Seeing my earlier success with Prickly Pears , I decided to try and make a refreshing home made lemonade out of more prickly pears, it is September now, thus harvesting time and there are plenty of pears in store for sale.

The base is a Prickly Pear syrup, which is quite easy to make.  Then I added on extra sparkling water for a bit of fizz.  The bottle on the left is the pure undiluted syrup, the one on the left is diluted with bubbly water.

Ingredients:

• 400 gr Prickly pears, cleaned and peeled
• 2 tablespoons Simple Syrup
• 2 tablespoons Lemon Juice, freshly squeezed
• Still Water, for making the Prickly Pear Syrup
• Sparkling Water, for finishing
• Slice of Lemon or Lime and ice, for serving (optional)

Method

First we make simple syrup out of the tablespoons of sugar and water.  You simply add these to a small cooking pan, and whilst stirring, bring these to the boil together on a medium heat.  Once the mix boils, take it off the heat and leave on the side to cool.

If your prickly pears do not come cleaned and peeled, this needs to be done first. Be careful for the pins, and not the large obvious ones, but the small ones in the fuzz on the skin –  these are like small needles, so please wear a good pair of gloves when you handle these fruits.  Slice off the ends and discard.  Cut the peel over length and peel off the skin carefully, so you are only left with the fruit meat and the seeds.

Add your fruit to a pan and use a potato masher to mash the fruit small. Add water to cover the fruit meat and bring to the boil. Once boiling, take off the heat and leave to cool, this can take up to 30 minutes.

When cooled, strain the puree through a strainer or cheese cloth to get all the seeds out. That way you are left with a smooth puree.   This puree is what you taste for sweetness first.  Seeing we added water in the cooking process, it will taste a lot lighter than the sorbet, we made before.  Add on some of the simple syrup and the lemon juice and stir.  Then taste and repeat until you’ve reached the preferred sweetness.

Poor about 50 ml in a large glass, fill up the rest of the glass with sparkling water for some bubbles. Add some ice cubes and a piece of lemon for decoration.

Hope you enjoy!