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Rhubarb Lemonade

Rhubarb Lemonade
Rhubarb Lemonade

The weather is hot hot hot and there’s more of it to come – and there’s just a little bit of rhubarb season left, so still enough time to make this quick and very refreshing drink. It was from a
Rhubarb Iced Tea recipe, but since I don’t have much affinity for tea, I changed it to a Rhubarb Lemonade, with bought lemonade to top it up. Rhubarb Lemonade

I normally use these Ikea Korken Bottles (pictured) but you can use any cordial bottles which I half fill with cordial and freeze (normally on it’s side) then it freezes diagonally and looks quite pretty!

Rhubarb Lemonade

Taken out of the freezer I top it with fizzy lemonade and leave it to defrost, it’s perfect on a hot and sweltering day.

Rhubarb Iced Tea
Author: Keeper of the Kitchen
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 1 litre
Ingredients
  • 500g Roughly chopped rhubarb
  • 1000g Water
  • 100g White or Brown Sugar
  • Squirt of lemon juice (tbs roughly) or half a lemon
Instructions
  1. Add the rhubarb to a pot with water. Bring to the boil, stirring for 10 minutes to prevent the rhubarb burning. Lower the heat and boil for a further 20 minutes, with the lid on.
  2. (I would try to keep the rhubarb in a colander if you have one that can fit inside your pot – that way you don’t have to strain it after.)
  3. Remove the rhubarb, squeezing out any excess water. Switch off the heat and while the water is still hot, add the sugar and lemon juice and stir till dissolved.
  4. Set aside to cool – serve as is, or with lemonade. We like to freeze it too.
Thermomix Recipe
  1. Fill the Thermomix jug to 1000g
  2. Place rhubarb in internal steamer basket. Place MC.
  3. The water must touch the rhubarb, but the rhubarb shouldn’t touch the blades.
  4. Speed 10 mins /speed 4/ Varoma
  5. Then 20 mins /speed 4/100C
  6. Remove lid, then use the back of a spoon to squeeze out excess liquid.
  7. While still hot, add sugar – you can add more or less to taste – 100g works well for me.
  8. Add lemon juice and set aside to cool.
  9. Once cool, move to glass bottle and store in the fridge till ready to serve.
  10. With 1 litre Sprite: Calories: 1,738 Carbs: 454 Protein: 5 Sodium: 240 Sugar: 433
Serving size: 4 cups Calories: 1,258 Fat: 0 Sugar: 305 Sodium: 20 Protein: 5
Notes
To serve: I like to freeze half a bottle on it’s side so that I can take it out and add lemonade. The lemonade is cooled by the iced drink and once defrosted you have a bubbly refreshing drink. You can drink it as is too, but I like it with the lemonade.
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Carrot And Cheddar Shortbread Recipe

Carrot and Cheese Shortbread

An odd side effect of growing your own food is that sometimes you have very small amounts of produce. For example, we harvested a handful of carrots this week, thinning out space for the other carrots to grow bigger. This gave us about 8 small carrots which is barely a snack of one person, never mind a side for three, so I had to think of something we could make that use the carrots to best effect.

Carrot and Cheese Shortbread
Carrot and Cheese Shortbread served with Carrot Top Hummus

I decided a good snack for a picnic we were attending would be Carrot and Cheese Shortbread. I know shortbread is normally a sweet treat, but why should it be!?

This recipe was a bit trial and error, but it worked out so well, I’m really pleased with it. And if we have another small batch of carrots I intend to do the same again, but freeze the dough so that we have ready shortbread whenever we want – I think it’s a great way of saving summer produce too! I’ll let you know how I get on with that.

Shortbread

In the meantime, here’s the carrot and cheddar shortbread recipe.

Carrot And Cheddar Shortbread Recipe
Recipe Type: Snack
Author: Keeper of the Kitchen
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 20 biscuits
In the Thermomix this just takes a few minutes, then there’s a 30 minute chill time. After chilling you need to slice the cookies or you can roll them out to make shapes.
Ingredients
  • 115g (4oz) salted butter
  • 90g (3oz) carrot and cheese*
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 1/2 tsp thyme
  • 1/2 tsp rosemary
  • 220g (1 1/4 cups) plain flour
  • 1 tbs water (a bit more if your flour is organic)
Instructions
  1. (If you’re not using a Thermomix, grate the carrot first)
  2. Add room temperature butter to a mixing bowl and using an electric beater whisk it till it’s light and fluffy
(Thermomix: add the butterfly and mix on speed 3 for 30 – 40 seconds)
  1. Add a mixture of carrot and cheese to add up to 90g. In this case I used 45g of each, but more or less of whichever you have, to add up to 90g.
  2. Add the rest of the ingredients, except the water and mix until combined
(speed 6 for 1 minute)
  1. Add the water and mix till it combines and pulls away from the sides
  2. Tip out onto greaseproof paper, and shape into a sausage. Chill for 30 minutes in the fridge.
  3. After 30 minutes, turn the oven on to 180C/350F. Slice the sausage into 1cm thick slices and place on a baking tray. Bake for 20 -25 minutes.
  4. Leave to cool.