Salt & Straw's New Lineup Puts The Spotlight On Vegetables

At this point in its tenure, waiting for the reveal of a new Salt & Straw drop is a little like waiting for the season finale of a TV show for ice cream fans. The Portland-based chain has plenty of sweet scoops in store for those whose dessert tastes run more traditional, but it's fair to say that the brand has ridden to fame on the coattails of its more unexpected creations. Once, for Thanksgiving, the brand scooped a turkey-flavored ice cream that was whipped with turkey fat, topped with bits of crispy turkey brittle, and swirled with cranberry sauce. Another year, for Halloween, daring customers ordered a red-velvet-hued ice cream made with actual pork blood. More recently, Salt & Straw's picnic series featured unexpected ingredients like "shards" of croissant fried in chicken fat and tea-infused deviled egg custard.

Needless to say, this ice cream company has the element of surprise on its side when it comes to seasonal flavors. And as we head into the third act of summer, Salt & Straw is putting a fittingly unorthodox — and healthy — spin on its new lineup. 

There's nothing like a bounty of late-summer produce, and Salt & Straw is taking full advantage of this in its "Veggies You Crave" line, which shows the sweet side of corn, spinach, fennel, carrots, and red chilis. There's the carrot cake batter flavor that blends "plump, sugar-coated and slow-roasted carrots" into a spiced ice cream sweetened with molasses and speckled with pralined hazelnuts (via Brand Eating). There's a charred corn curd, cotija, and Tajín scoop that evokes the Mexican street dish elote. There's a spinach cake flavor inspired by a Turkish dessert, made with chocolate tahini fudge, and a green fennel maple option that should appeal to licorice lovers. And finally, there's a vegan red chili curry number made even zippier by makrut lime crispy rice, inspired by flavors of Southeast Asia. 

If you don't live near a Salt & Straw scoop shop but are dying to eat your vegetables in ice cream form, you can try the new flavors by ordering them online or by joining the brand's "Pints of the Month" or "Pick Your Pints" programs.