Summer odds and ends cooler
This hardly qualifies as a recipe, falling more into the ‘ideas’ camp, but it’s so yummy I just want to share it with you. Basically this morning I was rooting around in the fridge and came across some straggly old mint, a withered half a lemon and a quarter of a cucumber that had gone soggy and soft. Rather than throw them away, I sliced the lemon and cucumber and threw them into a jug, stuffed the mint in, and filled it with water, for a super-refreshing drink – perfect for this sticky hot day… I’ve been topping it up with fresh water as it steeps (and I gulp it) – I can’t get enough of it!
It would work with just lemons, or just mint, or just cucumber, or any combination of the three. I’m sure a sad little apple could find a home in a jug like this, or a dried up orange – so many possibilities…
Slurp!
Jack. Twitter: @msjackmonroe. Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/agirlcalledjack
Categories: DRINKS, Recipes & Food, VEGAN, Vegan Recipes, VEGETARIAN
Sounds so refreshing.
Variation on a theme: just back from visit to Copenhagen and at my hotel there was a pitcher of water at reception for guests to quench their thirst – they had used parsley and long thin ribbons of carrot. Weird but totally delicious. Kind of a sweet vegetable background. Honestly it was surprisingly fab. And rather beautiful too.
I do this with herbal tea bags. Mint is especially nice on a hot day.
I have some mint on the allotment so will give it a go
Just got back from my hols and we had a lot of lemon or lemon and mint water…really helped us consume enough fluid without the sugar factor of cordials. Little one loved it too! Other veggies too…hmm…time to experiment!
This is the REAL Jack Munroe methinks. A home lover at heart & home builder with my other facets as well, I would to add promptly. Lovely idea & great that nothing goes to waste.
Funny – I just shared this idea with my daughers (all four of them) … I have the teeniest balcony here on which I grow a multitude of herbs … Lemons and cucs are plentiful and cheap here so I don’t have to wait for them to wither and die – in the 30 degrees sunshine or the 25 degrees muggy run up to yet another storm the water is paradise in jug 🙂
Lovely – I do this too and it really is refreshing.
J x
It won’t sell the drink, but the description of the ingredients as “straggly” “withered” and “soggy” Made me want to call it “Compost Cooler”!
Thanks for the idea…mint cooling in a jug now.
Here, at 40 celsius degrees, I can’t wait to get home and make one! 🙂
I’ve made this before with some ginger added in too – it tastes so good!
Have you been peeping in my fridge Jack? Going to make some now! On my holiday I loved ice coffee that’s easy to make an scrummy too!
I have this every day. Great drink, refreshing and helps reduce “bloating”. Also do it with ginger.
Making herbal tea granite is easy and a lovely way to keep cool.
That’s pretty much my morning drink – I have an active lemon tree and mint plant, and I blend these up with some green vegies and any spare fruit. So GOOD.
Nothing to do with the recipe, but I came across this way of cooking eggs & thought readers might be interested. (I would probably use a smaller muffin tin & only cook these while using the oven for other things.) They’d be nice as a lunchtime snack with a green salad.
http://www.urbanorganicgardener.com/2014/04/spinach-eggs-breakfast-in-a-muffin-pan/
I recommend trying pineapple the bits chopped off such as the core and bits round the top
Earlier this month, my father-in-law treated the family to a stay at Calcot Manor for his 80th birthday and my daughters spent a LOT of time in their lovely spa where they had cucumber water for the first time. It was a jug of cold water with slices of cucumber in it. Their cousin from Canada said that this was something that she took to school in her packed lunch, basically adding cucumber to a bottle of water. Now we are home, we keep a jug of cucumber water in our fridge and I, too, use the manky bits (peeled!) in the water. Very refreshing and so much better for us than squash, cola, fruit juices, smoothies etc.