I got a tip on a new food trend a couple of weeks ago: topping your ice cream with olive oil. I was immediately intrigued and — I cannot lie — a little weirded out too. But not weirded out enough that I could resist giving it a try. I had to know if this sweet-savory treat was as good as I was told. And I thought that you should know too.
Top: Vanilla Ice Cream with Olive Oil | Honestly Yum
Related: 9 irresistible ice cream float recipes for summer.
Vanilla ice cream with olive oil: What you’ll need
Instead of dousing any old vanilla ice cream with any old olive oil, I followed Erica’s recipe for Vanilla Ice Cream with Olive Oil at Honestly Yum, using her tips for choosing the right vanilla and adding her other secret ingredient, which you can find by clicking through. And clicking through you should, because it made all the difference.
I also knew that I needed excellent olive oil for this to have any chance of being successful. I’d recently received a sample of organic, extra-virgin Palestinian olive oil from Harvest Peace, so I went with that. Not only is it top-notch olive oil, they also donate to replanting olive groves destroyed by the Palestinian conflict with every bottle sold. Very cool.
Vanilla ice cream with olive oil: The verdict
I was unsure how olive oil’s earthiness would mix with sweet ice cream, but it was really good. In fact, the olive oil enhanced the ice cream’s richness without competing with it. And my olive oil, at least, had bright fruity notes that also worked beautifully with vanilla.
I played the part of super-generous mom and gave bites to all my kids — my picky kids. They eyed me suspiciously, but each one asked for more…until I told them what the topping was.
Though I’m not sure olive oil will totally replace the bottle of chocolate sauce that I have in the fridge, it was surprisingly tasty. And since raw olive oil is a great way to get healthy fats and antioxidants into my diet, it may become my new go-to ice cream topping this summer.
Because a healthier ice cream topping means that I can eat more frozen goodness. That’s how it works, right?
