Ginger-Lemon Tonic

I could give you a vegan barbecue recipe for the 4th of July, but instead I have to put up this delicious drink recipe - perfect for sipping poolside!

Grate 4 tablespoons of fresh, peeled ginger. Set one tablespoon aside. Place the other 3 tablespoons of ginger on several layers of damp cheesecloth, and squeeze over a bowl to extract the juice. Place two tablespoons of the resulting ginger juice in a blender and discard any remaining juice and the pulp.

Add the reserved grated tablespoon of ginger to the blender, along with 1 cup chilled apple juice (or apple cider, if you prefer) and process until smooth. Add another cup of apple juice/cider, and 1/3 cup frozen lemon sorbet; process until smooth and quite frothy.

This makes enough for 2 servings of 1 and 1/2 cups and 150 calories each. You can garnish with lemon slices, for a pretty presentation.

I had a bit of trouble choosing my lemon sorbet, since although sorbets are dairy free, they do still contain sugar, and I was worried the sugar wouldn't be vegan! The sorbet I brought home was from Ciao Bella. Although I did not hear back from a customer service rep when I wrote in to inquire about the vegan-ness of their product, I did find numerous websites where my fellow vegans recommend Ciao Bella sorbets as one of their favorite frozen desserts. If it's good enough for other vegans, it's good enough for me! So along that line, check out their other flavors of sorbet as well, since they have a broad line - just don't eat their ice cream, because that contains dairy!

Another note: I was a bit short on ginger - it takes a bigger root than I thought to yield 4 grated tablespoons! - so I only had 1 tablespoon of ginger juice to add to my blender, instead of 2. However, I found that the tonic was quite ginger-y enough for my taste with just that little bit, so if you don't like an overly-ginger sensation, I recommend only using that much.

Cost:
apple juice $1.99
ginger $0.39
lemon sorbet $3.99