Homemade Pomegranate Lemonade – Vegan/ Sugar Free

Three Simple Ingredients!

At the weekends we sometimes buy fizzy drinks…. drum roll…. I know! Terrible! They are so high in sugar and other rubbish and the diet versions are even worse for you. But I’ve always thought that you should have a little amount of something if you fancy it and enjoy life. Problem is people who become addicted to these fizzy drinks don’t enjoy life for very long!

So, I decided to make a healthier soft drink which would satisfy our weekend craving for something more fun than water or orange squash! It’s not fizzy (although it could be!) but it is sweet and brightly coloured, I think kids would love it! Although I haven’t tested this theory out yet.

I love the bright pink colour!

I googled a few lemonade recipes and they all had alot of sugar in them. I mean you do still have to tone down the sour lemons, but I wasn’t comfortable putting something on Veghotpot which had 2 cups of sugar in it! Then I stumbled across Savvy Vegetarian and they included an option to use Agave Nectar instead, I found this really interesting so I popped down to Holland and Barretts and picked some up for this recipe.

Agave Nectar is 1.6 sweeter than honey so don’t just substitute the amount of sugar with agave nectar in your normal lemonade recipe. I don’t know all the pros and cons of agave nectar (apparently it is not as natural as they make out however it is low GI) but it’s better than buying a bottle of fruit fanta which contains Carbonated water, sugar, orange fruit from concentrate (3%), citric acid, flavourings, preservatives (E202, E211), stabilisers (E445, E412, Acacia Gum), colours (E104, E122, E124).

Plus my recipe includes real lemons and the best part – pomegranate, which is full of anti oxidants, lowers risk of blood clots and heart disease, reduces cholesterol and hels rebuild cells. The most antioxidants are contained in the inedible skin, however juicing them releases alot of them into the juice! (Source: Global Healing Centre)

Makes 1 large jug

5 Lemons
1/2 Cup Organic Agave Nectar
1 Pomegranate
6-7 Cups Water
Extra Lemon to serve Slices in the glasses
Ice to serve

Juice the lemons into the jug and pick out any pips. Place a sieve over a large bowl and slice the pomegranate in half, squeeze each half over the sieve and scoop out the seeds into the sieve. Press the juice through the sieve until you are just left with some rough pulp. Pour the pomegranate juice into the jug with the lemons, add the nectar and give it a really good stir.

Then top the jug up with the water and taste. If you want more water/ lemon or agave then play around until you find the balance you like! I liked it with a little lemon kick!

All the hard work of squeezing lemons is worth it in the end!