April's shine day 19/30 - probiotic lemonade

probiotic lemonade

This is a recipe I learned and experimented with recently, as I was looking ways to use my probiotic home-made-raw-almond-yogurt-whey..:-)

If you are interested in making the home-made-raw-almond-yogurt, just click on the link:-)

After making the yogurt I let it get yogurty for 8-24 hours and as we eat the yogurty part of it, I am left with the raw almond yogurt whey. 

As it is fermented, I usually do not put it in my green smoothies unless I know I will drink the result soon after. I tried a few times a fermented green smoothie and... hmmmm.. what can I say...

So not wanting to throw the whey away as I would not put it in the smoothie, I tried drinking it a few times but it's just not my thing.. (could be yours, it' really healthy:-) )

---

Then I discovered a recipe that I experimented with, and I liked how all the experiments turned out until now, so I decided to share with you my new recipes. 

1. fermented whey lemonade:
I first make the raw almond yogurt as I explained in the link above, the short version being that I let the almonds (or cashews or whatever you want to use) soak over night, in the morning I make a thick milk and I blend the milk with Probiotic with acidophilus (1 tb. spoon for around 1l think milk).
I let that overnight with a cheesecloth or a breathing cloth on top - the next morning the yogurt has separated on the top and take that away with a spoon. In my more than one year experience I have never been able to take away the yogurt perfectly, so please do not fret it:-)

The whey that is left is already fermented and that is what I use for this recipe.

Recipe 1
For 1 l fermented (probiotic) lemonade I use:

• 2-3 lemons: the juice (I juice it separately) - you can use as many lemons you want, for as tart as you want your lemonade.. I have seen a recipe that uses 5 lemonades for this quantity..
• 2 tb. spoons of sugar..  The idea with the probiotic is that the sugar dissolves, as those friendly bacterias get to eat it. In my experience (not much at the moment but still), not all of the sugar dissolves.. I kept a sample of the original lemonade in the fridge to compare and, as the result is more sour, it's not much more sour.. So keep that in mind, you may want to put less sugar in and experiment on your end.. I am also going to - and put updates here - and if you have a good experiment with less or no sugar, I'd love to hear about it.
• I use like 400- 500ml of whey (see above) for this 1l lemonade 
• and the rest, water - filtered and loved..

And I blend this in the blender, as I want the sugar totally dissolved.
You may have a surprise, it might be white:-) Mine stayed white up to the end, when it split a bit..
I put this in a 1l jar, cover it with a cloth and let it on the kitchen counter (or somewhere there) for 1 to 2 days.

You might want to check from time to time if there is no mold on top of the lemonade. I would recommend that you throw it away if it develops mold - especially if you did not "caught" it in time and it's a fairly amount. 

To prevent it from molding the guru's say that you have to clean your jar extremely well, cook it in water, dry it extremely well with a cloth and more.. As I have an extremely limited time, I do not do that and I just take my chances. I have had a probiotic drink that went on for a few month without molding and I've had some that molded after one day. 

As a rule of thumb, the more it sits, the more the sugar is eaten by Ms. Probiotic, thus the more bubbles it develops and the more it tastes like champagne :-)

All these tips go for all the recipes of today, lest they develop mold.

Recipe 2:
Another variant that also went very well, with less work and waiting, also 1l:
I put in the blender:

• 2 lemons, peeled and halved;
• 2 tb. spoons of sugar;
• 2 tb. spoons of probiotic with acidophilus;
• a bit less than 1l water;

Blend till really smooth, put it in a jar and cover with a cloth, let it sit for 1 to 2 days. 

Recipe 3:
I put in the blender:

• whey 400-500ml (see above);
• 2 lemons peeled and cut;
• 2 tb. spoons of sugar;
• water to fill (filtered and loved);

These are my experiments so far and I will update when I have more tips..

My intention is to go on and add ginger, basil, mint and other aromas, as well as cayenne pepper or cinnamon for some spicier recipes. 
I will experiment with adding these before and after the fermenting process and I'll let you know how it goes. 
Also try limes, as they have yet another flavor and perfume.

If you are adventurous (and I know some of you are), try adding yourself some of these, maybe in smaller batches - and please let me know how that goes!! 

Did you already make a probiotic lemonade? How did you do that and what did you use? Please tell me in the comments below.

Love on you! :-)