Strawberry Lemonade
It’s time for another strawberry post! If you’ve followed along on Facebook, Mike went strawberry picking and picked about 10 pounds of strawberries. Then I went strawberry picking and picked 10 more pounds! We were overwhelmed by strawberries (in a good way!) and I needed to come up with some fun ways to incorporate them into recipes. First up was the strawberry cake I posted about earlier this week. Then came this strawberry lemonade.
I have to say, lemonade is a lot of work to make, but the end result sure is worth it. I’m pretty sure this is the best lemonade I’ve ever tasted! (Although, it does have a rival in the peach lemonade I made last year – that stuff was amazing as well). I got the recipe from Food Network Magazine, and they claim that this is exactly what Red Robin’s famous freckled lemonade tastes like! I haven’t had their freckled lemonade before, but I can tell you that this version is delicious. I don’t think I’ll be making this weekly, or anything like that (my arm was tired from juicing all those lemons!), but for a picnic or cookout, or for a start of summer treat, this recipe is perfect.
Strawberry Lemonade
Ingredients:
Zest of 1 lemon
2 cups sugar
2 cups chopped hulled strawberries
2 cups fresh lemon juice (from about 10 large lemons)
1/4 tsp salt
Directions:
Make the lemon syrup: Bring the lemon zest, 1 1/2 cups sugar and 1 1/2 cups water to a boil in a medium saucepan, stirring, until the sugar dissolves. Let cool to room temperature.
Make the strawberry syrup: Toss the strawberries and the remaining 1/2 cup sugar in a bowl and let sit at room temperature until the sugar dissolves, about 45 minutes. Strain the strawberry mixture, reserving the strawberry syrup and strawberries separately.
Make the lemonade: Combine the lemon juice, lemon syrup, salt and 2 cups cold water in a pitcher. For each drink, put about 1 Tbsp strawberry syrup in a tall glass. Fill with ice, then top with the lemonade and some of the reserved strawberries.
*Note: After making 2 glasses this way and taking pictures, I just dumped the rest of the strawberry syrup into the lemonade pitcher, added a little extra cold water (to taste) and refrigerated it. It tasted great for days!
Food Network Magazine, May 2012
Welcome! I'm Megan and it's my hope that here you'll find food that has been made with love and recipes that are shared with joy. Thanks for stopping by! 
What a fabulous drink for summer! I could totally go for a glass of this right now!
I have to try this! Looks delicious!
I made raspberry lemonade that was amazing recently, I have been wanting to try strawberry next. This looks like a wonderful and refreshing drink. I will have to try this once we go pick our strawberries this weekend!
I love the strawberries floating in the lemonade! Definitely going to have to try this!
I’m a huge lemonade lover so I don’t mind the work at all!
Fresh squeezed lemonade is absolutely amazing, but yeah. So much work. It makes me hurt just thinking about it.
Maybe I could convince the husband to squeeze the lemons for this one? It looks amazing!
I’m making a strawberry lemonade for Father’s Day but it’s a little different (Martha Stewart) recipe. I would love to make both versions and compare them for fun. Yours look so refreshing and delicious! 🙂
Ohh so refreshing!!!!
This looks like a wonderful and refreshing drink
Very tasty. Thank you so much for writing step by step.
Glad you liked it!