Homemade Lemonade Recipe and Guide to Preserving Lemons

There is nothing better than an ice-cold lemonade on a hot summer day. This easy homemade lemonade recipe uses just three simple ingredients fresh lemon juice, water, and maple syrup as a natural sweetener or your sweetener of choice. Serve with ice cubes and garnish with fresh lemon slices and mint or serve this healthy lemonade as is. In this recipe, I also cover how to juice large amounts of lemons and freeze them in correct portions so you can have lemonade all year.    

Glass jar of lemonade placed on cutting board on top of a red and white picnic blanket.

You can buy your lemons at the grocery store, but the best way to stock up on lemons is to look up when the lemon season is in your area. Each year during the lemon season I look for people giving away fresh lemons and I take them home to juice and freeze, so I have plenty of lemon juice to make healthy homemade lemonade all year. This lemonade recipe works for limes as well. My grandpa had a lime tree that would produce large amounts of sweet limes, I would juice them and freeze them in the same way I process the lemons.

​Ingredients

  • lemon juice from a tart lemon or Meyer lemons
  • Maple syrup or sweetener of choice
  • filtered water

Equipment Needed

  • electric citrus juicer or hand juicer

Sweetener choices 

When making lemonade I try to choose natural sweeteners with a low glycemic index. As part of a healthier lifestyle and to avoid blood sugar spikes and avoid white sugar and artificial sweeteners. I like my lemonade sweetened with maple syrup but there are other options if you would prefer to use a different natural sweetener. I have included a list of natural sweeteners as well as some natural sugar-free sweeteners for you to choose from. 

Natural sweeteners

  • maple syrup
  • raw honey
  • coconut sugar
  • fresh fruit puree 

Sugar-Free Sweeteners

  • stevia
  • pure monk fruit
  • xylitol

Adding Flavor with fruit puree

How does a cold glass of strawberry lemonade or blueberry lemonade sound? This can be done by adding a fruit puree to your fresh lemonade prior to adding water as the total liquid amount should not exceed 8 cups. 

How to make fruit puree

  • Add 1 cup fresh or frozen fruit to a blender with 1/2 cup of water.
  • blend until smooth 
  • Add your fruit puree to a large pitcher with fresh lemon juice and sweetener of choice.
  • Finally, add in approximately 5 cups of water, add more or less if needed for a total of 8 cups of lemonade. 

Step-By-Step Instructions

  1. Start by washing your lemons, then cut the lemons in half.Washed lemons in colander and sliced lemons on a cutting board.

  2. Turn on your citrus juicer and place the lemon face down on the point. apply downward pressure until all of the juice and pulp has been removed and the rind remains, keep doing this until all lemons are juiced or until you have 1 cup of lemon juice.Process shot of juicing a lemon using an electric lemon juicer.

  3. Add the 1 cup of fresh lemon juice to a half-gallon mason jar or large pitcher of your choosing then add 1/2 cup maple syrup to the jar and filtered water to make 8 cups total. 

  4. Serve your homemade lemonade over ice cubes, you can add sliced lemons and mint leaves for a garnish if you choose. You can run your lemonade through a fine mesh sieve if you prefer your lemonade pulp-free.Example glass of lemon juice with lemon wedge and mint leaves as garnish.

  5. Fresh lemonade can be stored in the fridge for about 7 days.

How to Preserve Large Amounts of Lemons

Lemons sliced in halves.

Equipment needed:

  • electric citrus juicer
  • 1 cup liquid measuring cup
  • quart and gallon freezer bags
  • knife 
  • cutting board

Instructions:

  1. Start by washing your lemons, then cut the lemons in half.
  2. Turn on your citrus juicer and place the lemon face down on the point. apply downward pressure until all of the juice and pulp have been removed and the rind remains.
  3. keep doing this until all lemons are juiced, taking breaks as container fills with juice to empty the juice into a measuring cup and emptying the pulp and seeds from the screen. Reassemble juicer for next round of juicing.
  4. Add 1 cup of lemon juice to each freezer bag, remove as much air as you can and seal bag. Place your lemon juice bag in a container to keep it upright. (This will help the lemon juice freeze in a brick, so it is easier to remove after it has frozen and fits through the mouth of a half-gallon mason jar.) 
  5. Once your containers of bagged lemon juice are frozen solid remove the lemon juice bags from the container and place the bags of lemon juice into a gallon freezer bag, this protects them further for long storage. 
  6. You can store the lemon juice this way for 1 year. 
  7. To use take out a bag of frozen lemon juice and remove it from the bag by ripping along the bag side seam and placing the lemon juice into a gallon mason jar, follow the lemonade recipe, lemon juice with thaw as you stir or leave the jar on the counter for a few minutes to thaw. 
  8. You can use the lemon juice in recipes or for lemon tea, to have lemon juice ready place a bag in the fridge overnight and in the morning place in a mason jar with tight fitting lid use the thawed lemon juice within a week.
Process shot of lemon juice being portioned and placed in storage bags to freeze.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you make this a sugar-free lemonade recipe?

