My time is overdue to face post-holiday reality and get back on the balanced meal wagon. With that said, it is hard to go cold turkey after a whole season of diligent holiday eating. To help ease us back into reality with a light dessert featuring mostly fruit and absolutely no butter, eggs, or flour, I made a lovely, light sorbet this weekend using one of my all-time favorite kitchen gadgets – the ice cream maker.

There are two main ingredients in this sorbet: fresh blueberries (you can also use frozen) and pomegranate juice. Being the off-season, the blueberries mostly help the texture by providing some skins and seeds (those small enough to fit through the sieve, that is).

Most of the flavor and the beautiful, deep purple color comes from the pomegranate juice, which is sweet enough on it’s own but still has a bit of characteristic tartness that makes the sorbet interesting.

This recipe is my own, based on years of practice making various types of sorbet. Once you figure out the proper ratios (although they vary slightly depending on the acidity/sourness/sweetness of the fruits and whether you use juice as a base) you can confidently mix and match with flavors.

I like to add a little lemon juice to almost any type of fruit sorbet that I make. It balances our the flavor with acidity and a hit of tartness, without screaming “lemon!”

I used a hand blender to blend my ingredients right in the pot (because I’d rather dust my entire apartment than wash the blender), but it is also perfectly fine to use a stand blender to blend the sorbet mixture. 

Strain the mixture into a bowl and use a spoon to mash through as much as you can. This will add small bits of the blueberry skin to your sorbet. Refrigerate for at least one hour before putting it into your ice cream maker.

Run the sorbet in the ice cream maker for approximately 20 minutes, until you have a thick slush that will stand up on its own. 

Remove the slush from the canister of the ice cream maker and put it in a tupperware container with a lid. Place container in the freezer overnight. When you are ready to serve, allow the container to sit out for a few minutes before scooping. You will really be impressed by the color and flavor of this refreshing, post-holiday sorbet.

Pomegranate Berry Sorbet

Serves 4 people

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

1 and 1/2 cups pomegranate juice

1 cup water

1/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

In a large saucepan, combine all ingredients over medium heat. Stir occasionally until all of the sugar is dissolved and the blueberries are beginning to puff and are easy to mash with a spoon.

Use a hand blender or a stand blender to blend mixture until all of the blueberries have been pulverized. Strain the mixture into a bowl and push as much as you can through the strainer with a spoon and discard the mush that you are not able to pass through. Chill the mixture for at least 1 hour.

When mixture is cool to the touch, pour it into your ice cream maker and run it for 20 minutes or until the mixture holds peaks. Transfer the mixture to a tupperware container with a lid and freeze overnight. When ready to serve, remove the container from the freezer and allow it to stand for one minute before scooping the sorbet into dessert dishes or (my personal favorite) martini glasses. Serve immediately.