Watermelon - Basil Refresher (No Alcohol)

Recipe Cooked, Photographed and Written by Praveena

PrepTime:5 mins MixTime:5 mins Cuisine:Indian

Watermelon and Basil Refreshing Drink, is so special to me, why because it has the basil leaves from my tiny backyard plant. Yes, my husband planted few herbs in our backyard and this is part of that patch.

Is it not a good feel to cook something, from a fruit/veggie/herb grown in your own garden. Of course it is!! 🙂

I wanted to surprise my daughters with a refreshing drink once they are back home from school, on a severe sunny day.

Made this refreshing chilled drink and when it was quite a great feel for me to see how satisfied they felt. They just loved it.

Health Benefits of ‘Watermelon & Basil Refreshing Drink (Non Alcoholic)’:

Watermelon is a fruit that has more than 90% of water. Hence, it has many health benefits like cleansing your inner body along with being very low in calories. On the contrary daily adequate intake of this fruit might even cause adverse effects on the health.

Basil: leaves have anti-oxidant and anti-bacterial properties. It helps maintain skin health, detoxify the body and boosts digestion.

To Conclude: This recipe is best suitable to detoxify the body, boost up the digestion. And comes under Weight Loss, fat free, low calorie, whole foods plant based, diabetic friendly diets.

Before starting to cook, don’t forget to see the Tips mentioned at the end.

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Ingredients: (serves 4)

Watermelon (seedless) – 5 cups (cubed pieces)
Honey/ Sugar/ Maple Syrup – 2 tablespoons
Lemon Juice – 2 tablespoons
Fresh Basil Leaves – 1 cup (packed)
Salt – ¼ teaspoon
Ice cold water – 3 cups
Ice cubes – 1 cup

Special Ingredients:

Ice cold water
Ice cubes

Step wise pics Procedure for ‘Watermelon Basil Refresher’:

Wash the basil leaves and take them into a blender/processor (leave 4 leaves for garnish)
Add the watermelon pieces to the blender except for 1 cup of them which we can use for topping up.
Add the honey and lemon juice to the same.
Blend everything finely, transfer into a jug.

Take the tumblers, add the remaining watermelon pieces and ice-cubes, by sharing equally.
Pour the above blended puree, equally into all 4 tumblers.
Add ice-cold water up to the brim of each tumbler.
Garnish each with a Basil leaf and a straw. Done!!

Tips:

You can avoid honey if you wish to. Add sugar / maple syrup as a replace.
After blending you can strain the liquid, which I avoided.
You can dilute the thick pulp with the amount of water you wish to.

Result:

This, No Alcohol Watermelon Basil Refresher is insanely a perfect coolant on a hot summer day.
It can also be served as a starter beverage of any meal/party/gathering.
Look at the pics below, you will surely feel like making this sooner.