used spinach to colour it, so very healthy and I bet you can't even taste it a little bit...:)

    Gorgeous!

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  10. Mint chocolate chip was always my favorite ice cream flavor! I'll definitely try your recipe at some point; spinach in ice cream is exciting to me, even if it is primarily for the color. Yay, for veggies in dessert form!

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  11. Yum. I made a coconut mint chocolate pudding last week. Mint chip is the best.

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  12. Oh man, want want want! I love the spinach for green ice cream!

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  13. Elizabeth - The spinach really is so sneaky! Not even the biggest supertaster would be able to tell there's spinach in there! :D

    Vegyogini - Yay for veggies in dessert form indeedy! I hope you like the ice cream if you give it a shot! :)

    Krys - Your coconut-mint-chocolate pudding looks amazing! Wanna swap a bowl of ice cream for a bowl of pudding! :D

    Melisser - Me too! Using spinach made me feel all sneaky and cool! :P

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  14. Your two minty entrees look so incredible — makes me pine for my old garden with its out of control mint patch. I'm trying to believe you that you can't taste the spinach but I'm not quite there yet. The ice cream does look delectable, though. :D (And I'm with you on adding the extra chocolate.)

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  15. mint chip is and always has been my absolute favorite flavor of ice cream! yum!! that dressing for the potatoes sounds delicious as well. i love mint. have you ever paired it with dill? so amazing.

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  16. River, I'm starving over here! Potatoes and ice cream in one post is more than I can handle ;) It looks so good!

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  17. Andrea - It's true! It's true! Even Mr. Wing-It who is a spinach hater couldn't tell! And I wish I had an out of control mint patch too! :D

    Allularpunk - I have not paired mint with dill, but now you've made me curious! I do have mint... it must be time for a grocery store run to buy some dill! :)

    Mihl - I didn't mean to make you starve! Hee hee! Thank you! You make the yummiest looking ice cream though! :)

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  18. That dressing sounds amazing, I'd be tempted to use it on everything! Your ice cream is also amazingly pretty, nice innovation with the spinach for color!

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  19. Thanks, Jodye! I need visual stimulation from my food! Mint chip ice cream *has* to be green! :P

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  20. Your ice cream looks perfect! I love that you used fresh mint AND spinach in your ice cream. I usually hate mint, but I have always liked mint ice cream. Weird, right?

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  21. If it were possible to eat the potatoes right through my computer screen, I would! I've never thought about a mint dressing for potatoes, but it makes sense--sort of like a minty taziki sauce or something :)

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  22. Kiersten - Me too! I'm not a big fan of minty things, but I could easily eat two full cones of mint chip ice cream in one sitting! :D

    Jes - The person that first comes up with a way to eat things through a computer screen is going to be a gazillionaire! I wasn't sure what to call it - it's not really a sauce, it's not really a vinaigrette, so I guess dressing is the closest thing because without it the potatoes would be naked! :D

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  23. River! That ice cream looks divine! Especially with a beautiful apron-ey background. You are faaaahhhbulous! Meanwhile, I'm in a cookie mood...I might end up with some mutants in the kitchen!

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  24. That ice cream looks delish and so do those cookies! Mint chocolate chip ice cream is my all time fav. I have to purchase an ice cream maker, so I can make this! :o)

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  25. Yum. Looks like so much goodness going on in your kitchen. I was wondering how you got the green color, and now I know. :-)

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  26. Joanie - Thank you!! Isn't my wing-it apron fab? It's always a good time to have some teenage mutant cookies in the kitchen! :D

    Michelle - Our ice cream maker is one of the best investments we ever made! We have used it so many times now it's crazy! If you do decide to buy one, I totally recommend that little cuisinart.

    Kelly - That green "food coloring" will come in handy during Halloweegan! Monster goo pudding? Yuck! :P

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  27. Thank you for the Coconut Milk Mint-chip Ice Cream recipe, I have been looking for something to take the place of not being able to have Ice Cream.
    Patricia ZelmEmmart
    Pacific Holistic Living

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  28. I am wondering if you just add the melted chocolate to the ice cream make during the last part of mixing if it would do the same thing with the chocolate.

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  29. Patricia - You're very welcome! I hope you enjoy the ice cream! :)

    to2sassy - I wondered the same thing but decided to play by the book in case I messed it up. Let me know how it works out for you if you try it!

    Thanks, Jenny! :)

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  30. Ok, you are ruining my resistance to buying an ice cream maker. You just HAD to go and post my FAVOURITE flavour in the whole world. Grrrr! LOL

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  31. Don't try to fight it! You can't resist the power of the ice cream maker! Come over to the dark side! :D

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  32. I am not a fan of mint on most occasions, but this I will have to try. The icecream looks awesome!

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  33. Gauri Radha गौरी राधाJanuary 15, 2011 at 4:47 PM

    Oh that ice-cream looks marvelous!!

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  34. Hum..somehow I just lost the comment I was going to post..d'oh! But in a nutshell, mint chip ice cream..like, heaven in a cone you mean? How I love the stuff! Once we get rid of all this freakin' snow in Boston (we have snow canyons!!) I must make this!

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  35. I tried making this but after about 40 minutes in the ice cream maker (I have the same model you do) it was still the same, syrupy consistency. The only thing I can think of is that the alcohol in the vanilla extract was impeding the freezing process. Did you have any trouble with this?

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  36. Hi Audrey! (I love your name!) Sorry it took me a few days to reply, Mr. Wing-It and I have been traveling and I've been too tired to even look at the computer. To answer your question, that has never happened to my ice creams! I'm so sorry you ended up with a syrupy non-ice cream. You might be on to something, it could very well be the vanilla. I use the Costco brand which is 35% alcohol and my ice creams always freeze perfectly. Maybe your vanilla has a higher alcohol content? Thanks for the heads up though!

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  37. WOW!!!! SHUT THE FRONT DOOR!!!!!!!!!

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  38. How much does this make? Like a pint or so? And how much should the mint leaves be packed? Thank you!

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