Citrus Basil Sorbet

It is mid-march now and still blazingly hot and humid, and our garden is still growing excessive amounts of basil. It seems as if as soon as one plant dies, two more sprout up to take its place. This is great, actually, because we have a renewable and constant source of basil leaves. Someone told me that after a year or so of this her basil stopped thriving because the soil grew too weak - if this happens, we can simply rotate the plants to a fresh patch of soil, I think…

Anyway, after making pestos, salads, and cookies with the basil, I decided to try something new: lemon basil sorbet. It was quite easy and turned out delicious. The recipe called for 2 cups of fresh lemon juice to 1 3/4 cups of water, but I ran out of lemons and so did 1 cup lemon juice and 1 cup orange juice. It is still quite tart, so I am glad I added orange juice as perhaps the full 2 cups of sour lemon juice might have been too tart. Here are some photos of the ingredients and process:

All of my ingredients - I added chopped lemon peel and thin sliced basil for some texture.

Making the syrup before freezing

The final result - refreshing.