Non-Alcoholic Drinks | Saveur

Persian Cantaloupe Drink

Farideh Sadeghin — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 22:43:36 +0000

Photo: Heami Lee • Food Styling: Jessie YuChen. Photo: Heami Lee • Food Styling: Jessie YuChen

SAVEUR contributing editor Farideh Sadeghin got the recipe for this refreshing melon drink from her Iranian-born father, who makes it by grating fresh cantaloupe and combining it with water, sugar, and mint. You can also add a little gin for a cooling summer cocktail.

Featured in “Chasing the Perfect Persian Rice.”

Yield: 6 cups

Time: 5 minutes

1 cantaloupe (about 3 lb.)
¼ cup sugar, plus more to taste
Fresh mint sprigs, for garnish

Instructions

Peel the cantaloupe, then halve it and scoop out and discard the seeds. Cut each cantaloupe half into two pieces and coarsely grate them into a large bowl. Stir in the sugar and 3½ cups of water, then taste and add more sugar if necessary. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes.
Serve in cups over ice, garnished with mint.

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Mango Lassi

SAVEUR Editors — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 22:47:54 +0000

Photo: Heami Lee • Food Styling: Jessie YuChen. Photo: Heami Lee • Food Styling: Jessie YuChen

Use the ripest, sweetest, smoothest mangoes you can find, such as Champagne or Haitian varieties, to make this yogurt-enriched Indian fruit shake. Striking the perfect balance between sweet and tart, this mango lassi makes a fine breakfast smoothie, or cooling accompaniment to spicy meals.

Yield: Makes 4

Time: 1 hour 5 minutes

3 cups plain yogurt (not Greek-style)
¼ cup sugar
½ tsp. kosher salt
1 large ripe mango, peeled, pitted, and coarsely chopped
Coarsely chopped pistachios, for garnish (optional)

Instructions

To a blender, add the yogurt, sugar, salt, and mango, and pulse until smooth. Refrigerate until chilled, at least 1 hour. Pour into glasses, garnish with pistachios if desired, and serve.

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The Best Strawberry Lemonade

Taffy Elrod — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 18:48:20 +0000

Photo: Murray Hall • Food Styling: Jessie YuChen. Photo: Murray Hall • Food Styling: Jessie YuChen

Red-colored foods are commonly served on Juneteenth. “While people have different thoughts about how this tradition started, some people say red foods represent our ancestors’ bloodshed during the slave trade and in the fight for freedom,” writes Alliah L. Agostini in The Juneteenth Cookbook. Others connect it to the red in the Pan-African flag or to the kola nut, which turns red when boiled and is used in some West African ceremonial traditions. This simple strawberry lemonade is chef and co-author Taffy Elrod’s take on pink lemonade, tinted appropriately for the official color of Juneteenth.

Adapted from The Juneteenth Cookbook by Alliah L. Agostini, Taffy Elrod, and Sawyer Cloud. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, becker&mayer kids!, an imprint of The Quarto Group, New York, NY.

Featured in “This Cookbook Is an Open Invitation to the Juneteenth Cookout” by Jessica Carbone.

Yield: 6 cups

Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients

For the simple syrup:

1 cup sugar

For the lemonade:

1 lb. fresh strawberries
1 cup fresh lemon juice (from 4–5 large lemons)
½ lemon, thinly sliced, for garnish

Instructions

Make the simple syrup: In a small pot over medium heat, bring the sugar and 1 cup of water to a simmer and cook, stirring frequently, until the sugar has fully dissolved, 2–4 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool to room temperature. Use the syrup immediately or transfer to an airtight container and store in the fridge for up to 1 month.
Make the lemonade: Set aside a few strawberries for garnish, then hull the rest. Transfer the hulled strawberries to a blender and process until smooth. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a large pitcher or 2-quart measuring cup, using a silicone spatula to push the purée through the strainer.
Add the lemon juice and 2 cups of water to the strawberry purée in the pitcher. Stir in 1 cup of the simple syrup and taste. If necessary, add up to another 1 cup of water.
Serve over ice. Garnish with the lemon slices and reserved whole strawberries.

