Mixed Berry Coconut Yogurt Popsicles (Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free)

Refreshing, naturally sweet mixed berry coconut yogurt popsicles that are made with a medley of fresh berries, raw honey, and coconut yogurt. Perfect for celebrating the days of summer! Naturally gluten-free and dairy-free.

The days are long, the trees are mostly green as they sway in the warm summer breeze, and temperatures are still warm and balmy. If you don’t pay very much attention, you’d think that summer is just beginning. Yet if you peer closely enough, you’ll notice the smallest details that hint towards the inevitable change in seasons. Undeniably, summer is about to take its final curtsey.

Each day the golden sun sets a tiny bit earlier; the evenings have gotten cool enough to warrant throwing on a denim jacket, or maybe just a light shawl; and our walks on the pavements are now accompanied with the slightest scattering of dried brown leaves.

Summer is almost coming to an end. It feels so fleeting – it leaving as abruptly as it arrived. The seemingly brief span of these glorious months make them so much more precious and treasured. Looking back on the past three months since we moved here to Washington, D.C., a wave of nostalgia washes over me, but at the same time, I feel so very much alive.

I think I’ve never enjoyed summer as much as I do now. Our Adams Morgan neighborhood makes us feel so much at home, with 18th Street bars on one side, Columbia Road North cafes and restaurants on the other, and Rock Creek park for a generous portion of nature.

Ours is a lovely part of Washington D.C., and while it may be slightly uptown, it has a more vibrant, hipster vibe that contrasts starkly with the stuffier, more political atmosphere of downtown D.C. where we used to live three years ago, and I personally prefer our current part of town.

When we moved to the US capital earlier this June, we’d brought over the bikes we’d gotten on Craigslist while living in New York, and we’ve been using our trusty bikes to explore the city and its neighboring states Virginia and Maryland.

There’s something about heading around the city on our bikes that’s incredibly alluring – not only is it great exercise and a delightful way to discover nooks and crannies we may not otherwise explore, it’s also an amazing way to enjoy the outdoors and get some fresh air and vitamin D. Plus, Juan and I get to spend plenty of time together.

Being able to enjoy summer in a city that’s so bike-friendly and where nature trails and national parks are within an hour’s ride is definitely one of the largest perks.

As I’ve mentioned before in a previous post, I wasn’t particularly keen to relocate from NYC to D.C., but a change in mindset and a desire to view the capital city in a different light seems to have been the perfect antidote.

I’ve been heading out to museums (all the Smithsonian museums and galleries are free admission, and my favorite one so far is the American history museum). I never used to enjoy going to museums (in fact, just the mere thought of doing so used to bore me), but being here in D.C. has changed that view.

I’ve also began reading plenty of books that I’ve borrowed from the Little Free Library near our apartment as well as e-books from the public library, and every so often I fill my Swell bottle with ice-cold water, head out with my picnic blanket, and find some quiet patch of grass on the national mall where I can lie down to read.

Having our Peruvian friends Catherine and Luis Francisco here in D.C. also makes the city feel much more like home.

We’ve been spending a good amount of time with both of them, testing out restaurants, watching movies, enjoying jazz in the park, and even heading to the beach at Ocean City, Maryland. They are friends that we got to know from our time back in New York, and I’m so glad to have them here with us on this adventure.

We still have a couple more weeks before fall is officially here (although the stores have already started displaying scarves and jackets and sweaters, and pumpkin spice is about to pop up everywhere).

And so while I’ve already begun planning my fall capsule wardrobe (something I’m doing for the first time thanks to Signe’s life-changing advice on her UseLess blog. If you want to know what on earth a capsule wardrobe is, check out this explanatory post by Signe), I’m still holding onto my shorts and skirts and denim overalls.

I want to hang onto summer just that little bit longer, and celebrate this season, because it is such a beautiful time to be in. And what better way to pay tribute to summer than enjoying these mixed berry coconut yogurt popsicles?

Popsicles have been on my list of to-make things for the longest time (around at least 3 or 4 years!) and it was only this summer that I decided to buy a proper popsicle mold and make some well-deserved popsicles. And this mold that I got is the perfect way to make popsicles. They have a beautiful shape, and stand up right, so the popsicles don’t topple, and most importantly the popsicles come out easily.

The perfect mixed berry popsicles for summer.

This recipe for dairy-free and gluten-free mixed berry coconut yogurt popsicles is incredibly easy to make – all you need is 10 minutes of preparation time and a high-speed blender, together with your popsicle mold, and you’re good to go.

Made with summer’s fresh berries (or frozen berries if you wish to make this all year-round), coconut yogurt, and raw honey (or maple syrup to make it vegan) for natural sweetness, these popsicles are refreshing and addictive and the perfect ode to summer.

How to make these delicious refreshing mixed berry popsicles

Start off by blending the berries, coconut yogurt, and honey together in your electric blender (this is the blender I use) until you get a thick and homogeneous mixture. Next, pour the mixture into the popsicle molds, leaving an inch of space as the mixture will expand as it freezes.

Allow the mixture to freeze for at least an hour before slotting in the wooden ice cream sticks (this will help the sticks stay in place instead of sinking to the bottom), leaving 2 inches of the stick above above. Finally, freeze the mixture for at least 8 hours or overnight until solid.

How do you remove popsicles from the mold and still keep their shape? 

Now, if you’ve never made popsicles before and want to know the secret to removing them from the mold while keeping their shape, here’s the secret (I googled on the internet and a few tries at popsicle making proves it’s true) – simply submerge the popsicle mold in a large pot of room temperature water for at least 20 seconds, then gently pull a popsicle out.

If the popsicle doesn’t come out easily, submerge the mold for another 10 seconds, and pull again. Serve the popsicles straightaway, or if you plan to serve them later, place them in ziplock bags in the freezer so that they hold their shape until you want to eat them!

Enjoy the rest of your summer – eat plenty of popsicles, bike around in the sun, and take advantage of the still-long days! I’ll see you in the fall!

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