Mango and Coconut
Frozen Yogurt

with Cardamom-Coated Sweet Macadamias

There are some commercial dairy-free frozen yogurts on the market now but inevitably, due to the current lower consumer demand, there is minimal choice of flavour. We all like choice because we all have favourites – one of mine is mango, and it goes particularly well with the coconut and cardamom in this recipe. In fact maybe mango is my favourite now!

I lost a bet once over the sweetness of a mango. An Indian restaurateur friend of mine once served me some mango slices after a meal, and I claimed they were so sweet and buttery that he had either marinated them or injected them with something. He had done neither – they were my first experience of Indian ‘Alphonso’ mangoes. He is still chasing me to this day to make good the wager, but neither of us can remember exactly what the bet was.

 

juice of 1 lime

250g (1 cup) natural coconut milk yogurt

250g (1 cup) good-quality mango pulp

2 tbsp agave syrup

2 tbsp caster sugar

½ tsp crushed cardamom seeds from about 12 green cardamom pods

1 tbsp dairy-free butter

2 tbsp maple syrup

50g (½ cup) macadamia nuts

* Add the lime juice to the coconut yogurt and mix thoroughly to loosen the yogurt a little. Add the mango pulp and agave syrup and mix thoroughly again. Chill the mixture in the fridge for at least an hour. Freeze the mixture in an ice cream machine according to the manufacturer’s instructions – but remember the longer you churn, the greater the chance of air getting into the mixture and causing ice crystals. If you’re not using an ice cream machine, freeze the mixture in a sealable container, churning manually two or three times during the first few hours of freezing.

To make the nuts, combine the caster sugar and crushed cardamom seeds and set aside in a bowl.

Melt the dairy-free butter and maple syrup in a frying pan and stir in the nuts. Cook on a medium heat for 5–6 minutes, stirring often, until the nuts are coloured and caramelised.

Remove the nuts with a metal slotted spoon and stir them into the sugar coating. Spread them out on a sheet of baking paper to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Alphonso mangoes, named after Alfonso de Albuquerque, a nobleman and military expert who helped establish the Portuguese colony in India, are in season in India between April and June. You can buy Alphonso mangoes here in the UK from Asian supermarkets and some online retailers…and I urge you to do so.