This Easy Homemade Strawberry Lemonade recipe is a refreshing summer drink made with only 4 healthy ingredients including fresh strawberries and honey! Skip the store bought varieties riddled with artificial ingredients, corn syrup and food dyes and make your own, more delicious strawberry lemonade today!
Who doesn't love a cold glass of lemonade after a day of fun in the sun?! This Strawberry Lemonade recipe is made with fresh strawberries, sweetened with honey (or a sweetener of your choice) and has no artificial ingredients, making it a great way to beat the heat this summer!
Store-bought strawberry lemonade varieties usually contain high fructose corn syrup, food dyes, and a laundry list of other undesirable ingredients. However this Homemade Strawberry Lemonade is made with only 4 all-natural healthy ingredients! Plus it only takes 5 minutes to blend it up!
Strawberry Lemonade: Ingredients & Substitutions
This strawberry lemonade recipe only has four ingredients that we will discuss and touch on possible substitutions.
- Strawberries. I recommend fresh strawberries for the best flavor and ease of blending! If you have frozen berries they will work too, and will actually help the strawberry lemonade chill faster!
- Lemon Juice. I use Santa Cruz Organic Lemon Juice in all of my baking, lemonade-making and cooking. Because let's face it, with 5 sweet kids I just don't have time to juice a bunch of lemons. I love the quality of Santa Cruz juice because it's 100% pure and not from concentrate! If you do have the time, then by all means use fresh-squeezed lemon juice!
- Honey. Any sweetener can be used in this homemade strawberry lemonade recipe. I have used honey and organic cane sugar with delicious results. I did try maple syrup and while it tasted ok, I don't prefer the maple flavor in my lemonade, to be honest.
- Water. I use filtered water from my refrigerator to make this strawberry lemonade. Feel free to use tap water if you live in a place where it is safe to drink. Another fun twist would be using soda water to make a fizzy lemonade!
How do you make Homemade Strawberry Lemonade?
This strawberry lemonade recipe is so easy to make, but I want to give you a few tips and tricks to ensure your success!
Use a Vitamix blender.
I couldn't post a blender recipe without (once again) reminding you that in a world full of blenders, Vitamix out-performs them all. To get the smoothest strawberry lemonade that you don't need to strain, I highly recommend using a Vitamix to make this strawberry lemonade recipe, although any blender will work! Click on this post to see my recommendations for buying a Vitamix if you're in the market for one!
Blend water & strawberries
Remember, when you're blending it's important to always add liquids into the blending container first! So in this recipe begin by adding water followed by the strawberries!
Blending the water and strawberries together first until the mixture is completely smooth ensures there will be no seeds or strawberry pieces left in the final product and no need to add the extra step of straining! It also prevents any honey from getting stuck to the bottom of the blending container (especially if you're using a less powerful blender).
Add lemon juice & sweetener and blend.
Now dump the rest of the ingredients into the container and blend for 30 seconds. The goal of this step is to make sure the honey (or sugar) is completely dissolved!
Add more water and Blend
Add the last cup of water and blend for 10 seconds or until the mixture is homogenous!
You will notice that there is a significant amount of froth after the blending is complete. That's totally normal and it settles and disappears during chilling!
Taste & adjust
After all 3 cups of water and ¾ cup of honey have been added, pour yourself a sip and taste the Strawberry Lemonade. I have found that the sweetness of the strawberries changes the amount of honey I prefer to use.
I usually don't add more than ¾ cup, but once I made this with a particularly sour batch of berries and I ended up adding 1 full cup of honey to get the right sweetness!
Chill
Grab yourself a 2 liter pitcher and put 2 cups of ice in it. Pour the lemonade into the pitcher with ice and place it in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours (preferably longer to fully chill).
Enjoy!
Serve this Strawberry Lemonade cold over ice after a long day of fun in the sun! It's a delicious and healthier alternative to lemonade mixes that everyone will love!
FAQs about Strawberry Lemonade
Here are some commonly asked questions about making this Homemade Strawberry Lemonade recipe!
Pink lemonade gets it's pink color from food dye, while strawberry lemonade (at least this homemade version) gets its pinkish red color from real strawberries!
Lemons contain 70% sugar and strawberries contain only 40%! Lemons taste sour despite their higher sugar content because they have a high amount of citric acid!
This strawberry lemonade stays fresh in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
More delicious strawberry recipes:
- This strawberry sauce and strawberry whipped cream are delicious toppings for many desserts, like this flourless chocolate cake!
- You can't go wrong with a slice of this strawberry pie!
- This healthy berry crisp is loaded with strawberries and is SO yummy!
- We make this strawberry banana smoothie ALL the time!
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Homemade Strawberry Lemonade Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup strawberries (chopped)
- 3 cups water (divided)
- 1 cup lemon juice
- ¾ - 1 cup honey
- 2 cups ice
Instructions
- Place 2 cups water and strawberries in the container of a Vitamix and blend until smooth.
- Add lemon juice and honey and blend until combined and the mixture is uniform throughout.
- Add additional cup of water and blend for 10 seconds.
- Put 2 cups of ice into a large pitcher. Pour lemonade over the ice and put it in the refrigerator to chill for 2 hours or overnight.
- After chilling, if there is still some foam left at the top, simply stir it into the lemonade or scrape it off with a spoon!
- Serve over ice for a refreshing summer drink!
Video
Notes
Ingredient Substitutions
- Strawberries. I recommend fresh strawberries for the best flavor and ease of blending! If you have frozen berries they will work too, and will actually help the strawberry lemonade chill faster!
- Lemon Juice. I use Santa Cruz Organic Lemon Juice in all of my baking, lemonade-making and cooking. Because let's face it, with 5 sweet kids I just don't have time to juice a bunch of lemons. I love the quality of Santa Cruz juice because it's 100% pure and not from concentrate! If you do have the time, then by all means use fresh-squeezed lemon juice!
- Honey. Any sweetener can be used in this homemade strawberry lemonade recipe. I have used honey and organic cane sugar with delicious results. I did try maple syrup and while it tasted ok, I don't prefer the maple flavor in my lemonade, to be honest.
- Water. I use filtered water from my refrigerator to make this strawberry lemonade. Feel free to use tap water if you live in a place where it is safe to drink. Another fun twist would be using soda water to make a fizzy lemonade!
Nutrition
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Amanda Wyss
So delicious!!! My son drank half of it by himself. 🤣
Emily Swanson
It's amazing because no artificial flavored strawberry syrup will ever parallel incredible taste of fresh strawberries in lemonade.