Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Strawberry Soda

Growing up there can be many rules that you do not understand at the time, one rule that my mom had was 'no soda in the house'.  Actually at the time, we were living in Ohio and called it 'pop', but our move to Vermont made us transition to call the fizz drink 'soda'. Anyways, out of all of the rules, this was one of them that I am very glad my parents instated.  Besides being loaded with artificial ingredients (have you ever checked out the label - caramel flavor and high fructose corn syrup? No thank you) it can lead to weight gain, which can then bring on unwanted disease.  Last Christmas my husband received a Soda Stream, one of the best gifts ever, that allowed us to not only make seltzer with the click of a button but also allowed me to experiment in the kitchen.  I love carbonating cucumber or lemon water for a refreshing drink. I recently purchased two pints of strawberries from the fresh market that were unfortunately not that sweet.  Instead of turning them into pie, I opted to make equal parts jam and strawberry syrup.  One basically creates the other so you can get more out of doing less, don't you just love that? 



Strawberry Soda / Strawberry Preserves
Ingredients:
1 pint strawberries, diced (fresh if possible)
1/4 cup sugar*
Chilled seltzer water

Directions: Place strawberries and sugar into a heavy bottomed sauce pan. Over medium heat stir to combine.  Once mixture has started to cook down, mash strawberry with a spoon.  Allow to cook for 15 minutes, which will allow for the syrup to form.  Once done, set aside to cool.  Pour mixture over a fine sieve to separate the syrup from the fruit.  What you will have left is a simple syrup and fruit preserves!  Place the preserves in a canning jar and spread out on toast or add to yogurt.

*Adjust sugar based upon sweetness of the fruit

*Styling and Photography by Alison 

7 comments:

  1. This looks delicious! Growing up in Canada we called it pop too and then when I moved to the east coat no one knew what I was talking about lol

    xx

    jen

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  2. LOVE my soda stream! Seriously the best gift if you love bubbles.

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  3. sounds so delicious and refreshing! I never really liked soda or carbonated beverages when I was younger (it gave me stomach aches), but lately I'm loving carbonated beverages like flavored Perrier - so refreshing!

    The Style Scribe

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  4. Oooh a 2-for-1 recipe :-) Fresh strawberry soda sounds delicious!

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  5. Oh my this sounds absolutely delicious and refreshing. I really want to try this out.

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  6. Now I want a soda stream!! I am not a huge soda drinker, but that's only because of all the negatives, but you pitched "pop" in a whole new light with this post. Pretty pictures too! : )

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  7. Oh yum...this looks delicious and so refreshing!

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