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.
- 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)
- 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.
- Taste and adjust as fits your palate. (You know, add more blueberries or basil or agave as you see fit)
- Let it sit for 30 minutes so all the flavors can blend and strengthen.
- 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).
- If desired, add any extra wedges of lemon or blueberries to the pitcher.
- Serve in glasses over ice and enjoy the weather
