drinking blueberries
As I've mentioned, we have a freezer full of blueberries. And as I'm cobblered, pied, and sconed out, I've turned to drinking them. What follows are a few good recipes for drinking blueberries:
RECIPE 1 'Blueberrade'
This is a simple 'blueberry lemonade' drink and starts, as expected, with lemons. I use this easy and delicious homemade lemonade recipe as the base:
1-1.5 cups fresh lemon juice (approx 10 lemons)
1 cup superfine sugar
2 cups water
Step 1: Strain the lemon juice through a sieve into a pitcher. (If you like lots of pulp, then leave it obvs.)
Step 2: Add the sugar, stirring until it dissolves into the lemon juice.
Step 3: Stir in the water.
NB: when you make the lemonade, substituting the water for a bottle of your favorite sparkling lemon juice/water, e.g. La Croix, Perrier, etc, will amp up the lemon and create a refreshing 'fizz'.
Now for the blueberries.
One option - the simple one - is to muddle* 1 cup of the berries and then dump the muddled mess into the pitcher of lemonade. Perhaps with a sprig or two of mint. Add some unmuddled berries as well. They'll bob happily about.
A second option - the less simple one - is to add some blueberry syrup to the pitcher of lemonade :: click through here for my tried and true blueberry syrup recipe. You can throw in some uncooked blueberries as garnish here as well.Finally, to morph this into a summer cocktail, add bourbon. Good bourbon. Or even a lemon vodka. NB: with the addition of alcohol, please drink responsibly - and prepare to add some more sugar. It's fizzy and fiery and tart!
RECIPE 2 'Black-and-Blue Smoothies'
Hey, guess what? It's blackberry season too! Add some to the above recipes in place of (or in addition to) the blueberries for extra anti-oxidant kick. And follow this recipe for a tasty alternative to the traditional blueberry smoothie:
1 cup milk or soy/almond milk
2-3 generous teaspoons natural Greek yoghurt
2 teaspoons honey
1 cup berries mix (blueberries/blackberries)
Step 1: Blitz the ingredients in a blender/Vitamix.
Step 2: Drink.Step 3: Smack lips satisfyingly.
Drink up, people. And eat those berries while the sun still shines!
Onward.
* Click through for a lesson in muddling from Michael Cecconi: how to muddle. Apparently, we're doing it wrong.
