Fresh, Natural, Healthy Lemonade Recipe

My children and husband LOVE fruit juice. Sadly, there’s not much nourishment in most juices (even the 100% juice kind) besides a whole bunch of highly concentrated fructose and a few vitamins.

In an effort to provide them nourishing beverages that satisfy their cravings, we’ve relied heavily on kombucha (which you can brew yourself for as little as $.50/gallon) and raw milk. But sometimes we break out of that rut, and when we do, we aim for other frugal, naturally fermented, probiotic beverages.

Beverages like this fresh, natural, and healthy lemonade.

Fresh Healthy Lemonade — A Probiotic & Lacto-fermented Treat

This recipe makes one gallon.

The Players

The How-To

Put all ingredients together in a one gallon glass container and stir well. Cover tightly with a lid and let sit on your counter at room temperature for two days. It is now ready to drink or refrigerate.

Some Notes

Juice your lemons at room temperature. They will yield more juice that way. I recommend using a quality stainless steel hand juicer or press for juicing citrus fruits like lemons, limes, and oranges. They’re so much easier to use than the plastic juicers, and they’re far easier to clean up than a mechanical juicer. The one I’ve had for nearly 5 years and use regularly is pictured here, and it’s the Norpro Stainless-Steel Citrus Juice Press.

*Sucanat is a brand of organic, naturally-evaporated sugar available here in the U.S. Adjust sugar content according to your tastes. Remember that most of the sugar will be eaten up and used as fuel for the lacto-bacillus culture, so your end result will be significantly more tart than what you originally stir together.

Be sure to use living whey that was drained off yogurt (as shown here) or separated from raw milk. The goal here is to get a living culture of probiotic bacteria, so you don’t want to use the whey left over after the cheese making process (which has usually been heated/cooked). And, as always, filtered water is best.

Enjoy!

Liked what you read? You may find these posts interesting:

  1. The Loss of Food Knowledge
  2. Enzyme-rich Mayonnaise
  3. Easy Pumpkin Spice Yogurt Cream Cheese
  4. Are Natural Sweeteners Good For You?
  5. How to Brew Kombucha — Double Fermentation Method






68 Responses to Fresh, Natural, Healthy Lemonade Recipe
  1. sockmonk
    September 9, 2009 | 10:39 am

    Reading @foodrenegade, rather unique #lemonade recipe, healthier than most. http://bit.ly/9Jx9v

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  2. NuHealth
    September 9, 2009 | 12:22 pm

    Food Renegade » Blog Archive » Fresh, Natural, Healthy Lemonade Recipe http://is.gd/35e4Z

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  3. HealthMaintain
    September 9, 2009 | 1:11 pm

    Food Renegade » Blog Archive » Fresh, Natural, Healthy Lemonade Recipe http://bit.ly/fY39K

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  4. pioneer381
    September 9, 2009 | 1:24 pm

    Food Renegade » Blog Archive » Fresh, Natural, Healthy Lemonade Recipe: My children and husband LOVE fruit juice.. http://tinyurl.com/moekrs

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  5. Jenny @ Nourished Kitchen
    September 9, 2009 | 5:04 pm

    Interesting! We rely on water kefir or ginger beer when we want something aside from water, I’d never thought to ferment beverages without some sort of SCOBY. I bet this is incredibly refreshing.
    .-= Jenny @ Nourished Kitchen´s last blog ..Eat Your Beef & Butter: CLA, Disease and Diet =-.

  6. emily
    September 9, 2009 | 5:39 pm

    do you “culture”it,ie.let it sit for some time, or drink immediately?
    .-= emily´s last blog ..The Real Food of Summer: veggies and butter! =-.

  7. KristenM
    September 9, 2009 | 5:49 pm

    Emily — Ack. I did a security update to my database earlier today and have had problems with my posts being cut short by it. I’m going in now and restoring older versions of posts, etc. But, in the meantime, I edited this one to answer your question (which it originally did before I screwed up the database).

