Basil Lemonade (recipe)

One of perks of living in the city is that there are fantastic food trucks everywhere.  You can sample just about every type of cuisine walking to work.  You will never go hungry in this city!  There is one favorite food truck near our house that serves basil lemonade.  It’s so refreshing after a bike ride to gulp this stuff down!!  We had a ton of basil left over from making vats of tomato basil soup. (side note: Jeff has made this soup himself every week since I posted the soup recipe online. One of the great things about having a blog is that if he is craving something, I can reply “Go make it yourself! The recipe is on my blog!”) I decided to replicate this herb-infused twist on a summer favorite:

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch fresh basil leaves
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 2 cups lemon juice (about 10 to 15 lemons) and the lemon zest from the lemons
• 4 cups cold or sparkling water
• 2 cups of ice

Create a simple syrup by combining basil, sugar, 1 cup of water and lemon zest in a sauce pan:

Simmer for about 5 minutes until all the sugar has dissolved. Let cool and sit for about an hour so that the flavors blend together. Strain the syrup.

In a pitcher, combine lemon juice,  cold water (or sparkling water), syrup and ice. Stir and serve! You can garnish by adding basil leaves or slices of lemon. Enjoy this refreshing treat this summer!

We really do love lemonade in our household.  I posted a recipe for a similar drink, the mint lemonade slushie, a few weeks ago. Click on the picture below to view that recipe:

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tagged as: basil, drinks, jeff, lemonade, recipe