I had some leftover raspberries from my chicken with savory raspberry coulis, and decided to make up a batch of raspberry lemonade. It couldn’t be easier, you just add the berries when you heat up your sugar and they release all of their delicious juice. The sweet-tartness of the raspberries mix with the lemonade resulting in a refreshing summer drink. As with the citrusade, I like to mix it with sparkling water for a slightly effervescent beverage. It makes it seem just a little more special.
Raspberry Lemonade
Ingredients:
- 1½ cup sugar
- 1½ cup water
- lemon zest from 2 lemons, about 2 tbsp
- 1½ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice // about 8 – 12 lemons
- 6 oz raspberries // It is fine if they are frozen
- sparkling water
Directions:
- In a medium pot mix the sugar, zest and raspberries. Add the water. While stirring with a spoon, bring the mixture to a boil for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat. Let cool slightly.
- Roll the lemons gently with the heel of your palm. This will help extract the juice. Using a lemon reamer, juice the lemons. In a pinch you can use closed metal tongs. You’ll want to ultimately end up with 1 1/2 cups of lemon juice.
- Strain the sugar syrup through a fine mesh strainer to remove the lemon zest and raspberries. Combine the sugar syrup and the lemon juice.
- Keep the syrup in a tightly closed jar or bottle in the refrigerator.
- To serve: mix 1/4 part syrup to 3/4 part sparkling water