How to Make a Frozen Dessert from Beets that Tastes like Cherry-lime Ice Cream

Here's how to make a frozen desert from beets that tastes somewhat like ice cream. You know real ice cream is at least 16 percent butterfat and made with dairy products. Otherwise call your creations frozen desserts.

Your first step is to peel and cut into one-inch pieces two beets. Then puree those two small to medium size peeled dark red beets with one cup of cherry juice in your blender. You now have a thick, red 'soup' of beets and fruit juice. Add a tablespoon of lime juice. Next, add your almonds and walnuts. About half a cup of each type of nuts. You can reduce portions of nuts if you like and vary your nuts and seeds with almonds, walnuts, pistachio nuts, sesame seeds, or sunflower seeds in small amounts, about a handful.

When you puree almonds and walnuts in a blender with cooked grains such as amaranth and quinoa and add liquid in equal parts such as a cup of almond or soy milk substitute beets, cherry juice, and two or three small bananas. Then freeze what looks like a red smoothie until it's the consistency of frozen dessert. This can be completely vegan if you don't use honey, but sweeten with bananas instead.

Assemble your ingredients: a cup or two of cooked red quinoa mixed with 1/2 cup cooked amaranth, a banana, one tablespoon of raw organic honey, a cup of almond milk, 1/2 cup of almonds, and 1/2 cup walnuts. Optional is a handful of cashews. Add your pureed beets mixed with the cherry juice.

Cook a cup of amaranth and a cup quinoa--either red quinoa or yellow, mixed with water until the water is absorbed. When cooled, put it in your blender. Add two more cups of water, a handful of almonds and two handfuls of walnuts or cashews (or both).

You can add more almonds and cashews, if desired, up to 1/2 cup each. Optional: add a slice, about a one-inch piece of fresh ginger root to the blender. Instead of trying to wolf down dairy fats and processed sugar, make your frozen desserts look like ice cream, taste sweet, and be made entirely from fruit, beets, and nuts. You can freeze without the added grain if you're grain-sensitive and just have the fruit, beets, and almonds/walnuts to make up your frozen dessert. If your puree is too sweet, cut the sweetness by adding a tablespoon of lime juice to the beets and cherry juice emulsion.

You can sweeten pureed peeled beets with bananas, for example two bananas and avoid processed sugars. Or you can use one banana and a tablespoon of raw organic creamed honey. The grain will be pureed into a liquid with the nuts and fruit and flavored as well as colored to look like a red fruity frozen dessert.

Here's another version of this beet ice 'scream' frozen dessert. In the blender, add one banana, If the blend is too thick, thin with a little water, or use as liquid in your blender either unsweetened soy milk or almond milk instead of water. Add your purred beets with cherry juice. You can use one or two peeled beets, depending on how large the beet is. Two small beets or one large beet is fine.

The liquid should be thick, like a runny wallpaper paste. Blend everything until liquefied. Freeze in containers or covered dessert bowls. Serve as you'd serve ice cream. If you want it sweeter, add a tablespoon of raw organic honey. Or if you can't have honey, add a little stevia powder to sweeten it more, if desired. Actually, beets, cherry juice, and a banana usually make the frozen dessert sweet enough without adding any honey. You can keep your dessert totally vegan by using only fruit and no honey (made by bees).

What you get when you eat this dessert is the equivalent of a bowl of cooked quinoa and amaranth which is a higher-protein grain than rice or oat groats. You get the healthier fats from the almonds and walnuts or cashews, and the sweet taste of the beets, cherry juice, and banana. But as a rule, don't emphasize too many sweets in your diet. Or it could unbalance the cortisol-insulin balance between your tired adrenals and resistant pancreas. Some people prefer walnuts and almonds to cashews. Another variation is to cut the sweet taste of the beets by adding a table spoon of lime juice to the blender as you first puree your beets with cherry juice.