I’ve been wanting to make watermelon agua fresca for the longest time. Although it sounds wildly exotic, it’s quite simply watermelon juice. But don’t let the simplicity fool you – it’s wonderfully good. A few restaurants have it here in San Jose however it is my laziness that hasn’t allowed me to make it at home.
I wish I could say there was a recipe for this but it’s just pureed and strained watermelon. If you wish to sweeten it, you can add a bit of sugar or honey. You can also add a squeeze of lime for a few bruised mint leaves for added flavor.
I don’t have a food processor so I once again turned to my trusty stick blender. It makes the process take a lot longer and ultimately it was so very, very messy. By the time my pitcher was full of watermelon juice, my t-shirt needed to be wrung out :-)
I ended up adding about a cup of water in total during the blending process. The water helped the blender to get the magic started. After you puree the melon, strain it through a fairly fine mesh sieve. I have a very small one so this didn’t help speed things along either. You’ll find that there is quite a bit of pulp. The remaining juice is a vibrant deep pink color, so beautiful.
Serve icy cold and enjoy. For the adults, maybe add a splash of vodka as well :-)
Now that summer is nearing an end, the prices of watermelons are very cheap. I purchased a gigantic one for $3.48 and I used it for every recipe I am publishing this week (plus there is still a piece in the fridge). So, grab a melon while they last and try your hand at agua fresca!
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
i’ve never heard of this..but this indeed sounds great for the summer! i love watermelon but most often i just eat them up like that! thanks for the recipe i’ll try this one this weekend!
Lovely rose-colored refreshing drink you have here, Allen! If you’d like to speed up the main filtration process (and you don’t mind cleaning up a tad more), you can use successively smaller pore sizes and re-filter it several times. Of course, you’d need several sieves (I’d use a coarse sieve, then fine, then cheesecloth– but that might be *too* fine).
Aguas frescas! My favorites are watermelon, rice, tamarind and cantaloupe. Oh so many memories!
The medium disc of a foodmill works pretty well for making watermelon juice too — it’s not as speedy as a blender, but works fine. I typically mix 1/2 watermelon juice and 1/2 bubbly water for a nice refresher. The splash of lime you added would be great too
This is a great drink for a hot day. You can also get watermelon juice at any boba place. They don’t strain it but I love the pulp anyways.
I am picking up a watermelon later! I have a vision of you now, stick blender in hand – covered in watermelon! It does look wonderfully refreshing though.
Yes please!…I’ll have a double shot of vodka in mine thanks.
I’ve made it with a juicer, and it works great! It’s so sweet… Yum.
Ah, watermelon juice. Add a little shot of tequila or rum, and I’m in heaven!
Ah now this looks refreshing! I’ve been wanting to make watermelon flavored cupcakes, I wonder if this would work as the flavoring