My aunt used to tell me about quinoa and how amazing and healthful it was, and what do you know? For Passover, it is kosher! I made the decision to add fresh vegetables to my cooked quinoa to bulk it up without turning it mushy. This recipe for spinach and carrots serves 4 to 5 as a side dish, but I’ve been known to eat half of it as a meal by itself.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 5 mins |
| Additional Time: | 50 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 10 mins |
| Servings: | 6 |
Ingredients
- ½ seedless watermelon
- 2 cups cold water
- ½ cup white sugar, or to taste
- ½ cup water
- ice, as needed
Instructions
- Scoop flesh from watermelon half and transfer to a blender with 2 cups cold water. Place a folded towel on the blender lid and blend until liquefied, about 1 minute. Strain through a fine mesh strainer into a large bowl to remove fibers. Discard fibers left in the strainer. Skim and discard excess foam from the juice if desired.
- Place sugar and 1/2 cup water into a saucepan over medium heat; stir until water is hot and sugar has dissolved. Turn off the heat and let simple syrup cool to room temperature, about 20 minutes. Stir simple syrup into watermelon juice to taste.
- Pour drink into a 2-quart pitcher and refrigerate until cold, at least 30 minutes. To serve, fill tall glasses with ice cubes and pour agua fresca drink over ice. Serve with straws.
- Flesh from one watermelon half equals 5 to 6 cups.
- Fill the empty watermelon half shell with ice, pour the aqua fresca into the shell, and serve garnished with a sprig of mint.
Reviews
Chef John’s recipes always work well. This is no exception. Summertime perfection. Except sometimes I add vodka.
Absolutely delish!!! I love juicy sweet watermelon but sometimes ya get a dud even when it has all the signs of a good melon. This is a perfect recipe for the not so great watermelons. I buy watermelons once a week and my last one was not very sweet so I used it for this recipe. I actually tripled the recipe because it was almost an entire watermelon. I like things sweet so I used one cup of sugar and a half a cup of sucralose and it came out great. The only thing I did slightly different was added the juice of two limes and I really could have used a third lime since it was a triple recipe. I don’t currently have any mint either as I know some add that in and some use it as a garnish. But overall, a great recipe!
great
I’m not a fan of drink water of any kind, but this taste like what would call adult Kool-aid. So very good. And by calling it adult Kool-aid my nephew assumed it had alcohol. Which meant more for me.LOL
My first time making this and it tasted real good. Next will try with soda water and lemon juice.
I made this as Chef John’s recipe noted, except I used Splenda instead of sugar to make the simple syrup thus making it nearly sugar-free (Just the bit of natural sugar occurring in the watermelon). This was a truly refreshing drink, perfect for a hot summer day.
Delicious!! An even better serving option is to freeze some of the Aqua Fresca into ice cubes. It’s a great presentation, and the Aqua Fresca doesn’t dilute as the cubes melt!
Amazing! So refreshing! Thanks Chef John. I also made the watermelon pizza and it was the highlight of the meal. Right now I have lemon peels resting with the sugar for the State Fair Lemonade. I can’t wait to try that tomorrow. Chad John, if you ever come to the East coast I want to take you and Michelle out to dinner!
Made as written. Delicious! Summertime in a glass.
Made as written (except sub xylitol for sugar), delicious.
I am making it again today because I loved it. So refreshing & a great way to use up a whole watermelon before it gets mushy.
I think it might be more appealing with a fizzy water instead of plain water.
I definitely recommend removing the froth from the top of the finished product. My husband loved this, especially after working outside under the hot Texas sun!
I added a tablespoon of lime juice after reading some review of other recipes, but I didn’t notice a difference in flavor. I’ll use a little more next time I make it until I like the flavor. I also used a personal-size watermelon instead of half a regular-size watermelon. I added 5 tablespoons of simple syrup because I didn’t want it to be too sweet. The flavor was great — I am anxious to try it when it is really cold in the morning. I used a fine mesh strainer, but maybe need to find one with finer mesh. There was still a fine sediment of watermelon in the drink, but I hope it settles overnight.
This was tasty and refreshing. I think I added too much sugar. I also made the mistake of making 2 batches at the same time. It does not keep well.
Easy to make and delicious to drink!
Have made this over a dozen times. So perfect, just the way it is. Watermelon is high on the glycemic index, so I’m gonna have to cool it a bit, or maybe just make it for guests, who all loved it too. The new lemonade.
This was a refreshing drink. I followed exactly, although I was tempted not to strain it so that I don’t lose any nutritional benefit in the pulp.. But had I done that I would have ended up with a cold watermelon soup verse a drink !
Yum
Too much sugar! I used 3 tablespoons, and it was still sweet enough. I also used juice from 3 limes.
Really good, just not something I was eager to drink a lot of. Great party type of drink