Bright, tangy, and impossibly refreshing, this lemon sorbet is the kind of frozen dessert that feels both fancy and effortless. It's built from just a handful of clean, simple ingredients — sugar, water, fresh lemon juice, lemon zest, and a pinch of salt — which is exactly what makes it such a smart choice for anyone managing a nickel sensitivity. Many packaged frozen desserts and store-bought sorbets contain grains, legumes, nuts, or chocolate, all of which are notoriously high in nickel, so making your own from scratch puts you fully in control. The technique here is straightforward: a quick lemon-zest syrup gets strained, chilled, and churned into something silky and pale yellow with a soft, scoopable texture. Straining out the zest after steeping it means you still get all that fragrant citrus oil without any unwanted bits in the final product. The result is a clean, vibrant scoop that tastes like pure sunshine — no compromise, no worry, just a genuinely delicious frozen treat you can feel good about serving.
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Combine the sugar, water, and lemon zest in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring until the sugar is fully dissolved, about 3–4 minutes. Do not let the syrup boil vigorously — remove it from the heat as soon as the sugar is clear.
Pour the syrup through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl or measuring cup, pressing on the zest to extract its oils, then discard the zest. Stir in the lemon juice and salt.
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