Ever heard about tomato ice cream? Neither did I. Here is how I came to know about it and now want all of you to know about it too.
Yesterday while grocery shopping my sweet tooth became hungry and demanded ice cream. I tried to ignore it for a while but God can it be stubborn. Now what? I was on a hunt for something sweet, tasty, and healthy. While all three together might be a paradox I was firm in finding all three together. Standing near the ice cream freezer all I could see were tubs of cookie n cream ice cream, brownie ice cream, or chocolate ice cream. The healthiest it could get was a strawberry ice cream because at least it contained some fruit or just a name of one. It was then, that another red favor caught my eye. “Tomato by Hagn Daz” ewwww right? I thought the same and left the aisle with nothing. But a foodie and a nutritionist in me came back to try the flavor so I could write about it and here I am.
After my initial reaction of eww, I bought the ice cream just to have a bite and write a review. Little did I know that I will get hooked to it. Sweet tomato might seem milk strange concept but man was that thing tasty. After enjoying full serving I read the label and nutritional content, sadly it was similar to the rest of the ice creams, with sugar being the major ingredient. It was then that I got an idea of making tomato ice cream myself.
What Tomato Ice Cream has to offer?
A homemade tomato ice cream will offer you nothing except great taste, sweet tooth satisfaction and great nutrition. If all these are enough for your, this article might be a good read for you.
The Available Options
Tomato ice cream does not mean a frozen concoction of tomatoes, milk, and sugar only. It has more to it and even more can be added to suit your taste and preferences. The currently available options in the market or in your kitchen pantry might be, tomato ginger ice cream, tomato ricotta ice cream, tomato basil ice cream and mascarpone tomato ice cream.
You can also be a little innovative and devise a recipe of your own. Add honey, add parsley, add lemon, add spinach or whatever you feel like. it’s your ice cream and your choice.
The Standard Recipe Of Tomato Ice Cream
Ingredients
- A standard recipe of a tomato ice cream would be
- 1 medium tomato
- ½ cup heavy cream
- ¼ cup of sugar/ zero calorie sweetener (preferred)
- 1 squeeze of lemon
- 1 table spoon of honey
Methods
- Heat some water in a pan until it starts to boil. Once the water starts boiling add your tomato in it.
- Allow the tomato get soft and its peel to get easy to remove.
- Remove the peel and mash the tomato well.
- Now chill your cream in a chiller.
- Once it reaches a very cold temperature, start whipping it.
- You will need an electric stand or hand mixture for this. A manual whisk will not whip the cream well.
- Whip the cream until it starts forming peaks and is about double in quantity than before.
- No add the mashed tomatoes, granulated sugar or sweetener, honey and salt.
- Keep on churning the mixture until a creamy consistency is achieved. Using an ice cream machine is the best option.
- Freeze until desired and Enjoy!
Benefits Of Tomato Ice cream
Who doesn’t love ice cream? The taste and feel alone are reason enough to make you want to eat it. But when it comes to a weird flavor like tomato, you might want to learn a little more than just the taste. Here is what a cup of tomato ice cream can offer you.
Let’s pick each ingredient and discuss it in detail
1. The Creaminess
Cream is often taken as an unhealthy ingredient and rightfully so. But just the total calories of a certain food can not define its worth. Although cream is rich in calories it won’t do much harm if taken occasionally. Half a cup of cream can have 43 grams of fat, with 3 grams of proteins. But when it comes to micronutrients and vitamins such as vitamin A cream can ace the game.
Half cup of cream contains 35% of your daily required intake of Vitamin A. Vitamin A is necessary in maintaining good vision. So, cream allows you to enjoy its best taste and keep your eyes healthy. Also, cream contains fair amounts of vitamin E, vitamin D and calcium.
All the nutrient a cup of cream may provide, they can not counter the fact that cream is loaded with fats and calories. Both of which are an assurance towards weight gain. But on the other and cream can cause weight loss on certain diets like the ketogenic diet.
2. The Devil Itself
Addressing the elephant in the room, there is no doubt that tomatoes are an absolute health food. The debate whether it is a fruit or a vegetable should make you put it higher than you already did. Maybe it contains the benefits of both. Now you must be wondering if it contains the harms of both. Well, even if it does, there are not much to even count.
