How to Make Super Simple Mixed Berry-Basil Ice Pops

When you were a kid, and it was ice pop time, did you always go for the reddish-purplish berry-flavored one? Us too.

There's no reason not to do the same thing now. But forget those artificially dyed sugar bombs. We've created a simple berry pop that uses just a few really clean ingredients to let that summer fruit really shine. We added a little fresh basil for interest, but you can leave it out if you want the fruit and nothing but the fruit. Enjoy!

Mixed Berry-Basil Ice Pops

Yield: 2 ½ cups mix

1 cup blueberries, picked over for stems (about 6 oz.)

1 cup raspberries (about 6 oz.)

1 cup sliced strawberries (about 5.5 oz.)

¼ cup fresh basil, chopped

Juice of 1/2 lemon (about 1½ Tbsp.)

1/3 cup maple syrup

Pinch of salt

Combine all ingredients in a blender; blend until smooth. Pour into pop molds and freeze for at least 4 hours.

Note: You can strain the mixture through a fine-meshed sieve before freezing if the seeds bother you. The number of ice pops you'll get depends on the size of your pop molds. If you have 4-oz. molds, you'll get 5 pops. Smaller molds will yield more pops.

Beth Lipton