My apricot tree is going crazy, this year! It’s producing it’s little heart out, and we’re enjoying the fruits of its labors (literally).
I’ve been forced to get creative in order to utilize our crop, and dealing with all this fruit reminds me of my mom. As I was reminiscing about my youth, I remembered a fun apricot drink that we used to make.
When I was growing up, my mother and grandmother would preserve apricots by bottling them. (They also bottled peaches, pears, cherries, green beans, etc, but that’s not relevant to this story) … Then, anytime we wanted, we would take a quart of the apricots and puree them with lemonade to make a drink we called “apricot nectar. ”
I’ve never bottled my apricots (I don’t even have the equipment) but I thought it would be fun to make some of the nectar using fresh fruit. It turned out just as yummy as I remembered! So I took it a step further and blended some of it with ice to make a slush ~ also super yummy, refreshing, and nutritious! This is a fresh fruit “slurpee” inspired by the good old days.
Thanks, little tree!
- 2 pounds fresh ripe apricots (about 1 ½ pounds pitted)
- 1 can (12 ounces) frozen lemonade concentrate (raspberry, pink, or plain)
- ½ to ¾ cup sugar
- Water
- Ice
- Remove pits from the apricots, and place them in a blender with ½ cup water and ½ cup sugar. Blend on high power for several minutes until completely smooth.
- Pour pureed apricots into a gallon size pitcher. Add lemonade concentrate and 2 cans water. Mix until combined. Add more sugar as desired.
- Pour into glasses and add ice.
- Remove pits from the apricots, and place them in a blender with ½ cup water and ½ cup sugar. Blend on high power for several minutes until completely smooth.
- Pour pureed apricots into a gallon size pitcher. Add lemonade concentrate and 1 can water. Mix until combined. Add more sugar as desired.
- Put 2 cups ice cubes into blender. Pour in 3 cups apricot mixture. Blend until ice is completely pulverized and the slush has reached desired consistency.
- Pour into cups and serve immediately. This makes approximately 4 (1 cup) servings.
- Yields 3 quarts nectar
- 3 cups of the nectar, combined with ice, makes 4 (1 cup) slushies
Thoroughly wash and dry 2 pounds of fresh apricots. The softer and riper, the better. I used the mushiest ones. Don’t let any green ones get in there because they’ll make the nectar bitter.
Pull the fruit apart at the seam, and remove the pit.
You should end up with about one and a half pounds of pitted apricots.
Put them into the blender (skins and all). Easy ~ peasy.
Add 1/2 cup sugar to start … then …
… pour in 1 cup of water.
Cover and blend on high speed for several minutes. You want it to be completely smooth. It kinda looks like baby food. 🙂
Pour the puree into a gallon size pitcher, and add the lemonade. I used raspberry lemonade because its my favorite, but regular or pink lemonade will work too.
Add 2 cans of water if you’re making nectar, but if you want to make slush, only add 1 can of water. Then stir it up, and add more sugar as needed. Serve with ice.
* REMEMBER *
For Nectar: 2 cans water
For Slush: 1 can water
There you go! Delicious Apricot Nectar.
FOR SLUSH:
Put 2 cups of ice cubes into the blender, and add 3 cups of apricot nectar. Blend until the ice is pulverized, and the slush is desired consistency.
Apricot Nectar Slushie