Rose-Hibiscus-Cardamom Frozen Yogurt (lactose friendly)

I feel like I’m developing a collection of recipes that belong in the category, “Every Yummy Drink Should Also Be Ice Cream.” So far the category includes coffee, chai, matcha, golden milk, Dr. Pepper, pumpkin spice latte, and Guinness. And today we add Rose-Hibiscus-Cardamom Frozen Yogurt, based on a flavor of lassi I drank at a wonderful Indian restaurant. If you like floral flavors, this is for you!

Inspiration

Pondicheri is one of my favorite restaurants in Houston. Described as “Indian street food,” it serves all the Indian flavors I love in dishes that are fresh, often vegetarian (but not always), often healthy, and always exciting. I even bought the cookbook from chef/owner Anita Jaisinghani.

Pondicheri serves a drink called “rose lassi” with yogurt, rose, hibiscus, cardamom, and pink peppercorn. I highly recommend it! A lassi is a traditional Indian drink based on yogurt, with cumin or cardamom often added. I typically see mango-flavored versions in restaurants.

This flavor combination obviously needed to become Rose-Hibiscus-Cardamom Frozen Yogurt.

But what does it taste like?

Most of us probably haven’t encountered anything flavored with yogurt, rose water, hibiscus, cardamom, and pink peppercorns. I certainly hadn’t. So what’s it like? The yogurt provides some tartness, contrasting with the richness of the coconut milk and sweetness of the frozen yogurt. Rose dominates the flavor and contributes strong floral notes. Hibiscus (also a flower) is both fruity and floral. Pink peppercorns are more about brightness, peppery sweetness, and — you guessed it — floral notes than about heat. (Don’t confuse them with Szechuan peppercorns — those are different!) Cardamom rounds out the group with its complex piney/floral/citrus profile. The theme here is FLORAL. If you don’t like floral flavors, you should probably pass on this one. I LOVE floral flavors, so I get excited about this combination. These distinctive flavors blend very well, so the overall impression is unusual and complex, yet light and delicate. No element overpowers any other.

Sourcing rose water and hibiscus

While not common in recipes, I have found rose water in most large grocery stores. It will likely be in the Middle Eastern food section. If you have trouble locating it, Amazon can help you out (at a higher price) [affiliate link].

My grocery store sells dried hibiscus flowers, but if yours doesn’t, just look for hibiscus tea. You’ll probably have a few options, so choose one that’s mostly hibiscus flowers. Tazo’s Passion Tea works well, even though it contains a few additional ingredients.

A note on buying cardamom

Cardamom might be my favorite spice. I’ve shared before that I drink a matcha smoothie for breakfast nearly every morning of my life, and I usually put cardamom in it. I’ve become a Cardamom Snob. Let me share a few tips to help you buy possibly the most delicious spice in the world, and never end up with a jar of sawdust (as I have). In general:

1. 1. It’s expensive
2. 2. It’s worth it
3. 3. Don’t buy the cheap stuff

Specifically, my best recommendation is to order your cardamom from Penzey’s. Their spice company is all-around wonderful, but their cardamom is particularly fragrant, pungent, and amazing. But what if you just want to pick up a jar at the grocery store? Here’s a tip: check the color.

You can see the difference right away between these 2 bottles. Notice how the bottle on the left is a pale brownish color, but the one on the right is a deeper shade of grey? The grey is what you want. (I wouldn’t normally call out any brand to criticize, and I’ve purchased plenty of McCormick spices that I liked, but please don’t buy their cardamom!)

If you are also a Cardamom Snob, or just a Cardamom Fan, you might like Salted Date, Tahini, and Cardamom Ice Cream (vegan).

I’m mostly lactose intolerant, which is a large part of the reason I started making ice cream at home. However, I can eat yogurt just fine. The active cultures in the yogurt process the lactose, so my tummy is happy! Yay! But I learned the hard way that frozen yogurt is a bad thing. Why? Well, most commercially made frozen yogurts don’t contain active cultures for a couple of possible reasons: 1) the base is cooked, killing the active cultures, or 2) the base is made mostly from milk with very little yogurt.

Although this recipe contains dairy, it’s designed to be friendly for lactose-intolerant folks like myself. In addition to the yogurt, we have dairy in the form of whey protein. However, whey protein already has the lactose removed (lactose is a form of sugar), so it should be safe.

I use protein powder (whey in this case) to increase the protein and reduce the sugar in many of my recipes, without sacrificing texture. For more details on how that works, click here. See the notes section below for advice on substituting other protein powders.

The explanation was long, but the recipe is short. After you’ve ground your dried hibiscus flowers and pink peppercorns, you just blend all the ingredients together, chill, and churn.