a glass pitcher half-filled with orange liquid, sitting on a weathered wooden table with lots of greenery and some stone buildings in the background
Yesterday, I made strawberry lemonade for the first time ever. This is one of my all-time favourite fruit drinks and it's hard to find it pre-made or on offer in cafes/restaurants (raspberry lemonade, on the other hand, is pretty common?).
I started this recipe with the lemonade base from Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything" -- a super-useful and iconic cookbook of which there is also a vegetarian version -- then improvised the strawberry part based on my experience with strawberry ice cream.
It turned out well and made me happy!
Strawberry Lemonade
Ingredients:
- 300g strawberries
- a two-cup recipe of simple syrup (2 cups of water, 2 cups of sugar)
- 1 cup lemon juice
- 3 cups water
Directions:
1) First, make simple syrup. Combine two cups of sugar with two cups of water in a saucepan, and heat, stirring every so often, until all the sugar is dissolved.
2) Cut up 300g of strawberries, add 1 cup of sugar syrup, and puree. I used an immersion blender; you could probably also use a hand masher, a regular blender, or a food processor.
3) In a pitcher, combine 1 cup lemon juice, 3 cups water, and the pureed sweetened strawberries. Mix well with a long-handled spoon. Sample. Adjust sweetness by adding more simple syrup until it's where you want it; I used another cup of simple syrup. Bear in mind things taste sweeter when warm and this will taste a bit less sweet when chilled.
You could probably make this with sparkling water just as easily. If you're making a pitcher, just swap in sparkling water. If you want to make individual glasses, you could combine everything except the water; I'd need (or you'd need!) to experiment with proportions for how much base per glass.
Enjoy!
Edited to add:
For divine strawberry lemonade:1) First, make simple syrup. Combine 1 1/2 cups of sugar with 1 1/2 cups of water in a saucepan, and heat, stirring every so often, until all the sugar is dissolved.
2) Cut up 300g of strawberries, add to simple syrup, and just bring to a boil. Once cool, puree. I used an immersion blender; you could probably also use a hand masher, a regular blender, or a food processor.
3) In a pitcher, combine 1 cup lemon juice, 3 cups water, and the pureed sweetened strawberries. Mix well with a long-handled spoon. Sample. (If necessary, adjust sweetness by adding more simple syrup until it's where you want it.) Bear in mind things taste sweeter when warm and this will taste a bit less sweet when chilled.
For Really Divine strawberry lemonade:
1) First, make simple syrup. Combine 1 1/2 cups of sugar with 1 1/2 cups of water in a saucepan, and heat, stirring every so often, until all the sugar is dissolved.
2) Cut up 300g of strawberries, add to simple syrup, and just bring to a boil. Leave to sit overnight (or leave to sit overnight once mixed with rest of ingredients). Once cool, puree. I used an immersion blender; you could probably also use a hand masher, a regular blender, or a food processor.
3) In a pitcher, combine 1 cup lemon juice, 3 cups water, and the pureed sweetened strawberries. Mix well with a long-handled spoon. Sample. (If necessary, adjust sweetness by adding more simple syrup until it's where you want it.) Bear in mind things taste sweeter when warm and this will taste a bit less sweet when chilled.