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Fresco de Ensalada (Fruit Salad Drink)

Karla Tatiana Vasquez — Wed, 29 May 2024 18:24:48 +0000

Ren Fuller (Courtesy Ten Speed Press). Ren Fuller (Courtesy Ten Speed Press)

This recipe is brought to you by the SAVEUR Cookbook Club, our passionate community of food-loving readers from around the globe celebrating our favorite authors and recipes. Join us as we cook through a new book every month, and share your food pics and vids on social media with the hashtags #SAVEURCookbookClub and #EatTheWorld.

As Karla Tatiana Vasquez chronicles in The SalviSoul Cookbook, a refresco (or fresco for short) is a refreshing beverage served at celebrations and gatherings across El Salvador. The adapted recipe shared here is in many ways a drinkable fruit salad—a subtly sweet and tangy pineapple-based punch that is as adaptable as it is quaffable.

Many of the fruits featured in this drink are tropical fruits common throughout Central America, including marañón (cashew fruit), the creamy soft fruit mamey, and small, slightly sour plums known as jocotes. If you can’t find them in the fresh or frozen sections of your local grocery store, they can be swapped out for whatever fruits are in season, such as grapes, apples, and peaches. Vasquez cautions that if using canned fruit, be sure to choose pineapple preserved in its juice rather than in a sugar syrup. If you can find it, the pineapple essence or extract adds a punch of sweetness to this otherwise delicate drink.

Featured in “This Salvadoran Cookbook Is Making History” by Jessica Carbone.

Yield: 16

Time: 20 minutes

4 cups finely chopped pineapple, divided
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 cups finely chopped fresh mamey or frozen mamey pulp
One 14-oz. bag frozen whole jocotes, pitted and finely chopped
8 oz. marañón, tops removed and finely chopped
1 medium Pink Lady apple, cored and finely chopped
1 large ripe mango, peeled, pitted and finely chopped
1 tsp. pineapple essence or extract (optional)
3 medium romaine lettuce leaves, thinly sliced
Watercress sprigs, for garnish

Instructions

To a blender, add 3 cups of the pineapple, the brown sugar, and 2 cups of water. Blend on high speed until smooth, 1–2 minutes.
Transfer to a very large jug or beverage dispenser. Stir in the mamey, jocotes, marañón, apple, mango, pineapple essence (if desired), the remaining pineapple, and 14 cups of water. Stir in the lettuce, then set aside (in the refrigerator if possible) for 10 minutes to let the flavors mingle.
To serve, fill about a third of each glass with fruit, then top with the liquid. Garnish with watercress and serve with both straws and spoons to scoop out the fruit.

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Banana-Mango Smoothie with Fresh Turmeric

Romy Gill — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 17:00:00 +0000

Photo: Andrew Bui • Food Styling: Jessie YuChen. Photo: Andrew Bui • Food Styling: Jessie YuChen

One of chef Romy Gill’s favorite sweet treats when she was growing up in India was smoothies. Her parents would blitz them up using whatever fruit was freshest, though a combination she especially loved was banana and mango. The pairing tasted even better when her parents added fresh turmeric. The root lent the smoothie a bright, peppery flavor—not to mention its anti-inflammatory powers—and made the fruits’ yellow hues even sunnier.

Though fresh or frozen fruit both work in this banana-mango smoothie recipe, opt for frozen if you want a thicker, creamier consistency. To make this dairy-free or vegan, feel free to swap in almond or soy milk.

Featured in “We Should All Be Cooking with Fresh Turmeric.”

Yield: 1

Time: 10 minutes

1 cup milk
2 ripe mangoes, peeled, pitted, and cut into 2-in. pieces (about 1½ cups) or 12 oz. frozen mango chunks
1 fresh or frozen ripe banana, cut into 2-in. pieces
One ½-in. piece turmeric, peeled and coarsely chopped

Instructions

To a blender, add the milk, mangoes, banana, turmeric, and ½ cup of ice cubes. Blend until smooth, pour into a glass, and serve immediately.

