Limeade Recipe

Summer for my daughters means the swimming pool is open for business.

Summer for me means fresh tomatoes.

Summer for my husband means his go-to drink becomes the Gin and Tonic.

For some of us especially, summer can’t come soon enough.

Limes were on sale this week at the grocery store (5 for $3, same for lemons), so I bought 10.  I knew that 10 limes worth of gin and tonics never ends well, so I looked up a limeade recipe so the girls could join Dada in their own way in the celebration of summer.

I’d like to point you to a very cool cooking site that speaks to me when I am just looking for the facts:  Cooking for Engineers.  Check out the recipe tab for a giant list of recipes that have been thoroughly tested and are written in a no-nonsense manner.  My husband is an engineer by training, and he often finds recipes confusing to follow.  He says they’re “too narrative”.  This is the site for him.

I was looking for a limeade recipe that I could make on a cup-by-cup basis and this is where I found it.  This recipe makes a simple syrup with lime juice concentrate which you then dilute with water to make the quantity you want.  Perfect.

Limeade (from Cooking for Engineers)

Limeade Concentrate:

1 cup lime juice (about 6 limes)

1.5 c water

1.5 c sugar

Squeeze the limes to get 1 cup of lime juice and put aside.  Combine the sugar and water in a saucepan and heat until the sugar is completely dissolved.  Remove from heat a cool a bit and then add the lime juice.  Store this concentrate refrigerated or frozen.

Limeade:

1 c limeade concentrate plus 2 cups water.  (or 1/3 c limeade concentrate + 2/3 c water…I is good at math)

On the site, the commenters suggested adding mint leaves or grated lime peel.  I did neither of these, but they both sounded great!  Adding little mint plus some white rum would make a great mojito-like drink.

Summer can’t come soon enough!