If you love refreshing cucumber water and sweet and bright lemonade, then you are going to LOVE this Cucumber Lemonade! It's very easy to make without having to make simple syrup and without chopping or seeding the cucumber, and it tastes so good. Summer in a glass!
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Cucumber lemonade
We're overflowing with fresh cucumbers here from our CSA, so I am putting them to good use. We make this cucumber sesame salad, add chopped cucumber to salsa, and lately I've been adding cucumbers to my lemonade. It started with a few slices and quickly progressed to me pureeing a whole cucumber into a batch of lemonade.
I was so pleasantly surprised by how GOOD cucumber lemonade tastes that I knew I had to share this recipe with you ASAP so you can enjoy it this summer too.
This cucumber lemonade recipe is the best because:
- You don't need to make simple syrup on the stove.
- You don't need to remove the seeds from the cucumber.
- You can adjust the sweetness and strength of the lemonade to YOUR taste, I give you all the tips for how to do that.
- Kids love it and have no idea they're drinking cucumber juice!
So with that said... are you ready to make some lemonade??
Related recipe: Cherry Lemonade
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup boiling water
- 2-3 cups cold water, divided
- 1 small-medium cucumber or ½ English cucumber (about 6-8 inches), peeled or mostly peeled. Make sure your cucumber is not bitter at the ends so you don't ruin your lemonade!
- 1 cup lemon juice (from ~7-8 fresh lemons, but get more just in case yours are small)
More refreshing summer drinks: Strawberry Agua Fresca
Equipment
To make cucumber lemonade, you'll need:
- A citrus squeezer
- A blender
- A fine mesh sieve (or coffee filters and a colander)
- A heat-safe bowl that holds 2 cups (I love my Pyrex measuring cups for this!)
- An ~8-cup container for the lemonade, such as a large glass pitcher, a plastic pitcher, or even a lemonade dispenser
Related recipe: Cherry Limeade
Instructions
Step 1: Combine the sugar with the boiling water in a heat-safe container and stir until all the sugar dissolves. The water must be boiling hot, not just hot. Set aside while you prepare the rest of the lemonade. You will use most or all of this sugar water, depending on how sweet you like your lemonade.
Step 2: Chop the cucumber into 3-4 pieces and place it in a blender with 1 cup of cold water. Blend until completely liquified.
Step 3: Strain out the cucumber pulp by placing a fine mesh sieve over a container to catch the cucumber juice. You should have about 1.25 cups of green cucumber juice and almost ¼ cup of pulp. If you have a lot more pulp then use a spoon to try to squeeze out some more juice.
Step 4: Squeeze your lemons, make sure you have 1 cup of lemon juice. If you don't have enough fresh lemons, it's OK to add a little bottled lemon juice.
Step 5: In a large container, combine the lemon juice, cucumber juice, and 1 cup of your sugar water. Add 2 cups of cold water and stir. Adjust to taste by adding up to 1 cup of water and/or the rest of the sugar water. Stir and chill before serving, or serve immediately over ice. I like to add a full 3 cups of cold water and the full amount of the sugar water for a sweet lemonade.
Related recipe: Mulberry Iced Tea
What kind of cucumber to use
Any cucumber you have on hand will work for this lemonade, HOWEVER, please make sure to cut off the ends of the cucumbers and give them a taste before adding the cucumber to the lemonade. Some cucumbers are really bitter on the ends (or even the whole thing can be bitter), which would completely ruin this lemonade.
I recommend using English cucumbers, which are the long ones that are always sold in shrink-wrapped plastic because those are never bitter in my experience, and because their peel is very tender and mind tasting. If using an English cucumber, you'll use about ½ of one.
More recipes with fresh cucumber: Tzatziki Cucumber Salad
Should I peel the cucumber for the lemonade?
I recommend peeling the cucumber at least halfway, or even most of the way to get a less green color, and to not have a super strong cucumber flavor. If your cucumbers are not organic, then definitely peel the cucumber.
Because you strain out all the pulp for this recipe, the pureed cucumber peel would mostly get strained out and I am not sure how much nutrients you would get out of it anyway. However, if you have organic cucumbers and want to skip peeling the cucumber (and are not afraid of a really green lemonade), then you can blend the whole cucumber.
Adjust the sweetness and strength of your lemonade
As I mentioned in the recipe, make sure you adjust the flavor to YOUR liking. If you like your lemonade less sugary, use about ¾ of your sugar water mixture. You can always add the rest later if you change your mind.
If you like the lemonade to have a stronger flavor, add only 2 cups cold water to dilute the lemonade. If it's too flavorful, you can always stir in another cup later, or dilute it in your glass (that's what I do!), or serve over lots of ice, which will melt into your lemonade.
Add mint, basil, or ginger
This lemonade is amazing with a small handful of fresh mint leaves muddled or blended into the lemonade. It will turn the lemonade even more green though, so beware!
It's also pretty great with a handful of basil leaves muddled into the lemonade, either right into the pitcher or for serving. I always recommend a mojito muddler for summer drinks!
You can also add ginger to the lemonade (I love a good ginger limeade!). You can do this by either (1) blending a small piece in with the cucumber and water and straining it out, or (2) grating a small piece of ginger directly into the lemonade (you'll have some pulp), or (3) adding a few peeled slices to the boiling water and sugar and letting it infuse while you prepare the lemonade or (4) making a batch of this honey ginger syrup and using it to sweeten the lemonade. To be honest, I haven't tried options 1 and 3 so I don't know just how spicy or gingery they would turn out.
Related recipe: Raspberry Mojitos
Easy Cucumber Lemonade
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup boiling water
- 2-3 cups cold water - divided
- 1 small-medium cucumber - or ½ English cucumber (about 6-8 inches), peeled or mostly peeled. Make sure your cucumber is not bitter at the ends so you don't ruin your lemonade!
- 1 cup lemon juice - (from ~7-8 fresh lemons, but get more just in case yours are small)
Special equipment
- Fine mesh sieve (or a coffee filter and a colander)
- Large pitcher or another container to hold 8+ cups
Instructions
- Combine the sugar with the boiling water in a heat-safe container and stir until all the sugar dissolves. The water must be boiling hot, not just hot. Set aside the sugar water while you prepare the rest of the lemonade.
- Chop the cucumber into 3-4 pieces and place it in a blender with 1 cup of cold water. Blend until completely liquified.
- Strain out the cucumber pulp by placing a fine mesh sieve over a container to catch the cucumber juice. You should have about 1.25 cups of green cucumber juice and almost ¼ cup of pulp. If you have a lot more pulp then use a spoon to try to squeeze out some more juice.
- Squeeze your lemons, make sure you have 1 cup of lemon juice. If you don't have enough fresh lemons, it's OK to add a little bottled lemon juice.
- In a large container, combine the lemon juice, cucumber juice, and 1 cup of your sugar water (you'll have some left over). Add 2 cups of cold water and stir. Adjust to taste by adding up to 1 cup of water and/or the rest of the sugar water. Stir and chill before serving, or serve immediately over ice.
Notes
Nutrition
The nutritional information displayed is an estimate and not to be used as dietary or nutritional advice. Consult a nutritionist or dietician for nutritional info based on the exact ingredients you use.