Don’t limit yourself to only cooking food with your produce. Here’s an idea that I got from The Lemonade Coookbook for making fun beverages. There are so many drink combinations you can create to cool you off on these hot summer days. I selected their Kiwi/Strawberry Lemonade. It was super delish on it’s own and made an amazing cocktail with some Vanilla Vodka!
What is really nice is that you can alter the sweetness based on your preference. I tend to stay away from store bought drinks because they are almost always too sweet. This allows you to have something fun to drink that won’t hit the overly sweet factor! It is a simple process of adding fruit, sugar and lemon juice to a blender and pulse it away. Then you strain it through a fine-mesh sieve and add water and ice. My guests were truly impressed with how refreshing and tasty it was.
Just to get your creative juices flowing, here are their other combinations you can try – Blueberry/Mint, Cucumber/Mint, Cantaloupe/Sage, Peach/Ginger, Watermelon/Rosemary, Pear/Basil, Pineapple/Coriander and Green Apple/Jalapeño. Let me know which ones you try!
Strawberry/Kiwi Lemonade
Yields – 2 quarts
- 4 cups fresh strawberries, coarsely chopped
- 4 kiwis, peeled and coarsely chopped (about 2 cups)
- 2 cups baker’s (fine) sugar
- 2 cups freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 10 lemons)
- 3 cups water
- Ice, for serving
- In a blender, combine the strawberries, kiwis, sugar and lemon juice. You may need to press down the mixture as the blender may be quite full. Pulse the mixture a few times and then blend on high speed for 2 minutes until the fruit breaks down and becomes smoothie-like.
- Strain the puree through a fine-mesh sieve and into a pitcher, pressing the solids through with the back of a wooden spoon. This should yield about 4 cups. Pour in the water, stirring with the wooden spoon until the strawberry-kiwi puree fully dissolves and mixes with the water. Serve over ice.
- If you don’t have fine sugar, you can create it by putting granulated sugar in a food processor and blending until it is fine.
- You can serve the beverage as a cocktail by adding alcohol. I used vanilla vodka and it was divine!
(click here) for printable recipe