Strawberry, Rhubarb & Yogurt Popsicles
The Payaso and I are addicted to fruit filled popsicles lately, but dang, those things can be so expensive (especially the organic varieties)! I started thinking about how I could make homemade popsicles for a fraction of the cost while knowing where the ingredients come from. Since I had some left over rhubarb from our CSA box, I decided to make some strawberry rhubarb yogurt popsicles. Creamy, sweet and a little tart explosion of flavor right here, y’all. The hardest part of making these frozen gems is waiting the 6-8 hours for them to completely freeze (but trust me, you need to wait otherwise you’ll have a giant mess, and not just in your kitchen; I talk from experience here people…).
Strawberry, Rhubarb & Yogurt Popsicles
Ingredients:
- 1 lb. strawberries, hulled and sliced
- 3⁄4 cup fresh orange juice (about 2-3 oranges)
- 1⁄4 salt
- 3 medium sized stalks rhubarb, trimmed and minced
- 1⁄2 cup plain Greek yogurt (non-fat, 2% or full fat will work)
- 1⁄2 cup honey (or more if you want sweeter popsicles)
Directions:
- Bring strawberries, juice, salt, and rhubarb to a simmer in a saucepan; cook until fruit begins to break down about 3–4 minutes.
- Transfer remaining fruit mixture to a blender; add yogurt and honey and purée until smooth. Divide mixture between individual ice-pop molds and insert a popsicle stick into each mold; freeze until pops are solid.
- To release ice pops from molds, briefly run the bottom of the molds under warm water.
If you have more yogurt mixture than can fit in your individual popsicle molds, place in a freezer safe plastic bowl, cover and freeze or skip the molds altogether. It is just as delicious and will scoop like frozen yogurt. You could even reserve about a 1/4 or 1/2 cup of the fruit before blending to add bites of fruit into the popsicles. Okay, here’s the deal, you really have to be patient when it comes to freezing these popsicles. We first tried these after they had been in the freezer for about 4 hours, and they didn’t come out of the molds very well. True to form, Lola, our chiweenie, was in the kitchen when the Battle of the Popsicle was underway. There were lots of grunting, cussing and shaking as I tried to pry these semi-frozen popsicles out of their molds. In the end, only about half the popsicle would be convinced to surrender, while the other half would end up on the floor where it was quickly devoured by Lola.
Me: “Lola, NOOOOO, don’t eat that…”
Payaso: “It’ll be okay, it’s just fruit and some yogurt; it won’t hurt her. She deserves a little treat (said in a baby-like voice)”
Me: “Well, a treat she might get; rhubarb can be a little toxic especially for a nine pound stuffed sausage with legs.”
Payaso: “Just the leaves, silly.”
Me: “The stems have a slight amount, too. I’m more worried that she’s going to have diarrhea.”
Payaso: “It won’t give her diarrhea; she didn’t eat that much.”
About 15 minutes goes by… I look at Lola and interpret her facial expression to say”oh god, what the hell did I eat!?” as she stares at me from her doggy bed.
Me: “Lola, do you want to go potty? Do you need to make a grumpy?”
Lola: “Grumpy is putting it mildly, fool!” ~ my best chiweenie interpretation….
Payaso: “Pienso que necessita el bano!” (‘I think she needs to poop’ in Spanish) Moo, our Chihuahua, starts barking at the Payaso’s excitement, which makes Lola start barking, too.
Me: Calm down, Moo! We don’t need Lola barking and getting mierda (Spanish for, well, you can guess what it means…) all over the place…” Both dogs take a quick siesta in the backyard.
Payaso: “Gosh, I wonder if rhubarb does that to humans?; we don’t eat it in Mexico.”
Me: “Well, maybe you need to reconsider that third popsicle until you see what rhubarb does to your system.”
Payaso: “It’ll be okay” as he eats his third rhubarb popsicle in less than 10 minutes.
About an hour goes by…
Payaso: “Maybe I shouldn’t have eaten three of those popsicles; my stomach really hurts…”
Me: “I told you so…[insert loving eye-roll here]”
You’ll be glad to know that Lola is just fine, and I’m sure she’d eat it again if she was given the chance. Thankfully, the Payaso also survived. I’m not sure that the Payaso will object to these popsicles when I make them again in the future because they really were very delicious, creamy and refreshing. As I mentioned earlier, the real challenge is to make sure the popsicles freeze completely, which should take about 6-8 hours. We had the last two popsicles last night, and with a quick rinse of warm water, they slid out of the molds perfectly. HaHa, victory is mine!