Lemon Barley Water

I am pretty flexible when it comes to food as long as it tastes good and is vegetarian. But, I am pretty rigid when it comes to certain things used as substitutes. Best example is sugar. I would rather eat/drink stuff without sugar than put splenda or sweet N Low or any other sweetener for that matter. Without going into a debate about those, let's just say it is my preference not to use them. I was looking for some kind of drink to make that didn't have too much sugar in it and is a very good thirst quencher. I found this Lemon barley water in the book 'Cool Smoothies' by Elsa Petersen-Schepelern. When I looked up on the internet to see what this drink is, I read that it was in fact a soft drink served in England. It had such less amount of sugar in it, I had to try and guess what, I love it. Instead of drinking plain old water all the time, I think I will make this in big batches and drink this summer. Another variation given is using apples that I have to try soon.

One Year Back - Homemade Rice Milk
Two Years Back - Vegan Fondant
Ingredients: 
Barley - 4 TBSP or 1/4 cup (I used regular hulled barley, but you can use pearl barley also)
Boiling water - 12 cups
Lemon - 2 juice and peels
Sugar - 2 - 3 TBSP or to taste

Method:
Rinse the barley. Take it in a sauce pan. Pour the boiling water on the barley and set it on low flame to simmer for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, peel the lemon taking care not to get the white part. Or you could zest it. Place the peels and lemon juice in a large pitcher. When 30 minutes is over, turn off the heat and strain the barley water to the pitcher. Add sugar and stir and refrigerate. When chilled, serve over ice.

Enjoy.

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