Home made Lemonade

Quench your thirst with the zesty and invigorating taste of home-made lemonade! This beloved summer beverage is bursting with the fresh tang of lemons. Stay cool with a tall glass of this delicious real lemonade.

I had a bounty of lemons spare and I thought what better way to use them than with a refreshing glass of real lemonade. Not the clear stuff that you buy in the supermarket but the stuff with real lemon juice in it. I prefer leaving some pulp in my juice, although you could certainly strain it, and I added the zest as the fragrant zest is one of the best parts of a fruit.

I love using some lemon zest in my home-made lemonade as the zest imparts such a zingy quality to lemonade. If you use a good vegetable peeler (I like the Oxo Good Grips one I got from my mother in law for my wedding kitchen tea) then you'll just get the fragrant yellow zest and not the bitter white rind, cheaper ones tend to hack away at everything and give you a bit of both.

I am trying to coax some Spring weather forth with this number. I figure that if I go outside in a Summer dress, floppy sun hat and sunglasses with some Lemonade then some suitable weather will follow. Even though I missed a good month of this Winter weather I am well and truly over it.I'll sit outside here for another few minutes freezing my bottom off before I run back in and turn on the heater...

Home made Lemonade

Makes 1 litre

Ingredients

• 1 cup/220g/7.7ozs white sugar

• 1 cup/250ml/8.8flozs fresh lemon juice (about 4-5 lemons depending on size and juiciness)

• Zest of 1 lemon

• 3 cups/750ml/26flozs soda or still water, chilled

Method

Step 1 - Place the sugar, lemon juice and zest in a saucepan and dissolve sugar over low heat. Cool.

Step 2 - Combine with chilled soda water and serve