Strawberry Lemonade
Fresh strawberries meet fresh lemonade in this refreshing recipe for strawberry lemonade! The perfect cool and colorful summertime beverage.
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Why we love this recipe
This refreshing pink drink is the thirst-quencher we make on repeat all summer long (and sometimes in the off season because it is THAT DELICIOUS).
It takes only five ingredients, and two of them are ice and water…along with a bunch of fresh lemons, fresh strawberries and a little sugar.
Oh, and since strawberries are obviously a key ingredient in this recipe, here’s a handy guide to everything you need to know about buying, storing and prepping these delicious fruits.
It’s the perfect cool drink to serve up in a pitcher on your supper table, or in a frosty glass alongside a strawberry crumble muffin.
And if the grown-ups want to add a little something to transform it into a festive adult beverage…well, I say cheers to that!
Ingredients you need
Ingredient notes and substitutions
- Lemons: Try and get lemons that have a little give to them so they are easy to juice. And if you have a stubborn hard lemon, pop it in the microwave for 15 to 20 seconds…this will magically soften it up!
- Strawberries: Local in-season strawberries are the very best for this recipe, but you can also grab a carton at the supermarket. Want to mix things up? Use raspberries instead, or a mix of berries!
- Sugar: We do find that the sugar is necessary to sweeten up the tart taste of the lemons. You can cut it back to half a cup if you want, and then stir in more once your lemonade is ready if you think it needs more.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities and nutritional information.
Here’s how you make this recipe
STEP 1: The first thing you need to do is make a quick sugar syrup, which you do by combining some sugar, some fresh lemon zest and a little water and boiling it for about 10 minutes or so.
STEP 2: Squeeze the juice out of about 6 lemons (you are looking for about a cup of juice). You can use either a hand citrus juicer or an electric one.
STEP 3: Hull your strawberries (fun trick on that below!), pop them in your food processor and process them until they are smooth.
STEP 4: Put a mesh strainer over a measuring cup or and pour your strawberry puree into it and stir it around so the liquid goes into the bowl and the strawberry seeds stay in the strainer. And if strawberry seeds in your lemonade don’t bother you, you can skip this step!
STEP 5: The lemon mixture should be cooled off now, so strain that through your handy strainer into a bowl or a measuring cup to catch those pieces of lemon zest.
STEP 6: Now! Pour the strawberry mixture, the lemon mixture and a some water into a pitcher. Add ice. Pour yourself a nice tall glass. Ahhhhhh!
How to hull a strawberry
First of all, what does it mean to hull a strawberry? It means getting the stem and leaves and that little core at the top out of your berry.
Grab a plain old drinking straw (a metal one works best, but a plastic one will also be fine) and a strawberry. Push the straw up through the bottom of the berry towards the stem. Push all the way through until the straw pops out the other end with the leaves snugly at the end of the straw.
It will take you a berry or two to get the knack of it, and then you will wonder why you spent all those years carving strawberry stems out with a knife. Your pretty strawberries will be hulled in no time!
Equipment we used for this recipe
These are some of my favorite kitchen tools! These are Amazon affiliate links, which means I get a little something if you buy through my links at no extra cost to you. (Which helps pay for all that bacon I keep buying! 😄) And I only share things I use and love. I’m so grateful for your support!
- Measuring Cup: We love these angled cups that show the measurements on both the inside and outside of the cup.
- Cutting Board: These sturdy, dishwasher-safe cutting boards come in all different sizes.
- Citrus Juicer: We love this handy juicer that catches every single seed.
- Electric Juicer: This sturdy juicer is great when you have a lot of juicing to do.
- Fine Mesh Strainer: This strainer is the one we reach for when we need teeny tiny holes!
- Food Processor: This all-star kitchen appliance is one of the very few that gets to live on our countertop 24/7.
Recipe FAQs
Start with the zesting! There are all kinds of fancy lemon zesting tools out there, but I love my microplane zester – it does the job quickly and you can also use it for cheese. Simply drag the lemon over the zester and little chopped lemon peel pieces will come out the other side. As for juicing, you can get as fancy as having a citrus juicer that squishes the juice out and leaves the seeds, or you can simply squeeze that lemon juice into a prep bowl with your hands.
