Agua Fresca Any Which Way
This recipe is from Good and Cheap.
Good and Cheap is a gorgeous cookbook for people with limited income, particularly on a $4/day food stamps budget. The PDF is free (ahora en Español!) and has been downloaded more than 15,000,000 times. I have more cookbooks, too!
Refreshing and hydrating, Agua Fresca means fruity water. These beautiful drinks are great at a party, and they can help you use up any fruit that you won’t be able to eat before it goes off. This is certainly not the master recipe, just a good starting point for your own creativity.
Ingredients
- 2 cups fruit chopped
- 4 cups water
Additions
- 1 tsp vanilla
- lemon juice to taste
- lime juices to taste
- sugar
- mint leaves
- basil or thai basil
- lemon balm leaves
Flavor Ideas
- blueberry and lemon
- cucumber and lemon
- mango and lime
- melon
- orange
- papaya
- peach and vanilla
- pineapple and mint
- strawberry and basil
Instructions
- For a very lightly flavored agua fresca, just mix the water and fruit together. Done! Obviously, if you want more fruit flavor, then use less water; if you want less flavor, then use more water.
- I usually run my agua fresca through the blender, however. If you want the drink to be clear, strain the pulpy leftovers of the fruit after blending. If you’re using blueberries or oranges or other fruit with a skin, you’ll almost certainly want to strain it.
- For some fruits, you can also choose to leave the pulp: it’s particularly great when making a melon agua fresca since it mostly disappears.
- Serve over ice. Try some of the variations I’ve suggested or whatever fruits you like!
