Cold and refreshing strawberry lemonade made from scratch with fresh lemon juice, frozen strawberries, water, and sugar. This homemade lemonade recipe is easy to make and easy to customize, too!
Lemonade seems like something might be a pain in the you-know-what, but you know what? It really isn’t. You don’t have to spend hours squeezing lemons or make complicated syrups to make it all work. This homemade strawberry lemonade recipe has a prep time of about 15 minutes. That’s it!
And, yes, I know you can just buy lemonade which is faster, but it’s fun to make things, and the kind you get at the store doesn’t have pretty strawberries in it. At best, it has a fake strawberry flavor, while our from-scratch fresh strawberry lemonade has just a few simple ingredients.
Table of contents
Ingredients
- Granulated sugar
- Water
- Freshly squeezed lemon juice – you will need about 5 to 6 large lemons
- Thawed sliced frozen strawberries
It does require a little advanced planning – the strawberries need time to thaw and, once the lemonade is made it needs time to chill. But actual hands-on time is minimal.
How to Make It
Combine the sugar with 3 cups of water in a small saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat and stir until all of the sugar has dissolved. Remove the pan from the stove and allow it to cool.
Pour 4 cups of cold water, the sugar water, and lemon juice in a large pitcher. Add the strawberries and stir to combine. Pour into glasses with ice cubes and garnish with lemon slices and fresh mint.
Variations and Other Fun Tips
Sweetness Level: Lemonade is supposed to be sweet, but how sweet depends on your tastes. If you serve it on a warm day with lots of ice, I don’t recommend changing the ingredient amounts. The ice will water the drink down as it melts a bit. That said, you can add up to one to two cups more of water to cut the sweetness if that’s what you prefer.
Make it Fizzy: Add some sparkling water or soda water to make a fizzy refreshing drink!
Make it Boozy: Add an ounce or two of vodka to each glass to make spiked strawberry lemonade.
Frozen Lemonade: Instead of thawing the strawberries, place them in a blender or food processor with the lemonade and blend until you have a slushy frozen strawberry lemonade.
Strawberry Puree: If you don’t want the strawberry slices in the pitcher, you can puree the strawberries first, strain the pureed juice through a fine-mesh strainer, and add it to the lemonade.
Change the Fruit: You aren’t stuck with strawberries – try other fruit like blueberries, raspberries, peaches, cherries, or other frozen fruit that you like.
Recipe FAQs
Yes, you can use fresh strawberries, but I suggest mashing them in the pitcher first to release their juices. I like using thawed frozen ones because you get a lot of liquid from the berries, which helps flavor the lemonade.
I don’t recommend it because fresh lemon juice tastes a thousand times better. It’s worth squeezing the juice yourself.
Yes, that would be the super easy option. You can doctor up store-bought lemonade and skip making your own. Just add the thawed berries to the lemonade to flavor it.
Yes, let them thaw and then slice them. Or you can lightly mash them in the pitcher.
Making a simple syrup, which is sugar heated with water until it dissolves, is so much better than just adding sugar to cold water. If you skip making the syrup the lemonade will be grainy from the sugar.
It will keep for several days but the strawberries won’t be as pretty after a day or so. You can always scoop them out after a day if you prefer.
Treat yourself to this quintessential summer drink at least once this year! There’s nothing better on a hot summer day – I hope you enjoy this lemonade recipe!
Happy sipping!
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More Drink Recipes
- Pineapple Agua Fresca
- Spiked Sparkling Lemonade
- Refreshing Orange Smoothie
- Watermelon Mojito
- Homemade Limeade – recipe from Food Folks and Fun
Strawberry Lemonade
Cold and refreshing strawberry lemonade made from scratch with fresh lemon juice, frozen strawberries, water, and sugar. This recipe is easy to make and easy to customize, too, with other frozen fruit like blueberries, raspberries, or peaches.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 9 (8-oz) glasses 1x
- Category: Drinks
- Method: Mix
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 7 cups water, divided
- 1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (from about 5 to 6 large lemons)
- 1 1/2 cups sliced frozen strawberries, thawed
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar with 3 cups of water. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat until all of the sugar has dissolved. Remove the pan from the stove and allow it to cool.
- Pour 4 cups of water, the sugar water, and lemon juice in a large pitcher. Add the strawberries and stir to combine. Serve over ice and enjoy.
Notes
To make the lemonade less sweet, add up to one to two cups of water.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 (8-oz) glass
- Calories: 105
- Sugar: 24.5g
- Sodium: 8.6mg
- Fat: 0.1g
- Saturated Fat: 0g
- Unsaturated Fat: 0g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 27.5g
- Fiber: 0.9g
- Protein: 0.3g
- Cholesterol: 0mg
Keywords: homemade strawberry lemonade
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