You can! Defrost them first, and then go ahead and use them the same way you would use fresh strawberries.
Unless you like your lemonade SUPER tart, you do need some sweetener in here. You can try using a half cup of sugar and then adding more when the lemonade is finished. You can also swap in honey or agave syrup for the sugar.
Leave your question (or comment or suggestion) in the Comments box below the recipe and I will answer pronto!
You can liven this lemonade up with some seltzer…or something stronger!…or you can drink it all by its perfectly wonderful self.
What to do with leftover ingredients
Have some leftovers? Join our No Ingredient Left Behind Club with these recipe ideas!
- 🍓 Strawberries: Try these strawberry crumble muffins, this glazed strawberry bread or this no bake strawberry banana icebox cake.
- 🍋 Lemons: Use them up in this lemon spinach pasta, some lemon chicken orzo or a lemonade mint iced tea.
Other beverage recipes we love
We want to know what you think! 🤔
If you try this recipe, we would love to hear how it came out for you! I’d be super grateful if you could leave a star rating (you pick how many stars! 🌟 ) and your thoughts in the Comments section.
Strawberry Lemonade
Fresh strawberries meet fresh lemonade in this refreshing recipe for strawberry lemonade! The perfect cool and colorful summertime beverage.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Category: Beverages
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegetarian
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 5 cups water
- 2 lemons, zested
- 1 pint fresh strawberries, hulled
- 1 cup fresh lemon juice (from about 6 lemons)
- Ice cubes
Instructions
- Combine sugar, 1 cup of water and lemon zest in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes. Cool.
- Puree strawberries in a food processor until smooth. Strain the puree through a fine mesh strainer, pressing down on the solids to get all the good juice out.
- Strain the cooled lemon sugar syrup through a fine mesh strainer.
- Combine the syrup, the strawberry puree, the lemon juice and the remaining water in a large pitcher and stir. Add ice cubes and serve!
Notes
- Lemons: Try and get lemons that have a little give to them so they are easy to juice. And if you have a stubborn hard lemon, pop it in the microwave for 15 to 20 seconds…this will magically soften it up!
- Strawberries: Local in-season strawberries are the very best for this recipe, but you can also grab a carton at the supermarket. Want to mix things up? Use raspberries instead, or a mix of berries!
- Sugar: We do find that the sugar is necessary to sweeten up the tart taste of the lemons. You can cut it back to half a cup if you want, and then stir in more once your lemonade is ready if you think it needs more.
Absolutely delicious and very refreshing.thank you for sharing such a great recipe.
Thanks Chris! I’m so glad it’s finally lemonade season! :)
I am making this pretty drink. I love the color.
I know, I love the pinkness of it all! :)
I can’t tell you how much time I’ve wasted with the paring knife this year alone! Thank you goddess of good ideas. ;) And the aroma. O.M.G. The ones I just got…I had to stand there inhaling that berry perfume. So, so good.
I usually get tired of hulling them and start dipping the end in sugar and eating my way to their leafy little caps. Until I get caught. Now I will be the drinking straw maven and all will be well in ruthieland. Heh. Well, at least as far as hulling berries goes.
Listen, hulling berries is a very important skill set. :) Although dipping them in sugar isn’t all bad either. :)
Love how refreshing this looks. Great hulling tip!
Thanks! – I love how easy it is (especially with the straw trick!)
I try to only ever buy strawberries when I can smell them from across the produce section! This sounds like a deliciously refreshing summery drink.
The smell teste is the only way to go for strawberries (and tomatoes too!)
A simple straw to hull strawberries….you are a GENIUS!! Thanks Kate for your great ideas!
You are so welcome! That’s one of my favorite tricks. :)
My kids would be thrilled if I made this for them!
Make it! There’s nothing like a happy kid. :) :)
There is nothing like fresh homemade lemonade…strawberry lemonade is REAL treat!
Fresh lemonade…once you try it, it’s really hard to go back, right? :)