The founders of Ortaggi (which means “vegetables” in Italian) say they created the product in an attempt to manufacture a healthy substitute for ice cream, subbing out the typical cream, eggs, and sugar for vegetables, fruit, fruit juice, herbs, and agave syrup. The six flavors—in wacky varieties like Red Pepper with Peach and Lemon or Celery with Cucumber, Basil, Apple, and Lime—don’t taste like real ice cream (there’s no caramel swirl or chocolate chunks happening here), but they do have a creamy, gelato-like texture and slightly sweet, herbaceous taste packed with vegetable flavor. But the real question: Is Ortaggi actually better for you than actual ice cream? Let’s start with what’s good about the product—namely, its powerhouse combo of fruits and vegetables means more micronutrients and fewer calories, compared with average ice cream. Each serving of Ortaggi contains from 30 to 110 calories and 5 to 14 g of sugar, compared with the 220-to-300-calorie range of real ice cream, in addition to its typical 17 to 27 g of sugar. Extra bonus: Half a cup of Ortaggi is the equivalent of roughly one daily serving of vegetables. MORE: Is This The New Super Veggie? But vegetables processed into an ice cream are still not as clean and nutritious as the real thing, and a treat is still a treat, no matter what you dice into it. A half cup of Ortaggi has 1 to 3 g of fiber, compared with the 2 to 5 g found in ½ cup of fresh vegetables, and 14 g of sugar from agave syrup and fruit juice can still send lift sugar. Ortaggi launched in early June and is available in specialty grocery stores in the Northeast. A 16-ounce container will cost you $7.99. Don’t live in the Northeast but still want to get your veggies without eating them? Dan Barber, chef at New York’s eminent Blue Hill at Stone Barns, offers his veggie-flavored, grass-fed Blue Hill Yogurts (think flavors that scream “Fresh from the farm!” like beet, carrot, or parsnip) in select Whole Foods Markets and specialty grocers. Or try the new vitamin-packed, low-cal Innocent Pops, a line of “frozen green juices” in flavors like Kale Daddy and Sweet Beets, sold at New York City retailers including Garden of Eden and Westerly Natural Market.
