Mango & Coconut ice cream
- May 17
- 3 min read
No ice cream machine. No weird additives. Just frozen mango, a blender, and five minutes of your time.
The best sorbet you'll ever eat isn't from a tub in a freezer aisle. It's made with five ingredients, takes five minutes of actual effort, and tastes so purely of mango that you'll wonder what exactly was in every other sorbet you've had before.
The trick — and it's barely a trick — is freezing the mango flat. Not piled into a bag, not clumped together, but spread in a single layer so every piece freezes individually. This is what gives the blender something to work with and gives you that clean, scoopable texture without any icy chunks or grainy bits.
Coconut milk keeps things smooth and adds the faintest tropical richness. Lime juice wakes it all up. A small pinch of salt, which sounds counterintuitive in something sweet, does more for the flavour than almost anything else — it makes the mango taste more like itself, making it the perfect mango coconut ice cream.
How to make our mango & coconut Ice Cream
Ingredients
300 g Mango, cubed and fully frozen
25–40 g Sugar or honey
10–15 g Fresh lime juice
1–2 tbsp Coconut milk or water
A Pinch of salt
On the sugar: taste your mango first. A very ripe, sweet mango needs less — 25 g is usually enough. An underripe or tart mango needs closer to 40 g. The sorbet should taste slightly sweeter than you'd want, since freezing dulls sweetness.
This is a blender recipe, but a few small details make the difference between a great sorbet and a frozen smoothie.
Spread mango cubes in a single layer on a tray lined with baking paper. Freeze for at least 3–4 hours, or overnight. This step cannot be rushed — clumped mango blends unevenly and gives you an icy, dense result rather than a smooth one.
Drop the frozen mango in. Add sugar or honey, lime juice, coconut milk or water, and the pinch of salt. Start with 1 tablespoon of liquid — you can always add more, but you can't take it back.
Blend on high, stopping to scrape down the sides as needed. The mixture will look crumbly at first — that's normal. Keep going. Within a minute or two it turns silky and smooth, like soft-serve. If it's struggling, add the second tablespoon of liquid.
Before you do anything else, taste it. More lime if you want brightness, more sugar if you want sweetness, more salt if something feels flat. This is the moment to make it yours.
Eat it immediately as soft-serve style sorbet, or transfer to a freezer-safe container and freeze for 1–2 hours for a firmer, scoopable texture. Cover the surface directly with clingfilm to prevent ice crystals forming.
"A pinch of salt makes the mango taste more like itself — the quietest ingredient doing the loudest work."
Notes on the Recipe
A high-speed blender (Vitamix, Ninja, or similar) makes this effortless. A regular blender will work but may need more liquid and longer blending time.
Alphonso mangoes make the most intensely flavoured sorbet.
Honey adds a subtle floral note that works beautifully here. Add it at the lower end and taste before adding more.
Coconut milk gives a richer, creamier result. Water keeps it lighter and more purely fruity — both are correct, depending on what you want.
To use as a float (see our elderflower tonic float), scoop it straight from the blender while still soft.
Stores well in the freezer for up to 2 weeks. Let it sit at room temperature for 5 minutes before scooping.
There's something satisfying about making something this good from so little. No preservatives, no stabilisers, no mystery ingredients — just fruit, a little sweetness, and the knowledge that you made it yourself.
Need a sorbet?
We've got you covered. Our sorbets are made with exactly this in mind — bold fruit flavours, clean ingredients, and just the right texture to scoop straight into your favourite drink or bowl.
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