There's nothing quite as refreshing as a sugar free sorbet! This lemon sorbet is perfectly sweet, zingy and wonderfully refreshing, but without all the sugar of a regular sorbet. A great Keto dessert for a hot day.
I do love a portion of creamy sugar free ice cream, be it fruity or chocolatey. But sometimes only a sorbet will hit the spot.
Easy homemade fruit sorbet
A super easy way to make homemade sorbet recipes is to simply blitz frozen fruit in a food processor until smooth. I make sugar free raspberry sorbet this way - it only needs a little sweetener.
If you're watching your sugar and carb intake, you have to be mindful though and keep your portion size small. Especially tropical fruits such as mangoes and pineapple are high in natural sugars and generally avoided by people on low carb or Keto diets. For a pure-fruit sorbet, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries or watermelon are better choices. Here's a handy infographic about carbs in fruit.
My all time favourite sorbet flavour has got to be LEMON. I love the zingy, fresh taste and I LOOOOVE the idea that I'm getting a super-sized dose of vitamin C while eating dessert!
How many carbs in keto sorbet
A ½ cup serving of this keto lemon sorbet contains just 4g net carbs. This is lower than any other natural fruit sorbet.
Which sweetener to use
Obviously, there's no way to make a low carb sugar free lemon sorbet recipe without additional sweetener. This summer treat uses Swerve to sweeten instead of sugar so it won’t spike your blood sugar in the same way that the refined stuff will. But feel free to use erythritol, powdered monk fruit sweetener or allulose if you prefer.
Allulose is tricky to find in the UK and Europe at the moment (you can still get it via iherb.com), but it is widely available in the US. The benefit of allulose is that it melts completely just like sugar.
How to make sugar free sorbet
1.) Add the water, keto-friendly sweetener and lemon peel to a pan. Heat on a low heat until the sweetener dissolves and thickens slightly to a syrup, about 7 minutes. Leave to cool. Discard the lemon peel.
TIP: When removing the peel from the lemon ensure you don’t get any white pith. This can make the syrup bitter.
2.) Juice the lemons. Add the lemon juice to the cooled syrup and stir.
3.) Pour the lemon mix into a non-stick loaf tin (or ice cube trays), cover with cling film and freeze for 3 hours or until solid. I left mine over night.
4.) When frozen, run the sides of the loaf tin under hot water to loosen the frozen sorbet. Tip onto a chopping board and chop into chunks with a knife. If you’ve left it overnight you’ll need to give it a good smash.
5.) Place the chunks in a high speed food processor and blitz until smooth. The smaller you have cut the cubes the easier it is. You may need to scrape and blitz several times until it all combines, depending on how long you left it in the freezer.
6.) Once combined, pour the sorbet back into your loaf tin and freeze for about 1.5 - 2 hours until just scoop-able. Serve scoops of sorbet decorated with a few curls of lemon zest.
Tips and recipe variations
Make sure you choose a white low-carb sweetener or else you may end up with more of a murky colour!
If you leave your sugar free sorbet to set too much by mistake, simply repeat the step of chopping into chunks and blitzing. You can repeat this step if you don’t eat all your sorbet in one go and leave in the freezer for several weeks.
You can also make keto sorbet in an ice cream maker. Simply prepare the syrup and chill it in the freezer for about 30 minutes. Then pour the mix into an ice cream maker and churn as per manufacturers instructions. When the sorbet is nice and slushy, transfer it to a non stick loaf pan, cover with cling film and freeze for about 2 hours until scoop-able.
Readers who made this healthy lemon sorbet also made:
- Keto Strawberry Ice Cream
- Sugar Free Vanilla Ice Cream
- Sugar Free Strawberry Cheesecake Popsicles
- Frozen Blueberry Bites
Tried this recipe? Give it a star rating below! View all my keto dessert recipes.
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Sugar Free Lemon Sorbet
Note: The servings slider only changes the first amount in each line and not any subsequent amounts. Please make your own calculations where necessary. ***As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cup / 300 ml water
- ¾ cup / 150g granulated sweetener (So Nourished)
- 1 strip of lemon peel
- Juice of 7 - 8 lemons about 300ml
- Zest of 1 lemon to decorate 1 tbsp
Instructions
- Add the water, keto-friendly sweetener and lemon peel to a pan. When removing the peel from the lemon ensure you don’t get any white pith or this can make the syrup bitter. Heat on a low heat until the sweetener dissolves and thickens slightly to a syrup, about 7 minutes. Leave to cool. Discard the lemon peel.
- Juice the lemons. Add the lemon juice to the cooled syrup and stir.
- Pour the lemon mix into ice cube trays or a non-stick loaf tin, cover with cling film and freeze for 3 hours or until solid. Option to leave overnight. (I did.)
- When frozen, release the ice cubes or run the sides of the loaf tin under hot water to loosen the frozen sorbet. Tip onto a chopping board and chop into chunks. If you’ve left it overnight you’ll need to give it a good smash.
- Place the chunks in a high speed food processor and blitz until smooth. The smaller you cut the cubes the easier it is. You may need to scrape and blitz several times until it all combines, depending on how long you left it in the freezer.
- Once combined, pour the sorbet back into your loaf tin and freeze for about 1.5 - 2 hours until just scoop-able. If you leave it to set to much by mistake, simply repeat the step of chopping into chunks and blitzing. You can repeat this step if you don’t eat all your sorbet in one go and leave in the freezer for several weeks.
- Serve scoops of sorbet decorated with a few curls of lemon zest.
- Option to make the sorbet in an ice cream maker. To do this, simply make the syrup as per the instructions above. Chill in the freezer for about 30 minutes. Pour into an ice cream maker and churn as per manufacturers instructions. When nice and slushy transfer to a non stick loaf pan, cover with cling film and freeze for about 2 hrs until scoop-able.
Notes
Nutrition
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Cassie says
I used 300ml of lemon juice and followed the recipe but got a watery sour slushy
Help!!
Katrin Nürnberger says
Hi Cassie, you can add more sweetener if you prefer a sweeter sorbet. If it's too slushy, just put it back in the freezer for a bit so it can harden 🙂
ivone says
may I know if we use the erythritol instead ? how much should I use?
Katrin Nürnberger says
I would use the same amount.
Cheryl Cavey says
Does the sweetener have to be "keto friendly" ? I love sorbet but it's hard to find it sugar free, or in the flavor you love best. TIA
Cheryl
Katrin Nürnberger says
No, not at all. Anything that provides sweetness will work 🙂
Sarah l says
Can you use pure lemon or lime juice instead ?
Katrin Nürnberger says
Yes, that should work.
Bev B says
This sorbet sounds lovely! I was wondering if I could substitute black raspberries or other fruit in this recipe to make more variety for my family? Do you think other than carbs would I need to do anything different?
Thank you so much for all your recipes, they are always delicious!
Katrin Nürnberger says
No, I think that's a wonderful idea. I bet it would taste amazing with blackberries!
Bev B says
I will certainly let you know. Thank you very much for your quick response.
fady abboud says
It just perfect and tastes the best.
Also it more than 5 stars
Katrin says
Haha, sounds like this one is a keeper for you 😉
Kim says
Try using 1 cup water and 1/4 cup food grade rose water when making your syrup. You can use less rose water, just be sure to adjust your proportions.
Katrin says
Love that idea! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Ruth says
Hi Katrin, what a beautiful photo! I love the cups.
I tried your recipe out - so easy to prepare, tastes delicious and refreshing!
Thanks for the idea of only repeating the steps to get the sorbet nice and slushy again after storing it in the freezer.
Katrin says
Glad you liked the sorbet Ruth!