Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream with Hidden Peas

My older girls love ice cream. With it being so hot outside this summer, ice cream makes a perfect treat! What my kids don’t typically love is green peas. However, after years of eschewing them, my oldest daughter decided a few months ago that she loves green peas. One day, as she was waxing poetic about the delicious flavor of peas, she asked if we could make pea ice cream.

I’m not a huge fan of green peas, so I thought, why would we do that?  However, as I thought a bit about her request, I realized that we might be able to pull it off. Believe it or not (and I know a lot of you are not believing), making Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream with Hidden Peas worked exceptionally well.

Ingredients

• 1 cup 2% milk
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 2 teaspoons peppermint extract
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¾ cup frozen chocolate chips
• ¾ cup frozen green peas

Useful tools

Instructions

In a medium bowl, whisk together the milk and sugar until the sugar dissolves. Stir in the cream, peppermint extract, and vanilla extract. Pour into the ice cream maker and start churning.

While the cream mixture churns, place the frozen chocolate chips and frozen peas into a food processor. Pulse until the chocolate chips and peas are finely chopped. Add the chocolate chips and peas to the cream mixture. Continue churning until the ice cream begins to expand and rise (it will resemble soft-serve ice cream). Transfer to an airtight container and freeze 2-3 hours before serving. Yield: 8 servings.

Notes

Yes, there are peas in this ice cream, but you can’t taste them! I was doubtful this would be the case, but there was no hint of pea in the flavor—it tasted just like typical mint chocolate chip ice cream. My kids loved it! In fact, they both wanted seconds.

One reason this worked so well is because peas are green. Ice cream producers often add green food coloring to mint-flavored ice cream to make it green. This is for aesthetic purposes—it doesn’t change the flavor of the ice cream, but it fits our mental picture of what mint is supposed to look like. With this ice cream, the peas help turn the ice cream green! If you’d like a bright green ice cream, you can add a couple drops of green food coloring, but you can skip this if you are satisfied with the muted green color created by the peas.

When you chop the chocolate chips and peas in the food processor, be sure both are frozen. This is because you want them to be finely chopped, not pureed. If they are too soft, they may come out resembling a liquid instead of the tiny pieces that you want.

I never thought I’d eat peas in ice cream, but I’m so glad we tried this Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream with Hidden Peas. It is delicious and it is an incredibly easy way to get a little extra vegetable in my kids! I will make this one again soon and I’m already thinking of other veggies to integrate into ice cream.

Have you been snacking on ice cream this summer? If so, what flavor has your family enjoyed?

Shared at the following:

Encouraging Hearts and Home, Busy Monday, and Weekend Potluck.