This recipe can be made sugar-free by choosing from a few natural sugar substitutes, such as stevia or pure monk fruit adding per package instructions.

Can this lemonade recipe be made with limes?

You can substitute limes for lemons in this recipe by using equal parts lime juice for a delicious limeade.

Can you use white sugar instead of maple syrup?

To replace the maple syrup with white sugar use the same amount (1/2 cup-3/4 cup) of white sugar instead.

Be sure to check out the full recipe and ingredient list below, and connect with me in the comments!

Glass jar of lemonade placed on cutting board on top of a red and white picnic blanket.

Homemade Lemonade

Yield: 8 cups
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes

There is nothing better than an ice-cold lemonade on a hot summer day. This easy homemade lemonade recipe uses just three simple ingredients fresh lemon juice, water, and maple syrup as a natural sweetener or your sweetener of choice. Serve with ice cubes and garnish with fresh lemon slices and mint or serve this healthy lemonade as is. In this recipe, I also cover how to juice large amounts of lemons and freeze them in correct portions so you can have lemonade all year.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup lemon juice
  • 1/2 cup-3/4 cup maple syrup or sweetener of choice
  • 6 1/2 cups filtered water (approximately)

Instructions

  1. Start by washing your lemons, then cut the lemons in half.
  2. Turn on your citrus juicer and place the lemon face down on the point. apply downward pressure until all of the juice and pulp has been removed and the rind remains, keep doing this until all lemons are juiced or until you have 1 cup of lemon juice.
  3. Add the 1 cup of fresh lemon juice to a half-gallon mason jar or large pitcher of your choosing then add 1/2 cup maple syrup to the jar and filtered water to make 8 cups total. 
  4. Serve your homemade lemonade over ice cubes, you can add sliced lemons and mint leaves for a garnish if you choose. You can run your lemonade through a fine mesh sieve if you prefer your lemonade pulp-free.

To Preserve Large Amounts of Lemons

Equipment needed

  • electric citrus juicer
  • 1 cup liquid measuring cup
  • quart freezer bags
  • knife 
  • cutting board
  1. Start by washing your lemons, then cut the lemons in half.
  2. Turn on your citrus juicer and place the lemon face down on the point. apply downward pressure until all of the juice has been removed and the white pulp and rind remain.
  3. keep doing this until all lemons are juiced, taking breaks as the container fills with juice to empty the juice into a measuring cup and empty the pulp and seeds from the screen. Reassemble the juicer for the next round of juicing.
  4. Add 1 cup of lemon juice to each freezer bag, remove as much air as you can, and seal the bag. Place your lemon juice bag in a container to keep it upright. (This will help the lemon juice freeze in a brick, so it is easier to remove after it has frozen and fits through the mouth of a half-gallon mason jar.) 
  5. Once your containers of bagged lemon juice are frozen solid remove the lemon juice bags from the container and place the bags of lemon juice into a gallon freezer bag, this protects them further for long storage. 
  6. You can store the lemon juice this way for 1 year. 
  7. To use take out a bag of frozen lemon juice and remove it from the bag by ripping along the bag side seem and placing the lemon juice into a gallon mason jar, follow the lemonade recipe, lemon juice with thaw as you stir or leave the jar on the counter for a few minutes to thaw. 
  8. You can use the lemon juice in recipes or for lemon tea, to have lemon juice ready place a bag in the fridge overnight and in the morning place it in a mason jar with a tight-fitting lid use the thawed lemon juice within a week. 

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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 8 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 58Total Fat: 0gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 17mgCarbohydrates: 15gFiber: 0gSugar: 13gProtein: 0g

Nutrition information may contain errors, and accuracy varies depending on ingredients added.

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