As I promised in my watermelon feta mint salad recipe, it is time to make a watermelon drink. Citrus and melon are perfect summer flavors. So here they combine for the best watermelon limeade drink possible – because we’ll add ice to make it a frozen blended drink. What could be better than that?

Cool and sweet with a little bit of sour pucker, the watermelon limeade freeze is a refreshing summer treat. Whip it up whenever the weather outside has started to warm up and it will be sure to cool you down.

This recipe is simple because you need only four ingredients and a blender to make it happen. And the steps basically boil down to tossing it all in the blender and giving it a whirl. Honestly, the most difficult aspect may be cutting up the watermelon itself. They can be a bit large and unwieldy.

So let’s get to it.

Tips for Success

The best tip for success that I can give you is to start off with ripe watermelon. In fact, if you have a good watermelon, you may need less or no extra sugar at all. Try following these tips from Eagle Eye Produce on how to pick a good watermelon.

My second tip is to chill your watermelon beforehand. So cut and cube up the watermelon and then place it in the fridge to chill. For one, chilled watermelon just seems to have a better flavor. So for the few pieces that you sneak before adding watermelon into the blender, you will thank me. Also, it will be that much colder when you blend it together with the ice. It is better to start everything off cold if possible.

And finally, try to have everything ready to go after you have blended the drink together. Because it will start melting and separating as soon as the blender stops. Get your glasses out and any garnishes or decorations. Put everything into the blender except the ice and then add the ice and go fast.

If you are having this drink with a meal, make sure everything else is ready to serve before blending the watermelon limeade freeze together. The drink doesn’t take long to make, so it can easily be left to the end.

Mix Up Your Watermelon Limeade

One of the great things about watermelon and lime is that they can go with a whole lot of flavors. For variations on this watermelon limeade, try adding any of the following to the mix before blending:

• Mint leaves
• Lemon instead of Lime
• Chili Powder (not too much…)
• Honey instead of sugar
• Cream of Coconut instead of sugar
• Basil leaves
• Blueberries

Try dressing up your drink with lime wedges, extra watermelon, or fun and colorful paper straws. It definitely takes it up a notch when you think about presentation as well as flavor.

Whatever way you blend it, I know that it will be delicious. So give this a try on one of those hot summer days for perfect sweet refreshment.

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Watermelon Limeade Freeze

Recipe by Marc PetersonCourse: DrinksDifficulty: Easy

Servings

8

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking timeminutes

Total time

10

minutes

Cool and sweet with a little bit of sour pucker, the watermelon limeade freeze is a refreshing summer treat

Ingredients

• 6 cups cubed watermelon

• 2/3 cup fresh lime juice (6 to 8 limes)

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 3 to 4 cups of ice

Directions

• Add the watermelon, lime juice, and sugar into a blender
• Blend on high for 1 to 2 minutes until smooth
• Add the ice into the blender and blend on high until smooth, 2 to 4 minutes
• Pour, garnish if desired, and serve quickly so that it remains cold

The post Simple Watermelon Limeade Freeze Recipe appeared first on Do You Roux?.

Let’s make a summer fun drink that the whole family can enjoy together. Succulent pineapple and sweetened coconut combine with ice in this frozen piña colada recipe. It is fast and easy to make – just throw everything into the blender and let it rip. And, after a few seconds of whizzing blades, we end up with a sweet frozen drink.

A piña colada without the rum is basically just a dessert smoothie. Not a healthy one, mind you, but a smoothie nonetheless. The pineapple and coconut flavors become their own unique flavor when combined. But it is all about the balance. Have too much of either and that flavor is mostly the only thing you can taste. So make sure to measure it out or you’ll have a lot of adjusting to do.

This recipe is adapted from a recipe I had on a different site. Well, still have up on a different site. My piña colada from the site The Smoothies 101. It is an old site that I still have up and have not made any updates to in a long time. It has terrible photos. But the recipes and information are solid. So I thought I’d borrow from myself. Why start from scratch when I could reference something I know works?

So try out this virgin piña colada recipe to make a refreshingly sweet frozen drink. Or, even better, make a flight of summer drinks by pairing this with frozen mint lemonade and a blended watermelon drink.

A What of Coconut?

This recipe uses cream of coconut as one of the main ingredients. Do not confuse this with coconut milk. They are two entirely different products and are made for different things. Though a coconut milk piña colada would be healthier, it would not be quite the same.

Cream of coconut is a smooth, thick, and super-sweet mix of condensed coconut. It is similar to sweetened condensed milk that is used in some baking recipes. The syrup is basically a super-concentrated sweet coconut flavor bomb. No wonder it makes the perfect addition to a dessert smoothie.

If you are looking to buy it at the store then make sure to look near the alcohol aisles. There is typically a section for making mixed drinks that has things like grenadine, lime juice, margarita mix, and seltzer water. Somewhere within that group of items, you are likely to find an option or two of buying cream of coconut.

And if you can’t find it locally or would rather buy it online, you can always buy cream of coconut for delivery.

Pineapple for Piña Colada

For this recipe, I chose to use frozen pineapple. It is fairly easy to come by, can be bought in large quantities at stores like Costco, and it makes it so we don’t have to use as much ice so the drink is more potent. It is easy to just keep some frozen pineapple on hand. And I don’t have to make sure that I have a fresh pineapple that is ripe and ready to slice.

Plus it can be kind of messy cutting up a pineapple.

But you can also make this drink with fresh cut pineapple instead of frozen. Use the same amount of pineapple and then use more ice when blending the drink together.

In that original recipe for the virgin piña colada, I list a 20-ounce can of pineapple chunks in 100% juice as one of the main ingredients. That was for ease of use and to not buy multiple items at the store. No need to have separate juice and pineapple, just buy them together. Genius. However, the quality of that pineapple is not always the best. In my opinion, canned pineapple in juice is lower than frozen which is lower quality than fresh-cut pineapple. But if you want, replace the juice and pineapple in the recipe with one 20-ounce can of pineapple in 100% juice and add some extra ice.

Note that sometimes it can take a powerful blender to really get a smooth frozen drink. If it is not blending well, then you may need to add a little bit more liquid – the pineapple juice in our case – to make sure it can blend smooth. Or you can invest in a high-quality blender like the Vitamix that I have to easily make smoothies without issue.

So try making this cocktail without the rum for a family-friendly virgin piña colada and let me know what you think.

Family Friendly Piña Colada

Recipe by Marc PetersonCourse: Drinks, DessertDifficulty: Easy

Servings

4

servings

Prep time

5

minutes

Cooking timeminutes

Total time

5

minutes

Juicy pineapple and creamy coconut combine in the blender for this perfect piña colada recipe that the whole family can enjoy

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup pineapple juice

• 1/2 cup cream of coconut

• 2 cups frozen pineapple

• 2 cups ice

Directions

• Add the ingredients in the order listed into a blender
• Blend on high for 1 to 2 minutes until smooth – stopping and stirring if air pockets are created between the blender blades and the drink
• Pour and serve, garnish with fresh pineapple or maraschino cherries for extra flair
  

The post Easy Family Friendly Piña Colada Recipe appeared first on Do You Roux?.