Who doesn’t love a cold glass of lemonade on a hot day? I certainly do, and with basil, it was an unexpected but good surprise!

I’m a home body so I generally spend most of my time at home. But when I’ve decided to do something…it needs to happen. That’s what led me to a Farmers Market this Sunday, and taking my worst influencer (my mother) with me. Now in my mind, I thought this would be a browse, check out the cute stalls and just pick up what was necessary for my “Eat Pink” Taste Testers Club…but you all should know by now that didn’t happen. If you didn’t think it, shame on you, the build up was there.

After browsing a few stalls I realised not only had I bought something from each one, but I had subsequently lost my mother in a small farmers market. Angela…why?! I found her huddled around bags of lettuces and kale, picking up each one, marveling at the lush greenness and swiftly taking a bunch to add to the growing bag in her hand. *Oy vey. I watched as she began to look like Santa Claus with a small sack filled with … salad. Eagerly she handed it over, paid for it, and beamed at me -(What have I done?).

Amongst her finds, we noticed fresh common basil that I decided would go nice in my next pasta. Until the lady asked which type of basil I wanted. Why do you people continue to give me choices? After she listed four varieties – common basil, lemon basil, cinnamon basil and purple basil – the choice was obvious – all of them. *Aside* If you’re wondering the reason for my second paragraph at this point, its sole purpose was to show who I inherited it from.

Ok great, it was home time.

Below is the sporadic, almost squirrel like thoughts that ran through my mind once I got home realising my purchases.

“What’s that smell?”
“Wait, this whole bag is basil?”
“But Hadi you only use basil for garnish!!”
“It’s the bag, it was deceptively smaller at the market, must be their lighting (the sun, ha ha)”
“It wasn’t that hot out though, can’t blame it on heat stroke”
“I wonder if dogs can eat basil”
“It smells so good though”
“This is going to spoil in the back of my fridge”
“The devil is a liar”
“Is basil salad a thing? Like just basil with nothing else?”
“Maybe I can make basil butter…but what would I put it on?”
“It’s her fault you know, she had on her glasses and saw this bag was huge – but I have almost perfect eyesight so what does that say about me?”
“Ok wrong train of thought, maybe lots of pesto”
“But you’re tired of pasta”
“If this was one day earlier I could’ve made my Taste Testers Club potato puffs with this and make a set with each type of basil”

“SALAD IT IS”

However after three days of salads with every meal, the basil bag was still very much alive. pulls hair from stress*.

Then a bag of limes delivered by one of my neighbours solved all of my problems. I had lemons, now limes…let’s make lemonade. Omg! Basil lemonade. The subtle peppery taste and aroma of the basil varieties, particularly lemon and common basil paired nicely with the tartness of the lemons and limes.

If you add a few muddled ones to let it “marinate” for an hour or two, seems to only make this Basil Lemonade more of a pleasure to have next to your favourite dish.

Hadi Who doesn’t love a cold glass of lemonade on a hot day? I certainly do, and with basil, it was an unexpected but good surprise! I’m a home body so I generally spend most of my time at home. But... Recipes basil, lemonade, cool, refreshing drink European Print This

Serves: 2 Prep Time: 10 minutes

Nutrition facts: 106 calories 20 grams fat

Rating: 5.0/5

( 1 voted )

Ingredients

• 3 limes
• 2 lemons
• 5 tbsp simple syrup
• 6 basil leaves
• a dash of angostura bitters
• 2 cups of water

Instructions

Squeeze the lemons and lime.
Add the lemon and lime juice to a plastic jug with the simple syrup, basil leaves and angostura bitters.
Muddle the basil into the mixture to begin the infusion of flavours.
Add water
Serve over a glass of icee. Top with additional basil if so desired.