Strawberry Lemonade

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

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

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11 comments

  1. What a fabulous drink for summer! I could totally go for a glass of this right now!

  2. I have to try this! Looks delicious!

  3. 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!

  4. I love the strawberries floating in the lemonade! Definitely going to have to try this!

  5. I’m a huge lemonade lover so I don’t mind the work at all!

  6. 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!

  7. 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! 🙂

  8. Ohh so refreshing!!!!

  9. This looks like a wonderful and refreshing drink

  10. Very tasty. Thank you so much for writing step by step.

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