To me, watermelon means summer. It’s the best summer fruit, and when it’s nice and cold, it’s even more refreshing on a hot day. I always keep watermelon in the refrigerator during the summer.
But this time when I bought a watermelon, I decided to more than just cut it up and eat it. I thought it would be great to turn this summer fruit into a cool and refreshing drink before summer officially ends and the temperatures make their descent into fall.
If you know me or you’ve been reading my blog then you know that my favorite drink in the world is lemonade, so of course I devised a plan to unite watermelon with lemonade. I’ve created this Ginger Mint Watermelon Lemonade. Go on, say it. It just sounds refreshing, doesn’t it?
I chose fresh ginger and mint to give it a fresh new twist. Then I peeled my watermelon and cut it into quarters. I diced about 1/4 of the watermelon, which gave me about 7 cups of it. Then I dropped it into my blender and blended away. Using a fine strainer helps strain the juice so you don’t get any rogue seed pieces in there since those aren’t quite so refreshing.
Next, I peeled the ginger and sliced it thin. I dropped it into a pot with about a cup of water and let it boil. The trick is to let the ginger steep for about an hour to an hour and a half afterward. I did the very same thing with the mint in a different pot so they would be ready at the same time.
I made the lemonade using fresh lemons, water, and simple syrup. Then, I put all these beautifully refreshing elements together in a pitcher and voila! With the ginger and the mint, it gave this drink a classy flair, like something I’d sip at some posh brunch place. I think you’re really going to love this. Hurry on and make it before watermelon season, I mean summer, is over!
Ingredients
3 lbs watermelon diced and pureed (7 cups watermelon juice)
1 oz fresh mint – 1 1/2 cup water
1/2 lb fresh ginger – 1 1/2 cup water
6 lemons juiced
1 1/2 cup simple syrup
Directions
Peel and thinly slice the ginger. Bring 1 1/2 cup water to a boil and place ginger in the pot. Remove from heat, and let steep for about an hour or two. Let Cool
Rough chop the mint. Bring 1 1/2 cup water to a boil and place mint in the pot. Remove from heat, and let steep for about an hour or two. Let cool
Juice 6 lemons.
Make 1 1/2 cups of simple syrup
Remove the rind from the watermelon and dice the watermelon.
Puree the watermelon in the blender. Strain through a fine sieve. (This should yield you about 7 cups of juice)
Mix ginger water, mint water, lemon juice, simple syrup and watermelon juice all together.
