It’s beginning to feel a lot like summer here in California and I’m lucky enough to have a Meyer lemon tree in the backyard of my work space. So the other day I went and picked a bunch of lemons to see if I could come up with a tasty lemonade. Here’s the results…
Simple Syrup Recipe
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 vanilla bean (cut in half lengthwise, seeds removed, pod reserved)
(you can use extract, but because it’s super concentrated, be careful not to make it too strong — about 1 tsp or even less)
8-10 cut strawberries
Instructions
Place the strawberries in a pot along with the water and sugar. Bring to a boil, lower heat, and simmer until the strawberries break down, the sugar dissolves and the sauce thickens slightly (about 5 minutes). Place syrup in the refrigerator to cool. You can choose whether or not you want to strain out the strawberry chunks.
Squeeze your lemons till you get about 2-3 cups of juice (strained). I used about 8-10 lemons. Now here’s where you get to experiment. I started with 2 cups of lemon juice, 3 cups of water and 1 cup of simple syrup. I then added more of each to taste. Depending on how you like your lemonade (and how tart your lemons are), you can add additional juice, water, vanilla, or simple syrup to your liking. Stick in the refrigerator to cool and enjoy over ice!
(Note: I noticed that after cooling and setting in my refrigerator, my lemons were slightly tarter so I added a bit of water to it before serving. Oh and the bottles are from Ikea or online here.)
Strawberries and vanilla? Yes please. Now I just need something minty and chocolatey to go along with it and I’ll be set.
