When I was 6 or 7 years old, my family flew to Colorado for our summer vacation. With lots of my mom’s relatives scattered throughout the state (one in Denver and the rest out towards the rural countryside), we spent a little time with each of them: my mom’s sister, cousin, aunt, and grandma.
Despite being in her 90s, Great-Grandma still lived alone in the same house from my mom’s childhood, located a short distance away from the neighborhood park. With her living room slightly too small for two very energetic children, she and Mom drove us over to the park, where we could soar high on the swing set and dig castles in the sand.
But the best attraction at the park was a gigantic 30-foot long slide built into the side of a hill. Made of metal with a few fun bumps in the middle, it was the perfect entertainment for lazy summer mornings. My brother and I would dash up the steep wooden steps hammered into the hillside and take turns flying down the slide, only to repeat the process as soon as our feet hit the sand at the bottom.
After our tiresome morning of swinging and sliding, we headed back to Great-Grandma’s for lunch. As a treat, she pulled out a few tall glasses and her container of powdered lemonade. My brother and I had never seen that before, so she explained how to spoon a little into each glass, fill it with water, and stir to create the sweet drink.
When we returned home from vacation, we begged Mom to buy the same powdered lemonade for our house—we loved it that much! Once Mom left the kitchen, we started making ours a little differently: we would only pretend to stir the powder in the bottom of the glass. After drinking most of the water, we were left with a few lemony, overly sugary tablespoons… And to kids, that was pure summer bliss.
With temperatures skyrocketing into the 110°s this week, we were desperate for something—anything—sweet and refreshing to cool off. When those Colorado memories resurfaced, lemonade immediately sounded like the most appealing option, but not the powdered kind… This super easy 10-Minute Lemonade!
That’s right, super easy. As in 3 ingredients. Summers are meant to be lazy and low-maintenance, so this recipe simply follows suit! But unlike regular lemonade recipes, this one contains absolutely no sugar, so it’s actually healthy and still lets you fit into that swimsuit!
The recipe starts with freshly squeezed lemon juice. Skip the bottled stuff! That may be fine for sprinkling on apple slices to prevent browning, but not our healthy lemonade. Juice straight from the lemons tastes much brighter and purer, and it’s worth spending 9 minutes slicing juicing them.
I highly recommend a juicer like in the photo below! (I own this one.) It makes squeezing every last drop of juice out of the lemons so much easier than doing it by hand. Plus it catches the seeds so you don’t have to fish them out yourself! They’re really inexpensive, and they’re great for freshly squeezed orange juice too. And limes. And grapefruit. And… Well, you get the picture!
And now, simply mix that lemon juice with cold water and sweetener! I used powdered stevia, a no-calorie plant-based sweetener. You can find it in most health-oriented grocery stores, although the regular Safeways and Targets near my house have started stocking it too.
Because its sweetness is significantly more concentrated than granulated sugar, we only need 1 tablespoon of stevia for this entire recipe. That small amount makes the lemonade taste pleasingly sweet with a subtle tang—a way more realistic flavor compared to that powdered stuff!
I shared this lemonade with my brother, and he and his friends gulped down the entire batch. That’s quite a compliment coming from a lemon lover like him! And now… I think it’s time to make more!
| 10 Minute Skinny Lemonade | | Print |
- 1 cup (240mL) freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 6-7 medium lemons)
- 4 cups (960mL) cold water
- 1 tbsp (12g) powdered stevia
- Add all of the ingredients to a pitcher or large bowl, and stir until the stevia has completely dissolved. Serve immediately over ice, or cover and chill until ready to serve.
Any sweetener may be substituted for the stevia. Feel free to adjust the amount to suit your tastes.
{gluten-free, vegan, clean eating, low fat, low calorie, sugar-free, low carb}
More lemonade recipes from other food bloggers…
♥ Easy Homemade Lemonade by What the Fork Food Blog
♥ Skinny Sparkling Strawberry Lemonade by The Housewife in Training Files
♥ Watermelon Lemonade by Deliciously Sprinkled
♥ Sparkling Blackberry Lemonade by Garnish & Glaze
So excited to try this recipe!!! We have been looking for a healthy lemonade recipe for years thanks for sharing! 🙂
I really hope you enjoy the lemonade! 🙂
I HATE the taste and after-taste of stevia, but I love lemonade.
I live in Brazil and everyone drinks coconut water, usually straight from the cocnut with a straw. I said everyone, but that’s not quite true. I don’t. I don’t really care much for the flavor of the coconut water. And I know sugar is HORRIBLE for our health so I avoid it as much as possible. But I don’t like unsweetened lemon juice.
So my solution is to drain the water from a coconut into a container and squeeze (I use essentially the same juicer which is cheap and easy to find here.) one lemon into the coconut water. THe lemon masks most of the flavor of the coconut water, but not the sweetness, so I get a moderately sweet (depending on the size of the lemon and how much coconut water came out of the coconut) lemonade without sugar (or stevia). Lemons and coconut water are both very healthy, so this is a very healthy replacement for regular lemonade.
Thanks for sharing! Sounds like a fun twist on regular lemonade! 🙂
I had 9 lemons to use up after having peeled them for lemoncello. So glad I found this recipie! I’ve made several batches – we love it- it’s perfect.
I’m so honored that you’ve already made several batches of this lemonade, Stephanie! That’s the BEST kind of compliment — thank you so much for taking the time to let me know!! 🙂
I love it much! Good for our morning. Thank for sharing!
I’m so glad you love this lemonade Robyn! Thanks for taking the time to let me know! 🙂
I am LOVING your blog! Thank you so much for all of these delish recipes!!!
I did find this lemonade to be too sour for my sweet-tooth, however. Me and sour don’t get along. :p
I’m so honored that you’re enjoying my recipes, Diya! That really means a lot! 🙂 Did you use the same exact stevia that I did? Just about every stevia brand and product has a slightly different sweetness level, so if you substituted another one, that might be why it tasted so sour to you! Also, did adjust the sweetener to suit your tastes, as mentioned in the Notes section? I know not everyone prefers the same level of sweetener in their lemonade, which is why I included that bit! 😉
it’s perfect for cooling off on hot summer days!
My thoughts exactly, Steph! 😉 I’d love to hear what you think of this lemonade if you try making it!