Cucumber Agua Fresca With Mint and Ginger
Published July 28, 2021
- Total Time
- 15 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 1½packed cups fresh mint leaves, plus sprigs for garnish
- ½cup granulated sugar
- ¼teaspoon kosher salt (Diamond Crystal)
- 1cup hot water
- 2English cucumbers, ends trimmed, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1(3-inch) piece fresh ginger (about 2 ounces), scrubbed and chopped
- 1lime, plus more as needed
- Ice cubes, for serving
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)
151 calories; 1 gram fat; 0 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 0 grams monounsaturated fat; 0 grams polyunsaturated fat; 38 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams dietary fiber; 28 grams sugars; 2 grams protein; 138 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
In a medium bowl, combine the mint leaves, sugar and salt, and crush them all together using a fork or the back of a wooden spoon just until the mint is bruised. Pour in the hot water, and stir until the sugar and salt dissolve. Allow the mixture to steep for 5 minutes while you prepare the cucumbers.
- Step 2
Combine the cucumbers and ginger in a blender. Zest the lime right over the blender, then halve it and squeeze in its juice. Pour in 1 cup room-temperature water and purée on high until smooth. Pour the purée through a fine-mesh strainer, pressing lightly on the solids with a spatula to extract the liquid. Discard the solids and pour the agua fresca into a medium pitcher.
- Step 3
Pour the mint syrup through the same strainer into a container, pressing on the leaves to extract the liquid. Add ¼ cup strained syrup to the agua fresca. Taste and add more syrup or more lime juice to taste. Cover any leftover syrup and refrigerate for another use.
- Step 4
Fill glasses with ice, pour in the agua fresca, garnish with mint and serve immediately.
Private Notes
Comments
These flavours are wonderful together. After making this a couple of times, I got lazy and started adding a few springs of mint right to the blender instead of steeping a cup and a half. I did away with the sugar syrup all together, added extra water to the blender to compensate, and then after straining, I added agave syrup to taste. And ice. And gin.
This is delicious! I don’t have a blender so used my food processor. May not purée quite as well as a blender so I recommend adding two layers of cheesecloth to the strainer. Then once most of the liquid has dropped through, gather up the corners of the cheese cloth and twist to wring out every last drop of liquid. Tomorrow I may add vodka.
Tasty, and a great way to fill the dishwasher.
Instead of using a food processor, I used a juicer. I added the lime juice in at the end. It made the step of straining the juice unnecessary, thus turning this recipe into a simple process. The results were dellicious.
Two ounces of ginger was an awful idea. All that for a glass of scald. Had to add all the syrup to compensate and would probably not make again unless tripling the recipe to compensate for the pain
Could not strain this easily. Messy and a waste of ingredients.