So, I’m starting a new blog series. In honor of my little brother and his new wife, and in honor of lots of people who ask me for recipes for lots of things. Feel free to email or comment and make requests for basic recipes and I’ll add them to the queue. The point of this series is to highlight EASY ways to make less processed versions of things.

As someone who is kind of into homemade from scratch kind of things, I read a lot of recipes and tutorials online. And most of them start with some version of “This is really easy.” Sometimes, they are. And sometimes, people are underestimating how much work it takes to learn a new process. Making yogurt was like that. Every single recipe I found online said that making yogurt was very simple and takes very little work. And you know what? Now I think that’s true. It was worth it to do the work to learn to make yogurt from scratch. But at first, it seemed very complicated.

So my goal for this series will be to find things that actually are easy, the first time, and can offer ways to cut down on processed ingredients without driving yourself crazy.

So for this first installment I present, for your leisure:

 

Lemonade Concentrate

Ingredients:

Lemon juice

*Natural sweetener of your choice

*”Natural” meaning found in nature, not “natural” meaning, well, whatever it means when companies put it on the front of a processed food item. “Natural” in my usage means that everything on the ingredients list would be easily recognized as food. I usually use light maple syrup, but you could use honey, sugar, agave, brown rice syrup, or whatever.

Method:

Mix up equal parts lemon juice and sweetener in a mason jar. Put the lid on, shake until combined (honey will take a long time, or you can let it sit until it dissolves), and store in the refrigerator. To make it up, put a little in the bottom of a glass or pitcher (maybe 1/8 full), and dilute to taste.

No, seriously, that’s it. If you want it to be more lemon-ey, or sweeter, or stronger, adjust accordingly. If you are adding more honey, just make sure you have time to let it sit and dissolve.

Things you can add, just for fun (but you don’t have to if it stresses you out):

Frozen blueberries, strawberries, etc. to turn it pretty colors

Fresh mint or even sage or other herbs

Sparkling water or ginger ale

Iced tea

Lime juice instead of lemon juice

 

Yay, summer, and yay, lemonade!