Mint And Lime Faloodeh With Pomegranate

Ingredients

• 100 g rice noodles
• 1 rose water
• 220 g caster sugar
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• 20 g mint
• 200 ml pomegranate
• 3 tbsp pomegranate
• 150 ml lime, zested and juiced
• 1 lime, zested and juiced

Method

1. Tip the 220g caster sugar into a medium saucepan with 300ml water, the mint, and a tiny pinch of salt — it sounds counter-intuitive in a dessert, but salt sharpens the lime and lifts the mint. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium-high heat, stirring until the sugar fully dissolves, about 3–4 minutes.
2. Pull off the heat and stir in the lime juice now, while the syrup is still warm — the acid brightens as it cools, and the mint will perfume the syrup as it sits. Leave to cool completely.
3. Strain through a fine sieve into a freezer-friendly container, pressing the mint hard to extract every drop. Taste the syrup before it goes in the freezer — it should be sweet-sharp and aromatic; adjust with another squeeze of lime if it's leaning flat. Cover and freeze for 2 hours.
4. Every 30 minutes for the next 4 hours, drag a fork through the mixture, breaking up the ice crystals into a loose, slushy granita. You're after fluffy shards, not a solid block — if it sets hard, you've left it too long between scrapes.
5. Meanwhile, bring a pan of water to a rolling boil and cook the rice noodles for 6 minutes until very soft. Drain, then snip in half with kitchen scissors so they spoon up easily later.
6. Plunge the noodles into a large bowl of ice water and refrigerate for 15 minutes — they need to be properly cold and slick, otherwise they'll melt the granita on contact.
7. For the syrup, simmer the pomegranate juice with the tablespoon of caster sugar over medium heat for 20–25 minutes, until reduced to a glossy, spoon-coating syrup that ribbons off the back of a spoon. Watch it in the last few minutes — pomegranate sugar catches fast once it thickens.
8. Stir in the rose water off the heat (rose water is volatile — boil it and the perfume vanishes) and leave to cool to room temperature.
9. Five to ten minutes before serving, pull the granita from the freezer and scrape vigorously with a fork to loosen into icy crystals.
10. Drain the noodles thoroughly and return to the bowl. Fold through half the granita — the noodles will firm up slightly as they chill, which is exactly what you want.
11. Divide the noodle and granita mixture between four glasses or small bowls. Heap the remaining granita on top.
12. Drizzle generously with the rose-pomegranate syrup, scatter with the pomegranate seeds and lime zest, and tuck a lime wedge alongside for one last squeeze at the table.