Rhubarb lemonade (dye free pink lemonade)
We had our first day of real sunlight yesterday and I was so excited I took a peek in my backyard…. to my delight, my rhubarb plant was humungus! I have all kinds of plans for it, but there is one thing in particular I love to make with rhubarb. Its unique. Totally delicious. A little more out of the box.
Rhubarb lemonade is both sweet, slightly floral and very slightly tart. It has the most terrific bright pink colour. You can use the leftover drained rhubarb as a tasty vegan rhubarb cream cheese pie topping, or swirl it into vegan rhubarb ginger ice cream.
This recipe makes more of a syrup, and tastes best when you add water to it after its cooled, to bring it to the consistency you prefer.
You’ll never go back to boring old lemonade after you try this gorgeous ladylike pink beauty :D
MyRealFoodLife.com
Rhubarb Lemonade
Ingredients
- 9 cups roughly chopped rhubarb
- 1/2 cup honey (or clear /very light light gold agave nectar)
- 1 tbsp freshly grated ginger
- 3 tbsp lemon zest
- 1 tbsp orange zest
- 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
Directions
- Put all the ingredients in a pot except the lemon juice. Add 3 cups of water.
- Bring the mixture to a boil, then simmer until the rhubarb breaks up and it all looks like green mush.
- Pour the mixture through a fine sieve. Be patient, it will take a little time for it all to drain through. Do it in batches to make it more manageable. The mush is green but the beautiful juice that drips through is bright pink.
- Use the leftover rhubarb for a pie topping or swirl it in dairy free ice cream. NOTE: If you use this to top a pie, while the mixture is still hot, gently sprinkle over top it 2 tsp of agar agar powder, and mix as thoroughly as possible. The agar agar is a vegan seaweed powder and is a gelling agent- so when you freeze the rhubarb on top of a pie or in ice cream, it won’t turn into a solid block of ice. Alternatively, use a package of gelatin if you are not vegan. You can find agar agar at Rainbow Foods in Ottawa or cheap at Kowloon market. I’ve also seen agar agar flakes and strands in Chinatown (you may wish to put them through a coffee grinder to pulverize.)
- Chill the strained syrupy juice. Add lemon juice and water to taste.
- Beautiful!
You Might Also Like:
Trackbacks and Pingbacks
- Friday Recipe Round (15/07/2011) | Gluten Free Cooking
- A GAPS legal 4th of July | The Well Fed Homestead
- Dairy Free, Gluten Free Rhubarb Cheesecake Pie | My Real Food Life
- Cherry Lime-ade | My Real Food Life
Comments are closed.
Hi Valerie- so glad you liked it! this is one of my favourite recipes :D
I think the pink colour does come from the skin, might be best to keep the skin on it just in case, if you can.
Alea
It was so good that I almost did not have any as my guest and my 6 year old drank almost everything :)
Thanks for the note about the change in color between the puree and the juice. I would have worry otherwise. Some people peel off the rhubarb, if we do so, do we still have the pink color, i.e. does it come from the skin?
Hi there Paula!
Thanks so much for the message :) I think you might want to freeze the syrup instead of canning it, or else i think it may change the flavour… The recipe makes one big pitcher of lemonade- if you were to double it and go generous on the sweetener and water, you could go up to 3 pitchers i think… Hope that helps! :)
alea
Hi, thank you for the recipe! I can’t wait to try it out! Could you guesstimate about how much lemonade can be made from one recipe batch? Also, could the syrup be made then canned to save for another time? I have a large family gathering coming up and would love to make this for it. I want to be sure I have enough though…. Thank you again!
aw thank you so much Donna! I hope you enjoy the recipe… its one of my favorite drinks :D
Yum! Thank you for sharing this recipe, it sounds delicious and it looks so pretty!
ohh emily, so much great stuff you can do with rhubarb…. i like making dairy free cheesecake and then making a rhubarb ginger topping … :D yum. :) haby cooking!
YUM that looks and sounds delightful! I can’t wait to reap some rhubarb (our first year).
hahaha! you can come raid my rhubarb plant anytime you want, Rumpshaka!! :D
I love this stuff, will have to come and raid your rhubarb plant!
I have been loving this… Coco and I enjoy it :)
Sanx