When I decided to include “Hearts Beat Loud” in my Summer of Scoops, I knew I had to make something with beets to play on the movie’s title.

This vegan, gluten-free strawberry beet ice cream recipe makes approximately 2 pints, or 4-6 “servings.”

Ingredients
0.5 cups strawberries
1.5 cups coconut milk (from a carton, NOT a can)
11.2 ounces coconut creamer
1 teaspoon strawberry extract
2 scoops (16 g) beet powder
2 tablespoons sugar
additional half cup of strawberries (optional)

Instructions
Pour all of the ingredients into your blender. (Vanilla extract can be used in place of strawberry extract.)

Pulse until everything is evenly mixed.

What happens next depends on your ice cream maker. If you have a more standard one, you’ll pull your chilled (for 24 hours) bowl out and make the ice cream.

If you have one like mine, you pour the mixture into two pints then freeze them for 24 hours.

After that time, you put the pint into your ice cream maker and let it do its magic on the ice cream setting. (Get more of my ice cream 101 tips here.)

For the extra swirl of strawberry flavor, add the additional strawberries in there at the end of a normal ice cream maker’s cycle or using the mix-in setting if you have one like mine. Use half of them in each pint.

If you have an ice cream maker like mine that puts the churner through the middle and are using frozen strawberries, I recommend letting them thaw in the fridge so they don’t jam up the blade.

Scoop the ice cream into your favorite bowl or cone. If you like, you could top with chocolate syrup and/or chopped nuts.

Enjoy with “Hearts Beat Loud!”

The Easy Route
You could just stir in some beet powder to premade strawberry ice cream.

Know of a brand or restaurant that makes vegan strawberry beet ice cream? Please share those details in the comments.

The Pairing
“Hearts Beat Loud” is one of my favorite films from 2018, and it’s stayed with me long after I saw it for the first time in one of my favorite theaters.

The film follows Sam (Kiersey Clemons) and her dad, Frank (Nick Offerman), as they transition their regular jam sessions to record some music together during the summer before she heads off to college.

I remember listening to the songs from this movie over and over again after I watched this for the first time, and rewatching the movie and hearing the songs brought back vivid memories. The titular track, “Hearts Beat Loud,” is a banger and worth a listen even if you don’t watch the movie.

But back to the plot: Frank is a record store owner grappling with changing times and the prospects of closing the store and caring for his aging mother, Marianne (Blythe Danner), as Sam plans to leave Red Hook and be a pre-med student across the country at UCLA.

They’re both also trying out a little romance. Sam starts something with Rose (Sasha Lane), who she met at an art installation. The relationship between Sam and Rose is so pure and moving and real, and it’s honestly one of the things that stuck with me most from the movie (other than the music, of course).

Clemons and Lane are both just perfect in their scenes together.

Meanwhile, Frank’s flirtations with his landlady, Leslie (Toni Colette), start to become more serious.
Ted Danson also has a memorable supporting role as Dave, a bartender/bar owner and friend of Frank’s.

Like I’ve mentioned multiple times, the music in this movie is fantastic. Some of my favorite scenes involve Sam and Frank working on music, either together or apart.

I rewatched the movie in preparation for this post, and my appreciation for it has only grown deeper.

If you decide to make strawberry beet ice cream and/or watch “Hearts Beat Loud,” let us know! Tag us in your Instagram posts & stories, threads, tweets or TikTok videos: @veg_out_recipes