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Toasted Rice Horchata

Fany Gerson — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 22:37:54 +0000

Photography by Murray Hall; Food Styling by Jessie YuChen

This toasted rice drink, traditionally served in the Mexican state of Campeche, is one of many varieties of horchata commonly enjoyed in Latin American cultures. We like making this horchata de arroz tostado recipe from Fany Gerson—the Brooklyn-based chef behind Fan-Fan Doughnuts, confection company La Newyorkina, and Mexican restaurant Mijo—whenever a refreshingly sweet sip is in order. For the cinnamon stick and ground cinnamon, Gerson recommends Ceylon for its mild flavor and subtle sweetness.

Yield: 4

Time: 10 minutes

⅓ cup uncooked medium- or long-grain rice
One 1-in. cinnamon stick, preferably Ceylon
¼ cup granulated sugar
½ tsp. vanilla extract
Ground cinnamon, preferably Ceylon, for garnish

Instructions

In a skillet set over medium-low heat, toast the rice and cinnamon stick, stirring occasionally, until they release a nutty aroma, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a blender and process into a fine powder. Add the sugar, vanilla extract, and 2 cups of water and blend well. Set a wet cheesecloth over a pitcher and strain in the rice mixture (discard the sediment), then stir in 2 more cups of water. Set in the fridge to chill completely.
To glasses filled with ice, pour in the horchata. Garnish with ground cinnamon and serve immediately.

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Atol de Elote

SAVEUR Editors — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 22:45:26 +0000

Photography by Linda Xiao; Food Styling by Jessie YuChen

Atol de elote is a sweet corn beverage frequently doled out warm in Guatemalan markets. Seasoned with cinnamon or vanilla, fresh corn kernels are pulverized on a grinding stone or metate to achieve the drink’s silky, creamy consistency. (In a pinch, a blender gets the job done, too.)

This recipe ran alongside Chris Bagley‘s 2017 story, “Guatemala’s Ancient Food Traditions.“

Yield: 6–8

Time: 40 minutes

3 fresh corn cobs, shucked (about 1¾ lb.)
2 cups whole milk
¹⁄₂ cup raw turbinado sugar
¹⁄₄ tsp. ground cinnamon or vanilla extract, or more
¹⁄₂ tsp. kosher salt

Instructions

Using a large chefs knife, slice the kernels from the corn cobs, reserving the kernels (about 2 cups) and their juices (discard the cobs). Set a few kernels aside for garnish if desired.
Transfer the corn kernels to a blender and pulse until coarsely ground. Add 2 cups water, the milk, sugar, and cinnamon or vanilla, and blend on high until very smooth.
To a medium pot over medium-low heat, add the corn mixture, bring to a low boil, then stir in the salt. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until the atol de elote is slightly thickened, about 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and ladle into heatproof cups or mugs. Garnish with any reserved corn kernels and a bit more cinnamon if desired.

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Blueberry Pie Milkshake

SAVEUR Editors — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 22:31:35 +0000

Photography by Murray Hall; Food Styling by Jessie YuChen

There’s nothing better than blueberry pie a la mode—except, perhaps, for the blueberry pie milk shake at Hamburg Inn No. 2 in Iowa City, Iowa. It’s exactly what it sounds like: A scoop of vanilla ice cream and a hefty slice of pie go into the blender together, and out comes the ultimate dessert, a creamy shake with buttery crumbles of pie crust and ribbons of gorgeous fruit filling throughout.

This recipe first appeared in the 2013 edition of the SAVEUR 100.

Yield: makes 1 shake

One 3 in.-slice blueberry pie
10 oz. vanilla ice cream, softened
Whipped cream, for serving
Maraschino cherry, for serving

Instructions

To a blender, add the pie and ice cream and blend until smooth. Pour into a tall glass. Garnish with whipped cream and a maraschino cherry and serve immediately.

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Simple Syrup

SAVEUR Editors — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 22:41:15 +0000

Photography by Belle Morizio

The most basic simple syrup recipe combines equal parts sugar and water to make a bartenders’ staple perfect for sweetening everything from cocktails to iced coffee and tea. An essential ingredient in many classic drinks, the neutral syrup can also be infused with herbs, spices, or other seasonings. Find a few variations from our archives here.

