Strawberry Basil Sorbet

This strawberry basil sorbet is made with fresh or frozen strawberries and an easy honey basil syrup. It’s a delicious, dairy-free summertime treat!

This summer, I've been on a mission.

An herb mission.

My goal is to preserve as many of my garden herbs as possible.

I've been turning my hearty herbs (like rosemary, oregano, thyme, and chives) into herb salt, dried chives, thyme tea, chive blossom vinegar, and chive butter.

When I saw my mint plants going wild, I turned to fresh mint tea, mint simple syrup, mint lemonade, and chocolate mint ice cream.

This year, however, one herb in particular has grown and grown and grown.

My basil plants.

They are huge!

I planted eight basil plants, assuming that about half wouldn't make it. Sometimes sweet basil can be finicky, and I wanted to be prepared.

Guys, I only lost one basil plant. The other seven have flourished, and I've been putting basil in all the things.

I made basil simple syrup and basil lemonade to enjoy now, and basil butter and basil vinegar to use all winter long.

And this past week, I decided it was time to make an icy cold basil treat.

This tasty strawberry basil sorbet is a dairy-free, summertime sweet made with strawberries, basil, honey, and sugar.

Can I Use Frozen Strawberries Instead of Fresh?

Yes, absolutely!

This recipe works perfectly with either fresh or frozen berries.

The most important thing is to make sure that your berries are flavorful.

If you're using frozen strawberries, try not to use berries that are freezer-burned. If you're using fresh strawberries, taste them first and make sure they're delicious!

What Kind of Basil Should I Use?

Use whatever fresh basil you have on hand! It also works perfectly with frozen basil leaves.

Just be aware that if you use a spicy basil (like spicy globe or Thai basil), your sorbet will have a little more spice to it.

For my strawberry sorbet, I used mostly sweet basil, with a little Genovese basil mixed in.

Can I Use Less Sugar and Honey?

I don't recommend it.

Sugar does something really important in sorbet. It lowers the freezing point, and makes the sorbet scoopable.

In other words, it keeps it from hardening into one giant block of frozen fruit.

Traditionally, sorbet is made with simply sugar and fruit. In this recipe, we're also using honey.

Honey lends a nice flavor to this sorbet, and also allows us to use less refined sugar.

Do I Really Need an Ice Cream Machine for This Strawberry Basil Sorbet?

Yes, you do.

If you don't have an ice cream maker, I recommend trying my lemon basil granita, berry granita, or kefir ice cream instead.

I use this Cuisinart ice cream maker with a freezer bowl. Keep in mind that if your ice cream machine uses a freezer bowl, it needs to be placed in the freezer at least a day before you prepare the sorbet.

If you prefer to skip the freezer bowl and have sorbet and ice cream on demand at all times, check out this Cuisinart compressor ice cream and gelato maker.

Once you've got an ice cream maker, you can make all kinds of sweet treats, like mango sorbet, watermelon sorbet, strawberry cheesecake ice cream, mango frozen yogurt, and beer ice cream.

How to Make Strawberry Basil Sorbet

Start by making the honey syrup.

Add sugar, honey, a little water, and some fresh basil to a saucepan.

Heat the liquid until the sugar dissolves, and then remove it from the heat.

Set the basil syrup aside for fifteen minutes to cool.

After fifteen minutes, you can strain out the basil. Discard the basil and keep the syrup.

Next, blend your strawberries.

You want three cups of blended strawberry.

Add the syrup, and blend again to incorporate it.

Next, chill the strawberry mixture until it's cold to the touch. Prepare your ice cream machine, and pour the strawberry mixture in.

Churn the sorbet until it looks like softened whipped cream.

At this point, your sorbet will be the consistency of (extra-soft) soft serve ice cream. Scrape it into a container and freeze it until it's hardened.

I recommend buying some homemade ice cream containers to make this part more convenient.

As soon as the sorbet is hardened and scoopable, it's time to eat!

Serve your strawberry basil ice cream on a hot summer day along with an ice cold glass of infused water.