Honey Ginger Lemonade

# of servings:  4
Preparation Time:  5 mins	Cook Time:  None

Refreshing homemade lemonade is made with simple ingredients without any preservatives or too many calories.  It looks and tastes better than any processed store-bought drinks.  Certainly great for a hot afternoon.

Ingredients:

• Lemon - one half
• Ginger - 1 inch
• Honey (or) vegan sweetner - 4 tbsp
• Salt - 1 pinch
• Cardamom - 4 pods
• Cold water - 4 cups
• Crushed ice

Method:

• Cut a thin slice off the open side of the lemon and make it into quarters
• Save this for garnish on the serving glasses
• Deseed and chop up the lemon along with the rind and add it to a blender jar
• Add the ginger to the blender jar along with 1 glass of cold water 
• Coarsely powder the cardamom pods (along with the pods) and add to the blender
• Pulse the blender well so the lemon and ginger are coarsely ground
• Strain it into a vessel
• Add the lemon ginger residue back to the blender jar along with another glass of cold water and repeat the pulsing
• Strain it in the vessel
• Add two more cups of water to the extract along with honey/sweetener and the pinch of salt
• Stir until everything dissolves
• Add crushed ice to the serving glasses
• Make a small slit in the thin lemon slices and stick one to the edge of each glass
• Pour the lemonade on the ice and serve cold

Tips and Tricks:

• Powdering the cardamom separately will help incorporate the flavors better
• Lemon and ginger should be pulsed with small quantities of water to extract their essence well
• Repeating the action a couple times with fresh water will help extract as much flavor from the ingredients as possible
• Be sure to test the lemonade for sweetness before serving.  The tartness of the lemon can make a difference in the amount of sweetener

Pictures: 

Final Outcome: