Ingredients: (Serves 7)
- 1 cup (240 mL) of lemon juice (about 8 lemons)
- 1 cup (225 g) of sugar
- 6 cups (1.4 L) of water
- Ice (optional)
1. Juice 8 lemons to get about 1 cup of lemon juice. Roll your lemons on the countertop to make them easier to juice. Next, cut your lemons in half and press them onto a lemon press over a pitcher or measuring cup. Twist the lemon halves over the press to get as much juice out as possible.
Microwave your lemons for 10-20 seconds to soften the pulp and get more juice.
If you don’t have a lemon press, squeeze the lemon to get most of the juice out. Then, press a fork or mixer beater into the lemon pulp and twist it to release the rest of the juice.
You can get a lemon press at your local grocery or department store or online.
2. Transfer the lemon juice into a large pitcher. If you like pulp in your lemon juice, pour the squeezed lemon juice directly into the pitcher. If you don’t like pulp, hold a strainer over the pitcher and pour the lemon juice over the strainer to catch the pulp. Then, empty the strainer into your compost or trash. Make sure your pitcher can hold at least 8 cups (1.9 L) of fluids.
3. Pour 1 cup of sugar into the lemon juice and stir to dissolve it. Since lemon juice is acidic, it can dissolve your sugar for you, which saves you a lot of work! Add the sugar directly into your lemon juice, then stir until the sugar dissolves. This should take about 3-4 minutes.
If you don’t want your lemonade to be as sweet, you can add less sugar. Try adding just 1/2 or 3/4 cup of sugar.
Don’t add your water until the sugar dissolves so that the lemon juice isn’t diluted. It will take the sugar longer to dissolve in diluted lemon juice.