Tomatoes hold a dark spot in the minds of people who read about food a lot. But lack of knowledge is better than having little of it. The internet says that tomatoes are night shades and nightshades are not good for your health. There is no scientific research sound enough to claim that nightshades actually have a deteriorating effect on your health.
Now that we have developed that there are no proven harms of tomatoes lets start discussing the innumerable benefits of them.
Minimum Calories
The calories we were worried about when discussing the cream can be compensated here. A small tomato has only 18 calories. This makes tomato a perfect fit for any kind of diet. In fact, you will hardly find a savory recipe without tomatoes. So even before this you were eating them. But now you can eat them with full confidence.
Micronutrients
Tomatoes are loaded with several essential vitamins and minerals.
- A medium-sized tomato can provide 28% RDI (reference daily intake). It is an essential antioxidant.
- Tomatoes are rich in folate which is essential for normal tissue growth and cell function.
- These also contain potassium which is important for blood pressure control because it counteracts sodium. Controlling your blood pressure simply means lowering your risk of heart disease.
Plant Compounds
Tomatoes being a plant for all the right reasons are loaded with plant compounds like
- Lycopene, which is a red pigment and a very strong antioxidant. Lycopene has innumerable health benefits.
- Beta carotene, also a strong antioxidant with an orange yellow color. It converts into vitamin A inside your body, which is really good for your vision and other body functions.
- Chlorogenic Acid is proven to lower blood pressure in people with elevated blood pressures.
- Naringenin is found in the tomato skin, so unless you grind and add the skin to your ice cream you won’t get the benefits of it.
Please note that all of these compounds are more abundant in the skin that the rest of the tomato, so to get maximum nutrients you must add the skin in the ice cream too.
3. The Sweetness
The ingredients that might takeaway everything good mentioned before. There is no doubt that your ice cream won’t taste as amazing unless you add heaps of sugar in to it. But trust me only if you knew the havoc these white crystals create inside your body. Sugar, single-handedly can ruin your health. But keep in mind that everything in moderation id fine. You already use this much or more sugar in a day so if you aren’t on a strict diet, you need not worry about it.
If you are on a calorie-restricted diet, you can use any zero-calorie sweetener. My advice would be to use Truvia because it has the best taste, texture and nutrient content. Try using truvia instead of sugar and you won’t be able to tell the difference between the final recipes.
Honey can also be used sweeten the delight. You don’t need me to tell you anything to make you eat honey. You are more than likely to have it without even a second thought. This is how tasty the damned syrup is. Apart from the taste of honey is all natural and contains antioxidants.
- Honey is rich in antioxidants and can increase your antioxidant value of your blood.
- Honey does not spike your blood sugar levels as bad as white sugar.
- It can help in lowering your blood pressure.
- It can also lower your levels of triglycerides which is a protective measure for your heart.
- Honey can also act as a mild vaccine against pollen. This claim is yet to be backed with strong research.
When To Eat Tomato Ice cream
Who needs a time to eat ice cream? Ice cream can be eaten anywhere any day. Well, it can be but it shouldn’t be. Although we have made this tomato ice cream somewhat healthier, it is not a perfectly healthy snack for you. I bet you will get hooked to the taste and flavor which will make it even more difficult to control yourself but you will have to.
Alternatives Of Tomato Ice cream
No matter how much we love ice cream, eating it all the time would be a one-way ticket to disease. If you are really hooked to the taste of this weird ice cream flavor, you can find even healthier alternatives like tomato basil slush, tomato lemon sorbet, and a simple green juice with tomatoes. Not only all of these are better nutrient wise but are actually very, very healthy.
The Downsides Of Tomato Ice Cream
Loving this ice cream is inevitable but you need to know some downsides of it too.
- Cream is obviously the basic component of this delight. Cream is very, very high in calories and fats. This is the easiest way to gain weight. So, unless you really want to gain weight or are on a diet like keto, you need to be wary of this tomato ice cream.
- Although I have warned you before but I know you will add sugar into your bowl. This sugar will wreak havoc in your hormonal system. Too much sugar can cause obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.
- Although honey is quite healthy but there is no denying that it is rich in calories. And calories matter the most when it comes to weight.
The Bottom Line
This weird dessert can get you hooked to it. But keep in mind that it can make you gain weight too. Although this can be healthier than a “cookies n cream ice cream”, there are better options available when it comes to nutritious and healthy desserts.