  8. pioneer381 (pioneersupermarkets)
    September 9, 2009 | 6:24 pm

    Food Renegade » Blog Archive » Fresh, Natural, Healthy Lemonade Recipe: My children and husband LOVE fruit juice.. http://tinyurl.com/moekrs

  9. Ashley Chin
    September 9, 2009 | 7:34 pm

    Sorry you are having trouble with the site – I love it! Anyway, wanted to let you know that your “resources” page is down – i.e. there is nothing on it.
    Ashley

  10. Bj
    September 9, 2009 | 8:41 pm

    What is meant by ‘whey’ in this recipie? Is it whey protein powder? Or some kind of liquid? I’m a bit unclear on that being I am new to this sort of beverage

  11. Rachel
    September 9, 2009 | 8:42 pm

    I have made the Orangina recipe out of the Nourishing Traditions recipe book and it requires two days at room temperature and then in the fridge. It is just oranges, salt, whey and water.

  12. Jassica
    September 10, 2009 | 2:37 am

    Kristen, that lemonade sounds really good! Now I just need to find some more good kefir grains and start brewing again. I somehow managed to mess mine up. They started brewing really sour watery kefir with small ricotta-like curds, no matter how long I cultured. We’re missing the kefir! Also, I’ve only been reading Food Renegade for a couple of weeks, but I love it, especially Fight Back Fridays!!

    Rachel, I’ve seen that recipe. It looks interesting. How did you and your family like it?

  13. Elisabeth
    September 10, 2009 | 4:07 am

    Hi – yes, I need more info on whey too. I have never heard of sucanat. My latest discovery is a UK product called Sweet Freedom, made from 100% fruit and low-GI.

    Kristen – I am also trying to get an update on the proposed US bills (HR875 and S425) which will insist that all food growers must pre-register – this will have huge impacts on farmers’ markets, CSAs etc. And the inspecting will be outsourced, possibly to the very agribusinesses which are lobbying for the bill.
    bit.ly/JgVKp

    Thanks
    .-= Elisabeth´s last blog ..Hemp porridge knowledge =-.

  14. KristenM
    September 10, 2009 | 12:13 pm

    Elisabeth & BJ — As I commented above, it turns out that some security upgrades I did cut off the last half of the post. It’s now been fully restored and should answer your questions. :)

    • Jessica Waters
      October 30, 2009 | 3:57 am

      Hi, Kristen, do you by chance know the nutritional info for this recipe, for example the calories or sugar count or fiber by chance? I LOVE this recipe and drank the whole gallon (over the period of a week) by myself (DH not into lemonade). Could you make this with ginger? If so, when might you put the ginger in? Any ideas?

      thanks!
      .-= Jessica Waters´s last blog post …foodiegrrl: @LunaandLarrys a little bit of chocolate hazelnut never hurt anybody! =-.

  15. Leeesie
    September 10, 2009 | 12:41 pm

    I love lemonade! Thank you for sharing this healthier and more nutritional version. I enjoy Kombucha immensely, thanks to your tutorial, and I will definitely give this a go. Sounds so easy, too. My dad (who was born in Italy) used to do the lemon water thing long before I knew of its all around health benefits. He used so many natural remedies, passed down from generations. I wish I had paid closer attention.

    Thanks Kristen, you are one of the best!

  16. Deb
    September 10, 2009 | 4:26 pm

    “The goal here is to get a living culture of probiotic bacteria, so you don’t want to use the whey left over after the cheese making process (which has usually been heated/cooked).”

    Hi Kristen
    I’m confused… not sure what you mean from the above statement. I thought draining the whey from yoghurt IS the cheese making process and therefore you wouldn’t HAVE whey until AFTER the process.

    PS. I have never made cheese, whey or any lacto-fermented products. I am keen to try but a lilttle nervous about the whole thing, having never even seen these foods before… except cheese of course.

