Mango frozen yoghurt three ways

A trio of mango frozen yoghurt with no added sugar!

Gavin Wren Desserts, No Added Sugar, Recipes

I’ve got a real treat for you today, in the form of no less than THREE different ways to spice up your mango frozen yoghurt, or froyo, or whatever you’re calling it this week, with some interesting and unnervingly tasty additions. All of these frosty, dessert based frolics also feature no added sugar thereby making these the healthiest recipes ever published on the internet! (well, perhaps)

It all started when I began to wander through the sun drenched hills and shadowy valleys of no added sugar foods and stumbled upon a perhaps obvious discovery, but nonetheless significant. I realised that sweetness is entirely subjective, which is not-too startling, but above and beyond that, your perception of sweetness is a self-fulfilling phenomenon which you are completely in control of.

Box of ripe mangos

What I mean is that the more you consume it, the more your tolerance to it increases and also, your expectation of how sweet your food should be increases as well. If you reduce your sugar intake, especially if you eat the same foods but are able reduce the sugar content of them, you’ll find this tolerance also does an about turn and walks backwards. From here your internal sugar-ometer recalibrates itself to a lower point, meaning that you won’t desire sugar as much but will still enjoy the lower sugar food. The amount of sugar that you consume effectively controls the amount you need. Which is a bit warped, or as some people might say, a bit like the chicken and the egg.

Ground cardamon in a pestle

For example, I have a friend who recently cut out anything with refined or added sugar and since then unsweetened food tastes sweeter to her. If you take my mini cherry clafoutis as an example (and you should, because they’re scrumptious), they have no added sugar, yet they’re very tasty treats which you can eat like biscuits and battle the temptation to have have ‘just one more’.

Mango in blender and rosewater

So, moving onto fruit and in the case of the recipes below, mango. Imagine a luscious, juicy, peak season mango, I’d be surprised if anyone has ever eaten one and said “Oh, they’re not very sweet, are they”. So why on earth do so many frozen yoghurt recipes add sugar, honey or other syrups to pep things up? Do they think that mangos aren’t sweet enough? Or do they just love sugar? Why can’t we just enjoy the fruit’s natural sweetness for what it is without augmenting it with more sugar?

Mango frozen yoghurt with mint in blender

I’m not a nutritionalist, nor am I going to advise you what you should do with your diet, it’s up to you, I’m just recounting my experiences. But if we’re honest, you’re probably reading this because either a) you know me, b) you’re cyber-stalking me (hi!) or c) share similar thoughts about sugar. I know that when my sugar intake has crept up, I’ve noticed odd side effects and cut it down again. It first happened a few years ago when I became addicted to a strong glass of the amazing Elderflower and Pomegranate cordial from Bottlegreen with chilled fizzy water after every meal. I didn’t realise at the time, but it’s basically liquid sugar. I noticed the jitters and then, when I cut it out, the headaches and unbelievably, cravings similar to those when I gave up smoking.

Mango frozen yoghurt in blender

This sugar amnesty is no doubt aided and abetted by my ascent (or descent?) into healthier ways of living. A few years ago I stopped drinking alcohol, in fact no alcohol has passed my lips for nearly 19 months at the time of writing. But that decrease and eventual cessation of alcohol also had the effect of enlivening my body’s sensitivity to other stimulants, like caffeine and sugar. Suddenly caffeine after lunchtime became a recipe for a restless night’s sleep, despite being a double-espresso-after-dinner kind of guy for years before that. It goes back to my first statement about the food and drink you take in controlling your requirements, which is true for so many things in our diet, not just sugar.

Co-incidentally, I’m writing this just after a group of scientists have recommended that the RDA of sugar should be HALVED by the government, which is great news to hear and all the more reason to make this recipe and give natural sweetness a chance.

