Favourite Spring recipe

Spring time food!

Spring is that time of the year when we start to relish in the sunlight again; its been so long since we have had decent sun in the UK that spring is often that time where even a hint of sun and everyone breaks out the Barbeque. Grilling aside, there are so many different things that you can eat or drink to get you into a spring spirit!

Lavender Lemonade 

Lemonade is one of those things that although I've never actually had fresh, I associate with the warmer days and will be perfect through the summer too. after some web searching and a lot of time on Pinterest, I came across a recipe for Lavender lemonade... This immediately had me clicking on it! Although you don't actually have to use the lavender flowers, the recipe suggests Lavender essential oils instead. For the actual lemonade recipe, The Melrose Family (where this recipe is from) have created a yummy sounding one, so here it is!




Prep time:  20 mins

Cook time:  5 mins

Total time:  25 mins

Serves: 12 - 14

Ingredients

• 3 lemons squeezed with pulp {1/2 cup lemon juice}
• 8 cups of water
• 1¾ cups of sugar
• 1 cup of lemon juice

Instructions

1. Heat 1 cup of water and bring to boil. Add in the 1 and ¾ cups of sugar to the boiling water to dissolve and create a simple syrup. Continuously mix the sugar until it is completely dissolved. You'll be able to smell the cooked sugar.
2. Once the sugar is completely dissolved, cool the simple syrup by covering and chilling in the refrigerator.
3. While the simply syrup cools, squeeze three lemons. Remove the seeds, but be sure to leave the pulp. The lemons should give about ½ cup of lemon juice. Add in 1 cup of lemon Real lemon juice to have a total of 1 and ½ cups of lemon juice.
4. Combine the 7 cups of water with the 1 and ½ cups of lemon juice.
5. Finally, add in the simply syrup.
6. Garnish with lemons.

Hint: For the Lavender flavour, use 2-3 drops of Lavender essential oil but for Purple colour, use purple food colouring (original recipe used 'Neon purple food colouring')- the colouring is optional and will be yellowish without it.

I hope you enjoy this recipe, I cannot wait to be able to try this out. If you give this recipe a shot, be sure to send me a picture to my Twitter.

-Louise x