    Deb

  17. KristenM
    September 10, 2009 | 4:43 pm

    Deb — LOL. Sorry to be confusing. The recipe for “cheese” linked to in the article is basically a sort of cheater’s soft cheese. It’s basically just drained yogurt. To make hard cheeses (like cheddar, for example) requires a much more involved process and quite often involves heating the raw milk to temperatures that can kill bacteria. The whey left after that process has thus been “cooked” — for lack of a better word. You *can* make many of these cheeses and manage to keep the whey raw, but most often that’s not the case. So, the point is to have and use raw, living whey. If your cheesemaking process leaves the whey raw, then use it. If not, then feed it to your animals.

  18. Kyle
    September 11, 2009 | 4:42 pm

    Sounds sooo good, thanks! (I wasn’t confused:)

    But, does dead whey have any benefit? Above you said to just feed it to the animals.
    .-= Kyle´s last blog ..I’ve switchd to Blogger =-.

  19. Jutta
    September 12, 2009 | 1:53 pm

    Just a quick question…during the fermenting process does it produce alcohol? I tried fermenting fruit before to make preserves, but it tasted like the fruit had produced alcohol. we don’t drink at all, and certainly don’t want the kids to drink hard lemonade! :)

  20. KristenM
    September 12, 2009 | 1:57 pm

    Jutta — This is mostly non-alcoholic fermentation. I’d bet there’s less than half a percent of alcohol in the final product. Instead what you’re getting is LOTS of lacto-bacillus culture — the really great probiotic bacteria found in yogurt, fresh cheese, and even sauerkraut.

  21. Lauren Grosz
    September 15, 2009 | 8:51 pm

    Kristen, I made this today with my daughter. She is a petite 8 year old and had to work really hard to help me squeeze all 12 lemons but she loved it! Can’t wait to drink it. She is already envisioning how she’ll smash the competition next time she and her friends do a lemonade stand!

  22. Lauren Grosz
    September 17, 2009 | 11:54 am

    Our lemonade is ready to drink. We added Stevia and it is really refreshing.

  23. Bethany
    September 18, 2009 | 11:52 am

    Would it work with honey instead of Sucanat? This sounds good but I am on GAPS.
    .-= Bethany´s last blog ..GAPS "Pumpkin" muffins =-.

  24. KristenM
    September 18, 2009 | 12:49 pm

    Bethany — Interesting question. Honey is anti-microbial, so I’m not sure how well it would do IN the ferment. But, it could certainly be added AFTER the fermentation time. Or, you could try using Stevia to sweeten like Lauren in the comment above you.

  25. Kimi @ The Nourishing Gourmet
    September 18, 2009 | 2:29 pm

    Thanks for being part of the carnival yesterday!

    By the way, yours and a few other entries didn’t get saved on to Pennywise Platter yesterday. So sorry about that! My internet wasn’t working right and didn’t “publish it”. But it’s on now! Someone (I don’t know who) had also formatted their comment wrong and it was wigging out the formatting on the post, but it’s all cleared up now. :-)
    .-= Kimi @ The Nourishing Gourmet´s last blog post …Spiced Apple Muffins (Gluten, Grain, and Dairy Free) =-.

  26. Wardeh @ GNOWFGLINS
    September 24, 2009 | 6:12 pm

    Okay, so… clarifying here. :)

    All my cheeses (soft and hard) are heated to no more than 86 degrees. They are cultured with mesophilic (middle temperature) cultures. I consider them raw. According to all the comments here, I am assuming I can use the whey for my soaking? If so, that is awesome! I thought there was something about “cheese” whey that made it not useful for soaking, no matter the temp of culturing the cheese.
    .-= Wardeh @ GNOWFGLINS´s last blog post …Chocolate Milk: Shake It, Kids! =-.

