Easy Sangria

You can make this sangria ahead of time, for easy entertaining. Because it appeared in an article about Spanish food, I chose a Spanish red wine, but any vegan dry red wine of your choice would work just fine: you'll need one, standard 750 ml bottle for this recipe. As always, I recommend theorganicwinecompany.com for their selection of vegan wines.

In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup dry red wine, 1 tablespoon brandy, 1 tablespoon Triple Sec, and 3 tablespoons raw sugar; microwave for 1 minute, then stir to dissolve the sugar (which I forgot to do, so hopefully most of it had dissolved already!)

Transfer the sugar mixture to a large pitcher, and pour in the rest of the bottle of wine, 1/3 cup fresh-squeezed orange juice,1 tablespoon fresh-squeezed lime juice, and 1 tablespoon fresh-squeezed lemon juice.

The recipe called to add 2 whole cloves and 1 whole allspice, and I swear I had cloves in my spice cabinet! In fact, the last time I used my cloves I remember thinking, 'I will never reach the bottom of this bottle.' But today? I couldn't find them anywhere! So I used 3 whole allspice and omitted the cloves. Also add 1 small cinnamon stick.

Chill for two hours, then strain the mixture into a bowl or different pitcher; discard the spices. You can return the mixture to the fridge until ready to serve, at this point. Just before serving, stir in 1 cup sparkling water, 4 orange wedges, 2 lemon slices, and 3 lime slices.

About 3/4 cup of sangria is 200 calories; the recipe doubles easily if you want to serve a crowd.

A note on liquors: the Triple Sec from Hiram Walker is vegan, according to the company. As for brandy, I can never find any indication online that it might not be vegan, so you should be safe with whatever brand you choose. (Although rather hilairously, if you Google for vegan brandy, you will learn that pop singer Brandy is a vegetarian).

Cost:
dry red wine $19.99
oranges $1.00
limes $0.66
lemons $0.50
whole allspice $2.85
sparkling water $1.99