Strawberry Mint Lemonade

Instead of buying my produce at the grocery store, I usually go to this amazing organic farmer's market on Sundays to get what is in season. I ended up purchasing this huge tray of organic strawberries for 4 dollars, a total bargain! The only thing is there were so many strawberries that I had to think fast about what to do with them since in only takes a few days for fresh strawberries to go bad. While I ended up freezing most of them for future smoothies, I did decide to make some fresh lemonade with the remaining berries. 

Strawberry lemonade is incredibly easy to make and a million times better than the powder lemonade mix you buy from the store. I threw a little mint into this recipe for an extra bit of freshness, but if that doesn't suit you then feel free to leave it out.

Ingredients

4 cups of fresh strawberries (with stems cut off)

1 1/2 cups lemon juice (about 8 juicy lemons)

2 cups of sugar

15-20 mint leaves

6 cups of water

First, add 1 cup of water with sugar and mint leaves into a medium saucepan. Bring to a simmering boil and cook for 10 minutes, then set aside off the heat for another 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, juice your lemons till you have about 1 1/2 of juice. Mix the juice and 4 cups of water together in a large pitcher or whatever you plan on serving the lemonade in.

Add the strawberries in a blender with the remaining 1 cup of water. Blend until none of the berries are left whole. Pour the strawberries puree into the pitcher. If you choose, you can strain the strawberry puree with a strainer to avoid getting seeds into your lemonade.

Using a strainer, pour cooled mint sugar water into the pitcher. The sugar water should be somewhat syrupy and smell distinctly minty. Mix well with a long spoon. Make sure you taste to see if the final product is sweet enough for you. If you prefer sweeter, add another cup of sugar and water to a sauce pan and cook until syrupy as previously instructed, then add to the pitcher once cooled.

This lemonade is a great summertime treat that is perfect for large parties or just for a quick refresher. Enjoy!