Cucumber, Mint and Lime Ice Blocks: The Freezer Treat Every Grandparent Needs

If the grandkids are visiting this summer, here’s a simple way to win them over: a stash of homemade ice blocks in the freezer. These cucumber, mint and lime ice blocks are cool, refreshing and a lot less sugary than the bright-coloured supermarket versions. They’re also gluten-free and vegan, so they suit almost any visiting child, and they’re perfect for hot afternoons by the pool or a reward after a day out.

The recipe comes from New Zealand cook Emma Galloway, a trained chef and the writer and photographer behind the much-loved food blog My Darling Lemon Thyme. Her fourth cookbook, Thyme to Cook, is part cookbook and part kitchen-garden guide, with growing guides for more than 25 vegetables alongside simple vegetarian, gluten-free recipes for cooking what you harvest. Emma says her own kids crave cucumbers so much they’ll happily eat a whole one like an apple, so her family tries to get through their yearly quota in summer, when cucumbers are in season, plentiful and cheap.

Cucumber, mint + lime ice blocks, by Emma Galloway

The one thing my kids have always craved in the middle of winter and/or when sick with a cold, is cucumbers.

They love them so much and will happily munch on a whole one like one would eat an apple. Sadly for them I don’t often buy cucumbers over winter,
unless we’re really desperate (or I’m trying to cheer up a sick kid).

Instead we go crazy and try and get most of our yearly quota in over summer, when they’re in season and abundant (and cheap in the store, if you don’t grow your own).

Makes 10–12
Gluten-free | Vegan

Ingredients

4–5 limes
100g (half a cup) golden caster sugar
handful of mint leaves
1 telegraph (continental)
cucumber, roughly chopped

Method

Finely grate the zest from the limes and place into a saucepan with 500ml (2 cups) water, the sugar and mint. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside until cold. Strain and discard the solids.

Juice the limes – you’ll need 125ml (half a cup) lime juice. Pour into a blender, add the cucumber and lime-mint syrup. Blend on high until smooth. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve and pour into ice-block moulds.

Freeze for 2 hours until partially frozen, then add wooden ice-block sticks. Freeze for a further 4 hours or overnight, until firm.

Run the moulds briefly under warm water to help release the ice blocks.