    • KristenM
      September 24, 2009 | 6:16 pm

      Sounds perfectly raw to me. :)

  27. Kelly
    February 4, 2010 | 11:22 pm

    When I make yogurt I heat the raw milk to 180 degreesfirst and then let it sit overnight at 110 degrees. Doesn’t that first heating render it “cooked”, thereby making the whey that comes off the yogurt NOT raw? Help?! Also, yes, I was unclear about if it sits out to ferment before drinking, or is that what the whey is for? Thanks! Kelly

    • KristenM
      February 17, 2011 | 2:09 pm

      Hi Kelly,

      That first heating certainly kills off the bacteria and enzymes, but then you re-introduce a living culture of bacteria to the milk and allow it to ferment at 110F to turn the milk into yogurt. So, now your whey is repopulated with healthy, living bacteria!

      And yes, you should let it sit out to ferment BEFORE drinking. You can drink it without the fermentation, but it won’t be fizzy or as probiotic.

      Hope that helps!

  28. Alex
    May 18, 2010 | 11:51 am

    Hi Kristen! I made this and loved it! Linking to your recipe as the basis and inspiration for my Delightful Citrus Sparkling Tonic. See link here: http://amoderatelife.blogspot.com/2010/05/two-for-tuesday-whey-soda-and-sourdough.html

    As always love everything you do! :) alex
    .-= Alex´s last blog post …Two for Tuesday! Whey Soda and Sourdough Croutons! =-.

  29. Erica
    June 19, 2010 | 1:51 pm

    My nursling has a dairy allergy, so I can’t have whey. Any suggestions for a substitute? I really want to try this!

  30. Wendy
    February 17, 2011 | 5:13 pm

    Can I use a bit of lime juice in with the lemons? And is Rapidura sugar ok?

    • KristenM
      February 17, 2011 | 5:20 pm

      I don’t see why not. Both the lime and the rapadura sounds lovely!

  31. Rose
    February 24, 2011 | 6:48 pm

    I love this drink. So my question is that in the fermentation the sugar is used up. does that mean that it no longer has the sugar affect on our system. My daughter is on a very low carb diet to help her with her seizures. There is no room for fruit juice or sugar. Would the sugar in this drink be “used up” before she drank it?

    • KristenM
      February 24, 2011 | 7:14 pm

      Rose — I don’t think ALL the sugar is used up, just most of it. If it was all used up, there wouldn’t be any sweet taste to this drink at all.

  32. diane anderson
    April 19, 2011 | 8:46 am

    Can Xylitol and live yogurt be used for the Lemonade drink without compromising
    the probiotics?

  33. shaya
    May 9, 2011 | 3:02 pm

    I am intolerant to sugar from sugar cane and sugar beets. Could I use grade B maple syrup in place of the sugar?

    • KristenM
      June 13, 2011 | 11:30 am

      You could certainly try. You need sugar to feed the bacteria and so you can get a good ferment going. Maple syrup has sugar, to be sure, so it will probably get the job done. I’m just worried about how it will taste.

  34. I love this recipe. We strain our yogurt with coffee filters, lining a wire mesh strainer, this yields really clear whey (instead of cloudy with bits of yogurt). I don’t know if that helps anyone. We also tried this with our almond yogurt (dairy-free) and with kefir whey. We love it and it’s so much better than giving the kids juice. Thanks!

  35. Jaime
    June 28, 2011 | 5:47 pm

    Would this work with frozen whey? I end up with SO much whey that I eventually freeze it! This would be a great, healthy way to be able to use some of it up!

  36. Monica Oxendine via Facebook
    July 29, 2011 | 2:24 pm

    thanks you…was looking for a lemon version

  37. Syreeta Whitfield Jayne via Facebook
    July 29, 2011 | 2:25 pm

    I just printed this and i’m getting ready to try it!

  38. Jennifer Yarbro via Facebook
    July 29, 2011 | 2:31 pm

    Foodgawker is showing your blog about the orange juice on Facebook! :)

  39. Laura
    July 29, 2011 | 2:37 pm

    How cold one adjust this for a dairy-free diet? I love the idea of it!

    • KristenM
      July 29, 2011 | 2:40 pm

      You can use a non-dairy starter culture instead of the whey. I’d recommend you take a look at the vegetable starter cultures listed here.

