Spring. It’s finally here! Although I do have to say that yesterday felt more like Summer. We’ve spent all day sitting outside, doing some yard work and relaxing in our backyard. Just sitting there with my eyes closed, letting the sun rays hit my skin, I felt so grateful. Grateful for this beautiful nature, the sun, the wind, the trees, the birds that were chirping all day long, all those things that we very often take for granted. Even our dog Blu stretched himself on the deck and was basking in the sun rather than running around chasing squirrels (or barking at the neighbors :) ). It was an unbelievably gorgeous day and I actually got a little sunburn. A day like that called for some hydration and because water with lemon tends to get old at times, I decided to try making watermelon-cucumber mint water.
Whenever I’m able to get my hands on an organic watermelon, I like to juice the whole thing-along with the skin-that’s where most of watermelon’s nutrients are hidden. Because the watermelon that I had sitting in the fridge was not organic, I tried using a blender instead of a juicer (I only used watermelon’s “meat”, not the skin). Here’s what I used:
½ small watermelon
1 medium cucumber (peeled if not organic)
1 lemon, juiced
4 mint leaves, minced
2 tablespoons agave nectar (optional)
few slices of lemon for garnish
mint leaves for garnish
ice
3 cups of water
Place the cucumber, watermelon, minced mint and freshly squeezed lemon juice in a blender and blend until smooth. Once blended, add water and agave nectar (this is optional, if your watermelon isn’t sweet enough) and blend once more. If you don’t like the frothy texture of the watermelon and want to avoid seeds in your drink, you can strain the watermelon water through a strainer (that’s what I did). Fill the pitcher or glasses with ice, garnish with lemon slices, pour in the watermelon cucumber water and finish off with few mint leaves.
Watermelon is full of phenolic compounds that give it anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties while cucumber is a great source of vitamins C and K as well as potassium.
If you’d like, you can also spice this watermelon-cucumber water a bit by adding some rum.
Happy Monday! Paula xx