RECIPE: Homemade Watermelon Juice Concentrate

#healthydrinks Watermelon juice is delicious… and expensive. WTRMLN WTR, last checked, was $50 for twelve little 12oz bottles! A cheaper, and healthier option is homemade. It hydrates with vitamins, magnesium, potassium, and phosphorus. And it’s even better if you don’t strain the juice and get all that fabulous fiber too.

INGREDIENTS:

1 fresh, ripe watermelon

(I prefer seeded for the flavor, but grab your favorite.)

Lime juice

Salt

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Chunk the flesh of the watermelon.

2. Use a blender to blend up the chunks. Stop the blender and add more chunks and continue to blend until you have a full blender container. Approx 8 cups or 64 ounces.

3. Add 1 Tbsp lime juice.

4. Add 1 tsp salt.

5. Blend well but do not let the juice get hot.

6. Pour the juice in a larger collection container or huge pot, then start on the next batch.

* Mixing each batch together helps ensure a uniform flavor as different parts of the watermelon will have favor variations.

ENJOYING YOUR WATERMELON JUICE CONCENTRATE:

The juice in its purest form is a little much to take at once. When you are ready to drink it, it will need a little “watering” down. Here is my favorite way to enjoy it.

Grab a large, 28 to 30 ounce, blender cup.

Add 4 to 6 ounces of watermelon juice.

Add 1 to 2 grams of Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) powder (I use Doctor’s Best, Pure Vitamin C with Co-C) [picture in comments]

Fill the rest of the blender cup with water.

Mix and enjoy.

EXTRAS YOU CAN ALSO ADD:

- a squirt of liquid ginger extract (I use Nature’s Answer, alcohol-free Ginger Extract [picture in comments];

- a scoop of Ultima Replenisher electrolyte powder (raspberry tastes extra delicious with the watermelon) [picture in comments].

* I use Ultima Replenisher because they flavor their products with natural flavors so no fake aftertaste, and it is sweetened with natural stevia leaf.

* Beware of other sweeteners used as sugar substitutes. Most are not good for you and some of the most popular, like Splenda/Sucralose can kick you out of ketosis (if you are doing low carb/keto) and has been shown in a clinical study to actually encourage weight GAIN!

* Some safe and keto friendly sweetener options include stevia, monk fruit (beware of products that blend monk fruit with other non-keto-friendly alternatives), erythritol, and allulose.

TIPS WHEN MAKING THE JUICE CONCENTRATE:

A. Taste the watermelon as soon as you cut it. If your watermelon doesn’t taste good now, it’s not worth the time to make a bunch of juice out of it.

B. My seed-removal technique: As you get to regions with the seeds, start making thin slices along that section. It quickly exposes the seeds for easy removal. Once you get past the seed-line, you’re back to solid, seedless chunks.

C. Don’t let all the juice in the rind go to waste. Score any remaining flesh against the rind and scrape it with a large spoon for all the juice you can get out of it. This can be messy so do it over a large bowl or other widemouth container sat inside a clean kitchen sink to limit splatters.

D. Use a powerful blender like a Vitamix, Blendtec, etc. You need the power to break up the fiber, but you don’t want the juice to get hot.

E. Keep your juice stirred in the large collection container/pot as you are separating it into smaller containers for storage.

STORAGE TIPS:

Keep the juice refrigerated. Freeze excess juice immediately.

Since this watermelon juice is exclusively made from fresh produce, it will not last long and can ferment quickly (in a week or less). If you want enough watermelon juice to last a while (and you should… it’s delicious and quite refreshing), I recommend investing in some mason jars to freeze the juice. Be careful to not overfill the mason jars. “Ball” and “Mason” brands typically have a line on the jar itself indicating the fill line if you plan on freezing the contents. This allows room for the juice to expand upward so you don’t end up with broken jars. They also sell plastic lids with gaskets that also work well if you aren’t “canning” your mason jar contents. Then when you are ready for more watermelon juice, just head to your freezer for a fresh jar.

#recipe #hydration #electrolytes