I met Chef Janice Feuer Haugen when I blogged about her book, Fruit-Sweet and Sugar-Free. She somehow found me and sent a kind thank-you for sharing her work. Since, we’ve traded emails and she has even started her own blog, Everyday Healthy! Everyday Delicious! I urge you to check out her book and her blog. Her forward-thinking and commitment to healthy, delicious food is sure to bring tasty, unique recipes into your world.
Breathe in the fragrance of lavender.
After just five short minutes of breathing in a mild lavender scent, you lower your heart rate and blood pressure, relax your body and release less of the stress hormone cortisol. Lavender’s calming effect on the mind extends to the tummy and skin and comes from both smelling its fragrance and ingesting its blossoms.
Not sure about you, but I don’t often think of adding lavender to my food. Though, occasionally I’ve read about ice cream, shortbread or cake flavored with lavender. All that changed recently when I wondered about adding lavender to lemonade. It turns out to be a very easy and delicious introduction to consuming it as well as an ideal combination. Lavender and lemonade are both cooling and relaxing on their own and even more so when combined.
A seeming miracle occurs when making Lavender Lemonade. When the reddish brown lavender infusion mixes with the lemon juice the entire mixture turns a most beautiful rosy pink! When making the infusion, use the flowers and buds (rather than the too-strongly flavored leaves) of food grade lavender that is safe for consumption rather than lavender sold for sachets or potpourri.
Once you’ve tasted Lavender Infused Lemonade, you’ll want to find more ways to include lavender in your food and your life. May you live Everyday healthy, Everyday delicious!
This recipe was shared with Simply Sugar & Gluten Free by Janice Haugen of Everyday Healthy! Everyday Delicious!
Ingredients
- Zest of two lemons (organic if possible)
- 1/2 cup dried lavender blossoms
- 1/2 cup mild honey or agave or other sweetener of choice
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup fresh lemon juice (from about 4-5 lemons)
Instructions
- Use a vegetable peeler to remove the flavorful zest (the yellow portion of the skin) from 2 lemons.
- Place the zest, lavender blossoms, honey or sweetener of choice and the 2 cups of water in a medium saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil. Lower the heat so the mixture gently simmers for 10 minutes. Cover the pan and turn off the heat. Steep this lavender infusion for at least 30 and up to 90 minutes. The longer the infusion steeps, the more intense the lavender flavor of your lemonade.
- Meanwhile, juice the lemons and place the juice in a pitcher along with 4 1/ 2 cups of water.
- Strain the infusion through a fine sieve into a container with a pour spout, pressing on the lavender and the lemon zest to extract as much liquid as possible.
- Now is when the magic happens: begin to pour the strained reddish brown infusion into the pitcher. The more of the lavender infusion you add, the pinker the lemonade becomes.
- The final color is a beautiful rosy pink! Taste and add more water if you would like so that the taste is just right for you.
- Either chill the lemonade with ice or in the fridge. Serve garnished with fresh stalks of lavender and/or thin slices of lemon.
As a Cordon Bleu trained cook, baker, cake decorator,chef and caterer, Janice experienced firsthand the deleterious effects of whitesugar and flour. Her five cookbooks from ChocolateDecadence to Fruit-Sweet andSugar-Free chronicle these experiences. She shares her passion for food asa culinary coach and speaker and with her blog Everyday Healthy! Everyday Delicious! featuring beautiful photography and mostly vegetarian recipes. Janice is truly afriend in the kitchen.
Dawn Farias
posted on July 20, 2012 at 11:39 am
I’m amazed at how pretty it is!
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Sabrina M.
posted on July 20, 2012 at 12:34 pm
You have no idea how much joy it fills me with to see this recipe on your site! I have been touting the sublime pleasures of lavender food for years now, and lemon & lavender is one of those beautiful flavor combos made in heaven (blueberry & lavender is another one). I always love finding new foodstuffs on the market incorporating lavender goodness, and thankfully they are slowly beginning to become more mainstream.
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Alta
posted on July 20, 2012 at 12:41 pm
How gorgeous. I love lavender, and I have some in my kitchen, but I never seem to find many uses for it. This is a great idea.
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April
posted on July 20, 2012 at 12:55 pm
Oh Amy, THANK YOU!!!
I love cooking with Lavender. And mine is in full bloom right now.
I’m going to make this today!!
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April Reply:
July 23rd, 2012 at 12:05 am
@April, Update on Lavender infused Lemonade… SO Refreshing!!!!
Perfect for these hot summer days and what a wonderful relaxing evening. I slept so good. Thank you so much Amy for sharing this and all the others too.
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Amy Reply:
July 25th, 2012 at 3:25 pm
@April, I’m thrilled that you like the tea! Janice has such a unique spin on food.
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Mandy
posted on July 21, 2012 at 5:18 pm
I think your gluten free recipes are absolutely fantastic looking and I can’t wait to try some of them but I’m unclear on how you consider your recipes sugar free when everything I looked at today contains some form of sugar. No matter the source, sugar has the same affect on our bodies and none of your recipes are sugar free…I’m confused!
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Amy Reply:
July 25th, 2012 at 3:29 pm
@Mandy, If you look at my tag-line it’s refined sugar-free. There is sugar in everything – even veggies. I use more natural sugars that I can tolerate. I can’t have any cane sugar products so you won’t find those here.
Hugs!
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InTolerant Chef
posted on July 22, 2012 at 1:56 am
I love lavender too, and just bought some yummy lavender honey at the markets
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Shelley Alexander
posted on July 23, 2012 at 4:54 pm
This lemonade sounds so refreshing and I love the lavender in it. Thanks for sharing!
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Wine Harlots
posted on August 1, 2012 at 3:44 pm
I haven’t tried this one yet (I’m more about infusing vodka!)
Thanks for the tip.
All the best,
Nannette Eaton
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BETH
posted on December 31, 2012 at 6:54 pm
I love this recipe! I actually had it when I was in Israel in May. It was so good. I had never thought about adding lavendar to lemonade, but it tasted really good. I am so going to bring this to a party at work or school some time.
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Amy Reply:
January 5th, 2013 at 4:19 pm
@BETH, I’m sure your friends will enjoy it. When you were in Israel, did they serve it chilled or room temperature?
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