Limonana

This is the limonana, the famous Middle Eastern lemonade made from freshly squeezed lemons – limon in Hebrew and Arabic, and fresh mint leaves – nana in Hebrew and Arabic. Limonana is a perfect drink for summery weather. And for the rest of the year too!

The lemon is an excellent source of vitamin C and a good source of folic acid. I made the limonana healthier by substituting the plain sugar often found in large quantity in limonana with a limited amount of natural sugar.

The quantities in the recipe here make 1 litre. It is ready in less than 10 minutes, but needs to chill in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Ingredients

• 2 lemons
• 2 tablespoons of agave syrup (this limonana is not too sweet,  so add a bit more of agave syrup if you prefer a sweeter lemonade)
• 1 small handful of fresh mint leaves
• Filtered water

Preparation

Juice the lemons (but before, roll them on a flat surface with the hand as this will help to extract more juice), and transfer the juice into a glass bottle with a large opening.

Add the agave syrup and whole mint leaves (some recipes call for the mint leaves to be finely chopped or blended, but I prefer to keep them whole to infuse, and not actually eat the mint). Top up with filtered water. Close the bottle, shake it, and place in the fridge.

And serve cold!