Paloma’s been taking an active interest in cooking and working on fun food projects with me in the kitchen. This newfound fascination may have something to do with the fact that she’s on summer break and cannot stand being at home with nothing to do for more than a few hours at a time. Instead, she’ll wake up with wild ideas about what she’d like to cook that day. I try to carve out time for those little projects whenever possible, since I obviously support this type of hobby :) In all seriousness though, cooking with kids creates such a great awareness about the importance and power of ingredients, and teaches them all about our connection to food and nourishment. So we’ll cook colorful things like berry-filled ravioli with a green, spirulina-dyed dough and our raw chocolate with a ton of different flavorings, and the kid’s always happy to partake in the fruits of her labor.
Paloma recently learned how to tie dye at a summer art camp, and got the idea to ‘make tie dye food.’ At first, I dismissed it as something too difficult and time-consuming, but then realized that it would be pretty easy to make tie dye popsicles with some fruit and all the different, colorful superfood powders I have lying around.
All you have to do is make a few coconut milk mixtures of various colors, layer them in a popsicle mold, and freeze. The whole layering process is not unlike a fun art project, and the result doesn’t just turn out pretty, but surprisingly delicious as well. Our layers, all coconut milk-based and sweetened with maple syrup, included mango-turmeric, mango-beet, plain beet, spirulina, moringa and white chia. The contrast between the fruity, creamy and icy layers, plus a bit of crunch from chia seeds and bee pollen is truly heavenly.
I know these aren’t your everyday popsicles, but they might be a fun thing to try with a couple of little ones. Adults love them, too :)
- 2 13.5 oz cans unsweetened full fat Thai coconut milk
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon chia seeds
- 1 small ripe mango - peeled, pitted and chopped
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 2 teaspoons beet powder or more to taste - divided
- 1 tablespoon moringa or matcha powder, or to taste
- 1 tablespoon spirulina powder to taste
- bee pollen (optional, not vegan)
- Soak wooden popsicle sticks in water for at least 1 hour.
- Blend the coconut milk with maple syrup in an upright blender. Pour ⅓ cup of the mixture into a small bowl, glass or jar. Add the chia seeds to the bowl, mix thoroughly and set aside to gel. This will be your white chia layer.
- Pour more of the coconut milk mixture into a different vessel until you have 1 cup of it left in the blender, set the vessel with the coconut milk aside for later. Add the mango to the blender and blend until smooth.
- Pour half of the mango mixture into a separate bowl, jar or glass. Add the turmeric to the remaining half of the mango mixture in the blender and blend to combine. Pour the turmeric mango mixture into another bowl, jar or glass. This will be your yellow turmeric-mango layer.
- Briefly rinse the blender and add the reserved half of the just mango mixture back into the blender and add 1 teaspoon of the beet powder. Blend until combined. Pour the beet-mango mixture back into the same bowl, glass or jar that it was in. This will be your red, mango-beet layer.
- Briefly rinse the blender and add a third of the reserved sweetened coconut milk into the blender, along with the rest of the beet powder. Blend to combine. Pour into a separate bowl, glass or jar. This will be your pink beet layer.
- Briefly rinse the blender once again and add another third of the reserved sweet coconut milk. Add the moringa/matcha powder and blend to combine. Pour into a separate bowl, glass or jar. This will be your green moringa layer.
- Add the remaining sweetened coconut milk to the blender (no need to rinse the blender here), add the spirulina and blend untill combined. Transfer to a bowl, glass or jar. This will be your aqua spirulina layer. You should end up with 6 different coconut mixtures to work with, providing that you use all the specified ingredients.
- Start pouring the mixtures into the popsicle molds in layers, alternating between colors. To make the layers bleed into each other a bit, insert a chopstick or skewer into the mold a couple of times, but make sure to not overdo it. Once filled, sprinkle the bottoms of the pops with bee pollen, if using. Cover the molds and place in the freezer for about 1 hour. Install the soaked wooden sticks, place the mold back into the freezer and let freeze completely before unmolding, preferably overnight. Enjoy right away or keep frozen.
Sarah says
I love these! Could I use light coconut milk instead of full fat or any ideas for a lower fat version? Thanks!
Anya says
Thank you Sarah :) You could use light coconut milk, but the pops will be more on the icy side rather than creamy.
Valentina | The Blue Bride says
They look beautiful! Paloma is such a great kid <3
Anya says
Thank you Valentina <3
Rebecca says
Wow these are amazing so creative like a work of art.
Anya says
Thank you!
thefolia says
See what a little down time can do with a child’s imagination. I’m going to try these with my little bears…how exciting that your little one is contributing to the creativity of your blog. Happy feasting!
Anya says
Thank you :)
Bharath says
Anya, you have very good creativity! This Die Pop looks amazing. Kids will love it.
University Magazine says
superfood tie dye pops looks really delicious we definitely make this for our office staffs on Monday thank you for sharing this
Careers Trends says
superfood tie dye pops look really delicious, I will definitely use this to my list for next that I am in the kitchen
Edmonton Gazette says
Colorful and cold and Declious that dream treat of everyone, I will definitely make this when I am off next weekends
Laura says
Make sure kids aren’t wearing clothes you like while making/eating these. Turmeric and beet are really bad for staining.