Yield: 1⅓ cups

Time: 5 minutes

1 cup sugar

Instructions

In a small pot over low heat, stir together the sugar and 1 cup water. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring frequently, until the sugar has fully dissolved, 2–4 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool to room temperature. Use simple syrup immediately or transfer to an airtight bottle or jar and store in the fridge for up to 1 month.

*Note: This basic simple syrup recipe can be adapted to make a thicker and more concentrated “rich simple syrup” by doubling the quantity of sugar.

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Watermelon Agua Fresca

Fatima Khawaja — Mon, 01 Aug 2022 21:02:48 +0000

Photography by Linda Xiao; Food Styling by Jason Schreiber; Prop Styling by Summer Moore

Welcome to SAVEUR’s column on how to cook local produce according to our test kitchen manager, Fatima Khawaja. This is where you’ll find creative, unfussy meal ideas plus plenty of cooking advice—like what to do with that bumper crop of zucchini or how to store delicate heirloom tomatoes. Every other week, Fatima hits the farmers market and chooses a peak-season ingredient to explore in depth. Follow along, and you’ll learn how to turn the season’s bounty into easy plant-based meals that’ll be on the table in under an hour.

In June, I was lucky enough to visit Baja, Mexico. I was awestruck by the endless beaches, warm hospitality, and unforgettable dining—but it was the produce that truly won me over.

The watermelon tasted like my childhood. In Pakistan, there were always bowls of cold, juicy, cubed melon in the refrigerator. I’d snack on them in the summertime with the door still ajar.

In both Baja and my home city of Lahore, fresh fruit juices abound. This recipe for watermelon agua fresca, then, is a kind of cross-cultural celebration. The key ingredient is salt, which accentuates the melon’s sweetness.

When buying a watermelon, look for the orange “field spot” on the rind. That’s where the fruit met the ground while growing. The darker the color of the field spot, the more sun the melon got, meaning the sweeter it’ll be. Most grocery store watermelons are of the picnic variety, which is striped, large, and heavy. I sometimes spot icebox watermelons at the farmers market, which are petite and perfect for one person. Both seedless and regular watermelon work in this recipe.

Agua frescas are alcohol-free crowd-pleasers for people of all ages, but they are also a wonderful base for cocktails. In Cabo, I fell in love with the watermelon julep at Flora Farms, a farm-to-table restaurant that grows 115 types of fruits and vegetables. Find that recipe here.

Yield: 4

Time: 10 minutes

1 lb. watermelon chunks
Pinch kosher salt

Instructions

In a blender, purée the watermelon. Using a sieve, gradually strain into a pitcher, pressing on the solids with the back of a ladle. Pour over ice. (Watermelon agua fresca will keep in the refrigerator for two days.)

Watermelon Julep

Photography by Linda Xiao; Food Styling by Jason Schreiber; Prop Styling by Summer Moore

Get the recipe >

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Sweet Tea

Jay Bob Grelen — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 22:31:06 +0000

Photography by Belle Morizio

This classic Southern-style sweet tea recipe came to us from Mobile, Alabama, resident and founder of the Southern Sweet Tea Sip-off, Jay Bob Grelen. On hot days, Grelen downs between one and two quarts—with gusto. “I’m a Southern Baptist,” he says, laughing, between seeps. “I can’t drink, can’t cuss, can’t dance, and can’t go to Disney World. All I have left is sweet tea.” Grelen favors Hill + Brooks quart-sized tea bags for his recipe, but other brands of black tea may be substituted. For more advice on how to brew iced tea, check out our comprehensive guide, here.

Featured in “True Brew.”

Yield: makes 1 Gallon

Time: 10 minutes

2 quart-size tea bags (or substitute 5 single-serve tea bags), preferably black tea
2 cups sugar
Lemon wedges, to serve (optional)

Instructions

In a medium pot over high heat, bring 1 quart of cold water to a boil. Add the tea bags, then immediately remove the pot from the heat. Set aside to steep at room temperature for 4 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a half-gallon pitcher or jar, stir together 1 quart of cold water and the sugar. Remove and discard the tea bags, then pour the hot tea into the pitcher. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. (Adding the hot tea to the cold sugar water, rather than the other way around, helps keep the tea clear and preserves its flavor.) Refrigerate until chilled.
To serve, pour over ice and garnish with lemon wedges, if desired.

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