Jessica Levison likes to juggle several balls at once. In 2008, not only was she a lawyer for Legal Aid Service fighting slumlords for low-income tenants in Florida, but she also decided to open up her own ice cream shop simultaneously—two completely different professional tracks she balanced for several years.
"Being an attorney and fighting on behalf of my clients was my favorite job," Levison tells me. Then they moved her to the children’s unit. "What I saw was heartbreaking. I was two months pregnant and I hadn’t told anyone. My new boss hated my guts and I wasn’t getting paid very much. Then our funding got cut and I got canned." So, Levison decided to focus all of her energy on her ice cream shop.
"I opened up my scoop shop because I just love ice cream," she tells me. She funded the store herself, pulled the permits, and managed the fit out all on her own. "I was continuously innovating with flavor profiles. The chefs at local hotels would ask me to make them unique sorbets with seasonal ingredients readily available—like carrot mango sorbet."
Since Levison was already making ice cream for her scoop shop in Surfside, Florida her wheels began to turn on how she could create a better-for-you option for the masses. "I wondered if I could I make an indulgent ice cream that contained organic veggies, but tasted identical to peoples’ favorite scoop of ice cream? What if I could introduce veggies where they least expected it—dessert?"
Two kids later and after lots of tinkering, taste testing, and experimentation Levison launched Peekaboo, the first and only organic ice cream with hidden veggies in 2018.
"As any parent knows, meal times are short, chaotic and messy," says Levison. "My goal is always a balanced meal but that isn’t always a reality. The reality is that sometimes getting my kids fed and happy is more than enough and we’ll leave the greens for tomorrow. Peekaboo offers people an indulgent treat that has hidden benefits—something people desperately need as many of us seek comfort in food in the stressful times we are all living with."
To be clear, Levison makes no claims that her product is a replacement for vegetables.
Levison attended Penn State's Ice Cream Short Course, the oldest, best known, and largest educational program dealing with the science and technology of ice cream. "It’s where Ben and Jerry studied," she tells me. Once Levison had her concept nailed down she self-financed her endeavor in the beginning and then opened it up to friends and family. "I am now mid-Seed round."
Currently, Peekaboo offers five flavors, with more on the way—including soon to be released vegan options.
When I ask her how she paired up the veggies with the flavors she tells me, "I knew I wanted to pair nutrient-dense and mild flavored or sweet veggies with very approachable ice cream flavors that would appeal to kids’ palates. There were some fails, to be sure, like vanilla with hidden turnip and unicorn with purple eggplant." Levison thought once her kids found out that vegetables were in their ice cream that they would refuse to eat it. "Instead, they just ask for seconds ‘because it has veggies!’," she excitedly tells me.
With baking being so precise in nature, I was curious how hard it was to come up with delicious flavor profiles where the vegetables are unidentifiable in the overall taste. She assures me it was no easy feat to create a product without altering the flavor or texture.
"When I started I would slowly continue to increase the quantity of veggies until my kids noticed the difference. That’s when I knew to scale it back a pinch. I also selected veggies that would complement each ice cream flavor. For example, the carrots add a unique balance of sweet and fruity undertones, which enhance the overall flavor; the beets add color and natural sweetness in addition to being a good source of vitamin C," she explains. Levison also had to factor in the water content of each vegetable she added to ensure the final product was creamy and indulgent in the end.
I have a prolific sweet tooth, but I only indulge in ice cream when it’s hot out. I was very impressed with Peekaboo and the fact that a serving, which is a 4-ounce scoop has anywhere between 13 leaves of spinach to a quarter of a zucchini in them (or other vegetables). That means I can indulge with a little less guilt.
