Think what you might about London weather, but this past week has been beautiful. And the coming week is supposed to be wonderful as well. It’s been sunny and warm, people have been wearing sandals, and I wore a dress without tights. Even better, the sun is up when I wake up and it’s still up when I come home from work. It’s been glorious.

It’s the kind of weather where it’s easy to be in love with London and all there is to see and do. This weather makes me want to run to the nearest park lie on a blanket, put my bare feet in the grass and have a picnic. A minor digression, but did you know that here you can buy a tray (about the size of a lasagna) that is a portable and disposable grill? And you can take it with you camping? And Ryan has seen people do this?! It’s amazing. 

So now I have dreams of a picnic with grilled burgers and sausages (Ryan says I won’t find hot dogs) some fruit and lemonade. Warm weather is the perfect weather for lemonade. I love lemonade because it reminds me of being a kid and making it myself from the Country Time container. It reminds me of the beach, the state fair, and baseball games.

I decided to try to jazz up lemonade after listening to a recent episode of the Sporkful podcast. Each week the host, Dan Pashman, has a food theme and explores it – talks about types of food, how to eat it, preferences. It might sound silly, but it’s funny, and interesting and everyone has at least one strong food conviction that it’s easy to relate to. Anyway, recently he had donuts and he had a bourbon blueberry basil flavored one – and I was intrigued by the blueberry basil combination.

I like mint lemonade so why not basil? And after a little internet research, I found blueberry and basil isn’t such an usual combination. I found it in a savory goat cheese pie and in a sweet lemon cake compote. Also, I think basil is very summery. It reminds me of fresh summer tomatoes on a caprese salad. And it reminds me of one summer in New York where my friend Emily and I planted basil in our windowsill herb gardens.

This blueberry basil lemonade is ridiculously easy to make, but feels like one of those fancy drinks you’d get at the farmer’s market or at a posh salad restaurant. The flavor is great because it’s simultaneously sweet and tart, with just a hint of fresh basil herb notes. It’s lovely! Make this, go outside, put on your sunglasses, kick you feet up, and enjoy.

Messy level: For a beverage, this is a little messy. You have to squeeze the lemons – which is one appliance and has the potential to spray everywhere. Then you need the blender. Then you need a strainer. Not at all difficult or labor intensive, but you will have to clean three pieces of equipment.

Blueberry Basil Lemonade

 

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Prep time

2 mins

Cook time

5 mins

Total time

7 mins

 

Serves: 5

Ingredients

• ¾ cup fresh squeezed lemon juice (about 4-5 lemons)
• 1½ cup fresh blueberries
• 6-8 basil leaves
• 3 cups cold water
• ¼ agave or honey (or more to taste)
• wedges of lemon and blueberries (for garnish)

Instructions

1. Put the lemon juice, blueberries, basil, water, and agave in a blender. Blend on high until the blueberries and basil leaves are cut up into tiny little shreds.
2. Taste and adjust as fits your palate. (You know, add more blueberries or basil or agave as you see fit)
3. Let it sit for 30 minutes so all the flavors can blend and strengthen.
4. Sift out the solids from the lemonade. Do this by putting a fine mesh sieve over a pitcher then pouring what is in the blender through the sieve. You can leave a few bits, but I recommend taking it out because it's a lot and otherwise there will be separation (as you can see in the photo below).
5. If desired, add any extra wedges of lemon or blueberries to the pitcher.
6. Serve in glasses over ice and enjoy the weather

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This past week Ryan has been in South Africa for work. He’s been busy working, but not too busy to send me photos of him hanging out by the pool in 80°/27° weather. Needless to say, I’ve been jealous.

So yesterday, Ryan was having an awesome day. I won’t tell you any more about that because I’m saving it for later. Anyway… I was at home in very rainy London doing chores. Not nearly as exciting as South Africa, but to toot my own horn, I dominated those chores. I did everything on my list, which hardly ever happens. I trudged to the super market in my wellies, I did all the laundry, I cleaned the bathroom, I snaked the drain, and I vacuumed. After all that productivity, I wanted a treat to make myself feel like I was on vacation in a warm and sunny place. 

When I think warm and sunny, I think cold drinks and lots of fruit. I wanted this to be pure fun and delicious, and not secretly healthy. (You know how I like to sneak veggies into drinks, but this isn’t one of those times) For whatever reason, I have limes on the brain so I bought a bag at the store. I then thought about what to go with it – because lime alone is too tart. I thought of strawberries, which are my favorite fruit. I went to the frozen aisle to pick some up, because fresh strawberries in February are gross, but the store was out of frozen! They did have frozen raspberries, and I thought, “yeah that’ll work.”

To add a little more depth to the flavors, I used coconut water. You can of course replace the coconut water with regular water, but I think the coconut adds a nice hint of nutty flavor. Besides, coconut water can make you feel fancy since it’s so popular right now. And, it’s a good source of potassium, so that’s good too.

The limes, raspberries, and coconut water all together are nice, but pretty tart. I added a healthy amount of agave nectar to balance the tartness and add some sweetness. I choose agave over honey because it’s a little runnier and I think mixes in more smoothly. But, mostly, I choose it because I was going for hot weather foods and the agave plant comes from the dessert.

Add a little white rum, and you’d have a delicious beach side cocktail. I left it as a virgin slushy, and enjoyed it as a rainy afternoon treat.

Messy level: One spoon. Blended drinks are the easiest thing to clean up – even though cleaning the blender can be really annoying.

Raspberry Limeade Slushy

 

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Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 5 limes, plus one more for garnish
• 2 cups frozen raspberries
• 1½ cups coconut water
• ¼ cup light agave nectar
• white rum, optional

Instructions

1. Juice the limes, and add the juice to a blender.
2. Add the raspberries, coconut water, and agave to the blender.
3. Blend until smooth.
4. Taste and adjust as you see fit.
5. If you're using the rum, add it to the blender a little bit at a time. Blend, then taste, and adjust.
6. Serve with a straw and lime wedge.

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