  40. Sue Smith via Facebook
    July 29, 2011 | 3:53 pm

    I’m curious. If after it ferments, the kids balk at it because it’s too tart, would it be OK to add Stevia to taste?

  41. Sue Smith via Facebook
    July 29, 2011 | 3:57 pm

    …without hurting the nutritional qualities…

  42. Kelly Sparrow via Facebook
    July 29, 2011 | 4:14 pm

    I have made this twice now and it is super yummy. I made it for a summer party and get rave reviews. Going to make it for the family cook out in a couple of weeks

  43. Jane Cranor via Facebook
    July 29, 2011 | 4:28 pm

    Where do you find a glass gallon container with a tight fitting lid? The biggest I have is half gallon…just 1/2 the recipe?

    • Char L
      July 29, 2011 | 6:27 pm

      Try calling bars, retaurants and delicatessens. They often get their olives, etc in gallon glass jars and would be happy to let you have them for free.

  44. Food Renegade via Facebook
    July 29, 2011 | 5:16 pm

    @Jane — I bought some at Target ages ago for $5 each. Before that, I got a set at Big Lots. Keep your eyes peeled.

  45. Food Renegade via Facebook
    July 29, 2011 | 5:16 pm

    @Jane — I bought some at Target ages ago for $5 each. Before that, I got a set at Big Lots. Keep your eyes peeled.

  46. Food Renegade via Facebook
    July 29, 2011 | 5:16 pm

    @Sue — I don’t see why not.

  47. Kelly Sparrow via Facebook
    July 29, 2011 | 5:24 pm

    I got mine at Big Lots.

  48. Mc Own via Facebook
    July 29, 2011 | 6:43 pm

    I think cucumber lime with raw honey is great on a hot day !

  49. Leah Segura via Facebook
    July 29, 2011 | 6:48 pm

    Yum! I have to find some organic lemons.

  50. Jane Cranor via Facebook
    July 29, 2011 | 7:30 pm

    Thanks, I’ll go hunt some down ;)

  51. Jessica Ege Owens via Facebook
    July 30, 2011 | 11:10 am

    Will a ceramic container work or must it be glass?

  52. Julia Laurin via Facebook
    July 30, 2011 | 9:10 pm

    what would a casein-free way be to get it fermenting? can’t do whey!

  53. Food Renegade via Facebook
    July 30, 2011 | 9:33 pm

    Jessica — Anything but plastic or metal will work well.
    Julia — You can try using a vegetable starter culture.

  54. Wow, what a great recipe! And I can use the whey from the yogurt I strain to get thick, creamy Greek style yogurt? I am definitely trying this!!!

  55. Susie
    August 12, 2011 | 12:21 pm

    Dairy allergies here. Is there anything besides whey that will work? Dying to get my kids to do anything fermented that will help their destroyed guts.

    Thanks!

    • KristenM
      August 12, 2011 | 12:30 pm

      Hi Susie, please see my comment made in reply to Laura above for a link to a non-dairy starter culture! Thanks. :)

  56. Ercan
    August 19, 2011 | 5:48 am

    Thanks for the recipe. There’s one point: Metal is the killer of vitamin C. I do not agree with you when you are suggesting stainless steel things for that.

  57. Kylie
    September 3, 2011 | 10:20 am

    This may be a silly question, but 1 gallon of water + all other ingredients = does not fit in a gallon sized jar. At least not mine. What do I do?

  58. Jami
    November 6, 2011 | 5:13 pm

    Can you drink this while nursing?

  59. Teresa
    December 22, 2011 | 10:40 am

    Maybe I missed it, but can one use protein powdered whey? Can whey be extracted in the same way from Kefir? How much yogurt do you need to extract 1 cup of whey? Thanks for the help – I bought a dozen lemons yesterday and my husband has started using them thinking I’ll leave them till they rot!! Help please! :)

Leave a Reply

Wanting to leave an <em>phasis on your comment?

I'm Reading

Because the idea that we need to be "grounded" to the earth just makes intuitive sense.