Roasted Strawberry Yogurt Popsicles

These Roasted Strawberry Yogurt Popsicles take advantage of the season's best juicy berries, roasted to bring out the flavours and juices, then gently folded into honey-sweetened yogurt and a squeeze of lime. If you love fresh fruit popsicles, you've gotta try these! These strawberry popsicles are easy, delicious, and healthy!  

Strawberry season is the best season, ammiright?! There are so many delicious things you can do with them, but it hardly gets any better than eating a sun-warmed strawberry right from the basket.

Strawberries have such a short shelf life, though, so if you've brought one pint too many home from the store or you've been on a u-pick bender, you've got a few options. You can freeze them (related: how to freeze strawberries) and then use them to make a delicious strawberry smoothie.

You can make strawberry jam (I love the fresh flavour of strawberry freezer jam), or you can add fresh sliced strawberries to your overnight oats. I also love strawberries (fresh or frozen) in my fruit on the bottom yogurt cups.

But today, my friends, we're going to make strawberry popsicles.

Why? because fresh fruit popsicles are freaking delicious, and they're a healthier option than those straight-up sugar water popsicles from the store. Yogurt popsicles are creamy and delicious, and I can more or less trick my toddler into thinking he's getting an ice cream treat. Put them together and you've got Strawberry Yogurt Popsicles that are mind-blowingly good, easy to make, and pretty darn healthy.

What's in these Strawberry Popsicles!

Glad you asked, my friends! Just tick off what you need in the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post.

• Strawberries! --> Over a pound of fresh, juicy strawberries are going into these creamy yogurt popsicles.
• Yoghurt --> We're using full-fat Greek-style yogurt today
• Sugar --> Just a smidge. We'll discuss this below.
• Lime juice --> For tang and balance, yo!
• Salt --> I'm being fancy and using pink Himalayan salt today, but a pinch of good old table salt is perfectly fine too.
• Honey --> For juuuuuust a touch of sweetness with the yogurt.

How do you make strawberry yogurt popsicles?

Friends, we're going to start by roasting the strawberries.

Why? Because roasting them enhances the sweetness, plus brings out a flood of juices that you can swirl and whirl into the yoghurt. It's better to have those juices out of the strawberries than in, so you get extra sweetness into the yoghurt and avoid hard icy lumps when you come across a strawberry.

In fact, roasted is the only way I like to have strawberries mixed into baked goods for that same reason. Unlocking the juices first almost always yields a better result. I think you'll find the extra step or roasting the berries is well worth the effort.

The strawberries get sprinkled with just a tiny bit of sugar. We're talking one little teaspoon of sugar and over a pound of berries, so I'm pretty sure you can deal. Into the oven they go (I strongly recommend a parchment lined baking sheet for this job) until the berries have wilted into a puddle of their own juices.

Once the strawberries and roasted and cooled, they're soft enough to be gently folded into the yoghurt. The first few times I made these I pulsed the mixture in a blender to smooth them out, because I was worried my son would come across a whole strawberry and not want to eat it.

When I gave him one from this batch, however, he was completely undisturbed by the whole berries, so now I skip that unnecessary step. I think they look nicer with the berries intact and the pink juices swirled through anyways. Plus, one less dish to wash is always a win in my books!

Then we've got a bit of freshly squeezed lime juice, because strawberries and lime are a match made in heaven, and the lime juice cuts through the richness of the yoghurt and the sweetness of the strawberries in just the right way. A touch of honey is used to sweeten the yoghurt, and a pinch of sea salt takes the whole thing home.

Carefully pour your yogurt popsicle mixture into popsicle moulds (I have these ones and they're great) and freeze until solid.

What kind of yogurt is best for making popsicles?

This is no place for low-fat yoghurt, my friends. Low-fat yoghurt will yield an icy and (in my opinion) sad popsicle, and nobody wants a sad popsicle. Consider that it's replacing cream or ice cream, so you really want to go for full fat at the very least.

For these Roasted Strawberry Yogurt Pops I splurged on a Turkish-style yoghurt that's got 10% milk fat thanks to added cream, so keep that in mind.

Can I use frozen strawberries?

You can. I recommend skipping the roasting step in that case, and simply stirring thawed strawberries and their juices into the yogurt mixture.

Can I use another kind of fruit?

Totes. You do you. For roasting I'd recommend blueberries, blackberries, or ripe, juicy peaches. If you're using frozen fruit pretty much anything will do.

Tips for Making the best Strawberry Popsicles:

• Start with big, ripe, juicy strawberries. Cut them into smaller pieces so the big pieces match the smaller, whole strawberries.
• Roast the strawberries on a sheet of parchment paper so that you can lift the whole thing up and pour all of the juices into the yoghurt. Plus, clean up is easier this way.
• Use a good quality full-fat yoghurt in this recipe. The one I used is 10%... don't fear the fat!
• The number of popsicles this recipe yields will depend on the size of your popsicle molds. Mine made eight popsicles as is shown here.
• Popsicles are best left to freeze overnight, or for at least four hours if you can't wait that long.

Hey Nutrition Lady, what's the deal with strawberries?

You guys, in addition to tasting incredible, strawberries are jam packed full of goodness! Along with vitamin C, strawberries are an excellent source of antioxidant and anti inflammatory nutrients including flavonoids, phenolic acids, lignans, and tannins.

Strawberries are an excellent source of manganese—a mineral which plays a key antioxidant role. And while strawberries are not a high-fat food, they do contain seeds, which are a good source of the omega-3 fatty acid alpha-linolenic acid (ALA).

Strawberries are also a great source of lycopene (good for your prostates, fellas). They are also a very good source of folate, iodine, and dietary fiber.

Other tasty desserts you might enjoy:

Roasted Banana Ice Cream
Chocolate Black Bean Fudge Pops
Vegan Chocolate Mousse
Chai-Spiced Sweet Potato Pudding

This recipe was originally published June 19, 2018. It was last updated May 23, 2019.

 

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