Summer Fruit Salad with Coconut Ice-Cream

Two weeks ago London was swept by a heatwave and the city reached record-high temperatures of 36.4 °C. As much as I love summer and the feeling of the sun shining on my skin, being in a big city with temperatures above 30 °C is not pleasant, so I had to come up with ways to keep cool. That means brewing a batch of cold brew coffee, making ice lollies and lots of ice-cream!

One of my favourite summer desserts is fruit salad. Technically not a dessert in itself, but it certainly turns into a spectacular one when paired with ice-cream!

My mum taught me how to prepare the fruit with freshly squeezed orange or lemon juice and a spoonful of sugar. Toss the salad a few times, just enough for the sugar to melt and for the fruit to release its natural juice. All the flavours of your summer fruit will blend together creating a delicious and fresh salad!

As for the coconut ice-cream, this is a favourite recipe of mine that I make often. It’s easy and it works all the time! I have had a few #fail with ice-cream recipes found online, so now I prefer to stick to the ones I know for sure will work.

You will need an ice-cream machine, but honestly they are so cheap and small nowadays. I used a Lakeland Digital Ice-Cream Maker which makes 1.5 litres of ice-cream at a time and doesn’t take too much space in my freezer.

Summer Fruit Salad with Coconut Ice-Cream

Ingredients

For the coconut ice-cream

• 300ml coconut milk
• 300ml double cream
• 150g caster sugar
• 50g dessicated coconut (optional)

For the fruit salad

• 100g fresh strawberries
• 1 banana
• 2 small kiwis
• 1 big peach
• 2 ripe plums
• 2 apricots
• handful of blueberries
• 1/2 lemon
• 2 tbsp caster sugar

Preparation

Make the ice-cream one day ahead. In a large bowl, mix together the coconut milk, cream and sugar. Add the dessicated coconut. Pour the mixture in the ice-cream machine and churn for about 30-35 minutes. Store in an airtight container in the freezer for at least half day before serving.

Make the fruit salad one-two hours before you plan to serve it (once you’ve added the sugar, the fruit doesn’t last long).

Wash the strawberries, blueberries and apricots. Peel the kiwi, banana and peach. Cut the fruit in chunks, don’t make it too small as it will naturally mash in the bowl.

Mix all fruits together in a bowl, sprinkle with sugar and lemon juice and toss lightly. Keep in the fridge. Remove the salad from the fridge about 30 minutes before serving.

A variation of the fruit salad and ice cream pairing is to have fresh strawberries. Prepare the strawberries in the same way as described above, mixed with sugar and lemon juice (lime or orange juice work well too!). Dust with dessicated coconut and serve.

For more ice-cream and gelato recipes, see Raspberry Ice-Cream Sandwich and White Chocolate Ice-Cream.