Yesterday was the first really warm day we’ve had this spring. 88 degrees. Pretty warm. Not hot, but still a taste of what’s in store for summer. After working all day, doing four loads of laundry and cooking dinner, I just wanted a tall glass of something refreshing. Something I could enjoy while we watched Dancing with the Stars, and caught up on email and Facebook. A tall glass of something cold to sip while we relaxed and wound down for the day. You know, right?
I suddenly remembered how much I used to enjoy the Strawberry Lemonade at Sonic. It was light and sweet and tart all at the same time. So, I grabbed a few things from the pantry and went to work. I didn’t have enough lemons to make a big pitcher of lemonade, but I had some limes so I added those. I also had a package of frozen strawberries hanging out in the freezer so I grabbed those, too. And, let me tell you, what I wound up with was just delicious. Just the thing to cool you down on a hot spring or summer day.
You’ll start by making a simple syrup of equal parts water and sugar. Bring it to a boil and stir until the sugar is completely melted. You can then refrigerate the syrup until it’s cool or do what I did and add ice to cool it down right away.
While the syrup is cooling, remove the zest from one lime and one lemon. A microplane makes this job so easy and gives you a very finely grated zest. Love that tool! Set the zest aside and then juice the lemons and limes.
Put the thawed strawberries with their syrup in a large pitcher. Add the lemon-lime zest, the simple syrup and the juices. Stir together to blend. Add enough water to make a total of eight cups.
Now, taste your mixture. If you like it less tart, add water a cup at a time until you get just the taste you want. Serve over ice and garnish with fresh strawberries and/or lemon and lime slices.
Enjoy!
Yields 10-12 servings
A refreshing combination of sweetened strawberries with a tart lemon-limeade.
5 minPrep Time
10 minCook Time
15 minTotal Time
Save Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup sugar
- 1 ½ cups water
- Ice
- 3 limes
- 5-6 large lemons
- 1 10 oz. package frozen strawberries in syrup, thawed
- Water
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, bring the sugar and water to a boil stirring until the sugar is completely dissolved.
- Remove pan from the heat and add 4 cups of ice cubes.
- While the sugar-water mixture cools, finely grate the zest from one lime and one lemon. Set aside.
- Juice the lemons and limes. There should be about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups juice.
- Put the thawed strawberries with their syrup in the bottom of a pitcher.
- Add the finely grated zest, lemon-lime juice and the cooled sugar-water mixture.
- Add enough additional water to make a total of 8 cups.
- Serve over ice. Garnish with fresh strawberries and/or lemon and lime slices.
Notes
All text and photographs on Never Enough Thyme are copyright protected. Please do not use any material from this site without obtaining prior permission. If you'd like to post this recipe on your site, please create your own original photographs and either re-write the recipe in your own words or link to this post.
Other Lemon and Limeade recipes you might enjoy from around the internet:
- Raspberry Lemonade from My Baking Addiction
- Dinasaur Dishes’ Lavendar Lemonade
- Cranberry Limeade from Simply Recipes
- Strawberry Limeade from Two Peas and Their Pod
Comments