Mango frozen yoghurt three ways

So, back in the world of recipes, I’ve been experimenting with making sweet treats devoid of any additional sweeteners and just let the fruits and other flavours do the talking, which led me to develop this chirpy trio of frozen yoghurts. I made these using my home made yoghurt and they’re all so tasty that I can’t work out which is my favourite. So whichever one you try, it doesn’t matter, because as Hot Chocolate once said “Everyone’s a winner, baby, that’s the truth”.

Mango frozen yoghurt three ways


Mango frozen yoghurt with cardamon and rosewater

‘Everything’s Rosy’ mango frozen yogurt with rosewater & cardamon

By

Serves 4

Uses a baking sheet

PDF recipe card to download or print

Ingredients

80g yoghurt
240g mango flesh (approx 1 mango)
1 tablespoon of rosewater
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamon
A few pistachios, crumbled

Directions

Chop the mango into 1cm lumps and spread out on a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper. Place in the freezer until frozen solid (2-3 hours).

Place the rosewater and cardamon in a blender. Add the frozen mango and yoghurt then blend until smooth and combined.

Either serve immediately as a soft-scoop style frozen yoghurt, scattered with crumbled pistachio, or place in a freezer proof container and freeze. As this freezes into a very hard solid, make sure you take it out of the freezer 15 minutes before you want to eat it to allow it to thaw and soften slightly.


Mango frozen yoghurt with mint

“Mint Condition” mango frozen yoghurt with mint

By

Serves 4

Uses a baking sheet

PDF recipe card to download or print

Ingredients

80g yoghurt
240g mango flesh (approx 1 mango)
4g mint leaves, chopped

Directions

Chop the mango into 1cm lumps and spread out on a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper. Place in the freezer until frozen solid (2-3 hours).

Prepare your mint leaves, then place them in a blender and add the yoghurt and frozen mango. Blend until smooth and combined.

Either serve immediately as a soft-scoop style frozen yoghurt, or place in a freezer proof container and freeze. As this freezes into a very hard solid, make sure you take it out of the freezer 15 minutes before you want to eat it to allow it to thaw and soften slightly.


Mango frozen yoghurt with lime and coriander

“Mango Mexicana” mango frozen yoghurt with lime, coriander and cumin

By

Serves 4

Uses a baking sheet

PDF recipe card to download or print

Ingredients

80g yoghurt
240g mango flesh (approx 1 mango)
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon mild chilli powder
1 lime, zest only
1/2 lime, juice only
8g coriander, leaves and stalks
A pinch of salt

Directions

Chop the mango into 1cm lumps and spread out on a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper. Place in the freezer until frozen solid (2-3 hours).

Place the cumin, chilli, lime zest & juice, coriander and salt in a blender. Add the frozen mango and yoghurt then blend until smooth and combined.

Either serve immediately as a soft-scoop style frozen yoghurt, or place in a freezer proof container and freeze. As this freezes into a very hard solid, make sure you take it out of the freezer 15 minutes before you want to eat it to allow it to thaw and soften slightly.

Think before you shoot...
The most eagle eyed amongst you will have spotted the very obvious, deliberate (ahem, cough) mistake in the photos. You might have noticed that the Mango Mexicana yoghurt has been dressed with sugar, yes, that’s SUGAR coated fennel seeds. So, I’ll come clean and hold my hands up. When I shooting these originally, I shot that froyo with a coriander leaf, but it wasn’t a great shoot and I wasn’t happy with the images (see below). Then I remembered that there was a pack of sugar coated fennel seeds in the cupboard, those sweet palate cleanser treats that Indian restaurants often serve which are probably one of the only ONLY sugary snack left in the house and thought ‘oooh’, they’d be a perfect ‘sprinkle’. I used them, shot it, and for once, I didn’t eat everything because the froyo had been re-frozen between shoots. Only later did I realise the utter incongruity of SUGAR coated sweets in a post about NO ADDED SUGAR.

Just pass me the dunce cap, I’ll be sitting in the corner.

Mango frozen yoghurt

Mango frozen yoghurt three ways


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