Honey Sweetened Strawberry Lemonade {AIP & GAPS friendly}
Do you have strawberries running out of their ears right now? This season is so much fun because of the abundance of organic strawberries available everywhere. I have taken advantage of that and made some really yummy strawberry dishes.
An additional way we like to enjoy in-season strawberries is in Honey Sweetened Strawberry Lemonade.
Unfortunately, the store-bought strawberry lemonades are loaded with refined sugars, high fructose corn syrup and they’re contaminated with herbicides, pesticides and GMO’s. We steer clear of those since we don’t want to put anything in our bodies that will hinder our health and makes us feel bad. Additionally, since we vote with our dollars, I don’t like to buy food or drinks that contain those ingredients because I want the manufacturers to stop using them!
The Healthiest Alternative to Store-Bought Strawberry Lemonade
The best alternative you have is to make this sweet, refreshing drink at home with whole, organic food, no chemicals or artificial flavors and no refined sugar. It’s really simple to make and the result tastes way better! It’s delicious! We always want more than one cup of it.
Let’s Talk About What Kind of Strawberries You’ll Need
These beautiful little red fruits always top the Dirty Dozen because 98% of conventional strawberries were found to have pesticide residue on them. 40% had 10 or more different residues on them and some had residues of 17 different pesticides! That is just sickening. Your health is not worth it.
Should You Care if Your Food Has Pesticides on It?
My answer to that is, if you want to heal, improve your health, or prevent disease, then you should absolutely care if these chemicals and contaminants are on the food you eat.
These sprays are meant to kill pests. That means they have the capability of making living things die.
When you ingest chemicals like pesticides and herbicides, they do damage to your body- namely our microbiome – the trillions of friendly bacteria in your gut that keep you healthy. These toxins are partly responsible for obesity, endocrine problems (think thyroid), brain dysfunction, diabetes, cancer and more.
Furthermore, eating a diet high in toxins like these cause a sluggish liver and kidneys and impair your body’s ability to detox. This in turn allows free radicals to build up and more oxidative stress to occur. The end result of that is onset of some type of disease, be it autoimmune or various cancers.
The least amount of toxins we ingest the better. All that to say, buy organic if you can. Especially buy organic strawberries. These are one fruit I would rather not buy at all if I couldn’t buy organic. Look for them on sale or better yet grow your own! {If you want to learn more read this post on my Educate Series}
Let’s Talk About The Ingredients & Kitchen Tools You’ll Need to Make This Strawberry Lemonade
The great thing is that to make this refreshing drink, you won’t need many ingredients. We already talked about strawberries above, Be sure to read that. Here is a little more info to help you make the tastiest lemonade ever!
- The most important ingredient you’ll need is filtered water. If your water tastes bad, so will your lemonade. Furthermore, if it’s contaminated, you just be ingesting all the chemicals you were trying to get rid of by eating organic strawberries. Read this post to make sure you are drinking the cleanest water available.
- We always have one to two gallons of raw local honey in our pantry that we get from our local apiary. Click here to see if you have an apiary near you. If you don’t you can get excellent raw honey for inexpensive prices here.
- This is one of my favorite kitchen tools that I use often while cooking. It is great for dips, pesto sauces and the strawberry puree you’ll need for this recipe! I love it because it is small and easy to clean.
- You’ll also need a fine mesh strainer to get the strawberry pulp out so your lemonade isn’t chunky. I like this set of strainers.
- Using an electric citrus juicer makes juicing the lemons a cinch. We own one like this that I inherited from my Grandpa and I absolutely love it. The kids love to juice with it too!
Recipe for Honey Sweetened Strawberry Lemonade
Without further ado, I’d like to share with your the recipe that not only helps use the abundance of strawberries in the season but nourishes the soul when you share a glass with a close friend over a sweet conversation.
- 1 C. Filtered Water
- ¾ C. Raw Local Honey
- 7 Organic Lemons, juiced (should be about 2¼ c. of juice)
- 1¼ C. Organic Strawberry Puree (about 1.5 cups of whole organic strawberries)
- 5 C. Filtered Water
- In a small heavy bottom saucepan, over medium heat, combine 1 cup filtered water with ¾ cup raw local honey. Stir until combined and the honey is dissolved. Set aside to cool.
- Wash all strawberries and cut off the green tops. Place in a small food processor to blend until smooth.
- In a 3 quart glass or stainless steel container pour in simple syrup, lemon juice, strawberry puree and 5 cups of filtered water.
- Stir to combine
- Once all is combined, run the liquid lemonade through a fine strainer to get the strawberry pulp out. If you don't do this step your lemonade will look chunky and unappetizing.
- Once it is all strained pour into a 3 quart glass pitcher for serving.
- Serve with a slice of lemon and strawberry on the rim of the cup.
When You’re Craving Lemonade
Next time you feel like enjoying some summertime lemonade, why not change it up and make it with strawberries too? Making a healthier version is always the best choice and honey is an excellent way to sweeten your food and drinks to help keep the refined sugar out of your diet. Remember, always choose organic strawberries because your body will thank you!
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