Made with only a handful of ingredients in a few simple steps – this frozen lemonade recipe is easy, adaptable and incredibly refreshing! Simply blend up a couple of fresh lemons with ice, water and sweeten to taste.
Here it is: the perfect summer drink!
It’s:
- easy to make – no squeezing required
- made with only a handful of basic ingredients
- blends together in minutes
- refreshing and delicious down to the last sip!
This recipe is basically just a regular lemonade with a frozen twist – like a drinkable granita. It’s much easier to make than a classic lemonade as there’s no squeezing and stirring required. You don’t even need to make a simple syrup to sweeten!
Frozen Lemonade Ingredients
Lemons
Look for unwaxed lemons since you’ll need the zest from one. Once you’ve got the zest from one lemon, or about 2 teaspoons worth, you can peel them both.
Use a kitchen knife to cut away the lemon peel instead of trying to do it by hand. If you’d like a visual demonstration, check out this youtube video: How to Peel a Lemon.
Sweetener
Since honey and maple syrup are naturally sweeter than regular sugar you don’t need to add as much here compared to most other frozen lemonade recipes. That being said, feel free to play around with amounts to suit your tastes. Use less sweetener for a more tart lemonade or more for a sweeter one.
You might also like it with a honey simple syrup! Since it’s cut with water it’s technically lower sugar than using all honey.
Keep in mind that you should use maple syrup if you’d like to make this frozen lemon vegan and low FODMAP friendly.
Ice
Use crushed ice if you can. If you don’t have any on hand, you can crush it yourself in the blender first before adding the other ingredients.
Cold Water
You might need to add a little bit more water to your blender depending on what kind of consistency you’re going for. Add a little more for a smoother lemonade or less for an icier lemonade.
Pinch of Salt
I think a bit of salt helps to tone down some of the acidity of the lemon. You can omit the salt if you prefer.
Blend and Enjoy
Once you’ve got everything together, simply combine in a blender or food process and blend into your desired consistency.
If it’s too watery at first, add more ice to make it more slushy-like. Since we’re working with whole lemons instead of just fresh lemon juice, you can add quite a bit of water and ice without watering down too much of the natural flavor.
Substitutions and Additions
Get creative with your lemonade by playing around with the ingredients! Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Swap out half the ice with frozen fruit like pineapple, raspberries, strawberries, etc.
- Add a small handful of fresh herbs like basil, mint leaves, rosemary or thyme.
- Thirsty for a vodka lemonade? Give it boozy twist by adding 1-2 capfuls (or more) of vodka, rum, tequila, etc.
- Use 1/2-3/4 cup granulated white sugar instead of maple or honey. Maple and honey are both sweeter to taste than white sugar so you will need a larger amount of sugar here to account for the change.
- Add vanilla ice cream to make a frosted lemonade recipe like the ones from Chick-fil-A
Healthy Frozen Lemonade
Simply blend up a couple of fresh lemons with ice, water and sweeten to taste.
Ingredients
- 2 medium sized lemons
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest
- 6 tablespoons (120 g) maple syrup or (130 g) honey
- 1 cup (240 ml) cold water
- 3 cups crushed ice plus more as needed
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- Zest one lemon then peel both lemons. Roughly chop and remove seeds.
- Add all of the ingredients to a high-powdered blender or food processor and blend into your desired consistency - longer for a smoother drink and shorter for an icier drink.
- Taste and add additional sweetener as you see fit.
- Pour and enjoy!
Notes
- If you don't have any crushed ice to start out with, blend the ice first to crush then add the remaining ingredients.
- Use maple syrup to keep this vegan/low fodmap friendly.
Nutrition Information
Serving Size:
1 cup Calories: 108Total Fat: 0gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 38mgCarbohydrates: 30gFiber: 2gSugar: 27gProtein: 0gMore Summer Drink Recipes:
- Homemade Electrolyte Drink
- Pimm’s Cup Float
- Mint Cucumber Lemonade
- Golden Milk Frappuccino – Paleo & Vegan
- Healthy Strawberry Lemonade With Chia Seeds
- Frozen Pineapple Margaritas
- Orange Sunshine Creamsicle Smoothie
- Strawberry Kiwi Gin & Tonic
- Brazilian Lemonade (Limonada SuÃça)
- Healthy Chai Frappuccino
- Ginger Switchel Recipe (Haymaker’s Punch)
Keeley says
So good! It’s a hot day in Wisconsin and I just made these for my family. I didn’t see the note about crushing the ice first, and it still worked out well in my vitamix. I blended on high speed for a shorter time to get a nice, smooth frozen lemonade consistency. I started out with 4 tbsp of honey, but found that the 6 tbsp in the recipe is really the sweet spot – perfect! Thank you.
Sarah Nevins says
Thank you so much, Keeley! I’m SO thrilled to heat you and your family enjoyed it. Thank you so much for taking the time to come back and let me know what you thought 🙂