Here in the South of England we’ve had a miraculous April. The past couple of weeks have been glorious, and even on the long bank holiday weekend just passed we only had an hour of rain. With average daytime temperatures in the mid-20s (celcius, kids) the whole weekend and a glut of lemons bought on the cheap, what else is a girl to do but make lemonade drinks?

These homemade lemonade recipes are the non-fizzy type. Lemonade in Britain is a carbonated Sprite-like soda, but I miss the American still variety (which exists here, but it’s not the same). These three lemonade recipes are a combination of what I remember the drink to be as a child and the flavours with which I tend to marry lemons in my grown up kitchen.

Recipe Notes

Pomegranate and lemon go together in Middle Eastern cookery, so I thought why not in lemonade? A little bit of this syrupy pomegranate juice reduction goes a long way, so there are only a couple of tablespoons in the recipe I’ve included. Feel free to add more to suit your own tastes, but you may want to balance it with an added spoon or two of sugar or agave if you do. Speaking of that, the pomegranate lemonade is definitely the most tart of the three recipes below, so taste it for sugar and add more if the drink is too sour for you.

Conversely the ginger is probably the sweetest tasting lemonade. It has slightly less lemon juice than the other recipes to allow the ginger to shine through the intensity of the citrus, but a similar amount of sugar to the mint lemonade. Add more lemon juice and/or water to adjust if it’s too sweet for you. Personally I like the tiny bit of extra sweetness with the zingy ginger.

You can adjust all of these recipes easily. If it’s too lemony, try adding a little bit of water. Too sweet? Add some more lemon. Too bland? Add some more lemon and sugar.

Try freezing these juices in popsicle trays for a super easy ice lolly treat!

Aubergine is an incredibly under-rated vegetable. Ridiculously so, in my opinion! I have mentioned before how it took time for me to love it beyond its use one or two well known dishes, but now I proudly call it one of my favourite vegetables.

This is a suprisingly versatile vegetable once you develop a positive relationship with it, but I had not yet used it in soup. Why not?! Exactly. Why not? No better time than the present to try, right?

A thick and rich soup, deep in flavour, this aubergine based soup is sure to convert a few people to the purple side. Give it a try because it’s nothing like what you’d expect! The subtle smoked flavour combined with juicy acidic tomatoes and tangy pomegranate molasses is a combination to make my mouth water simply thinking about it.

Recipe Notes

First and foremost, quantity is really just a suggestion with this recipe. If you have a little less aubergine/eggplant, that’s okay too. No yogurt? It doesn’t have to have that. The pomegranate molasses, however, is a worthwhile purchase; you will find yourself using it frequently after you try it once!

Fresh tomatoes are of course an option, but in the off season I opt for something in a tin. Fresh tomatoes which aren’t local, full of in-season juicy goodness, well they’re just crap. Most stuff in the UK right now is imported from Holland and can be likened to a crusty sponge with a mild tomato flavour. If, however, you find yourself with some tomato gems I’ll bet roasting them before adding to the soup would create a divine result…

If you have a flame thrower (okay, a gas stove or Crème Brûlée torch) you can roast your aubergine by charring them with flame. Alternatively they can be charred under a hot grill (for a really smoky flavour). David Lebovitz uses a combination of methods in his baba ganoush recipe, one which sounds like it would provide a great taste. If the oven is your only method and the end result isn’t smoky enough, consider adding a few drops of liquid smoke to the soup during the blending process.

I have recently developed an obsession with tempeh. My husband really likes it too, not that he complains a great deal about anything else I make (but I do aim to please, mostly, depending on the time of the month and whether or not you spoke to me before 10am that morning).

This recipe features one of my staple favourites when I’m craving a unique flavour: pomegranate molasses. Combined with some lemon and vinegar, along with a dash of sugar, it makes for an awesome taste.

Recipe Notes

The recipe provided below is for the tempeh only, but it’s served with roasted butternut squash on a bed of bulghur wheat (cooked in a simple tomato based sauce with a pinch of cumin). The sauce is simply yoghurt and garlic, a favourite of both mine and my husband’s (he has a name, you know. It’s Paul). The measurements of ingredients I’ve listed do not need to be accurate, so if you love more of one thing than another then go for it (be sure to report back and let me know how it worked out for you).

I discovered the flavour of pomegranate molasses at a Syrian restaurant in Yerevan, Armenia. My taste buds had never experienced anything like it before and I was instantly in love with what I would soon learn to be a food product to consume my life. I am referring to the hunt I went on after returning home. What was this stuff and where could I find it? Eventually I found a bottle in Sainsbury’s (and have since found it in a few other places in London) and went home to try to re-create the masterpiece of a meal I’d had in this Syrian cafe on the streets of Yerevan.

If you’ve never experienced the sweet-tart taste of pomegranate molasses, I suggest you hunt a bottle down. I would probably have to say that in 2006 it was my food discovery of the year!

This treat is fabulous served with fresh bread, like Syrian onion bread, pitta or lavash as part of a great mezze spread.

This is a veganised version of a recipe from Claudia Roden’s Arabesque, one of my favourite cookbooks, full of delicious recipes which are both simple and easily veganised.

People ask me why I want books with so many non-veggie recipes inside and my response is that it simply inspires more creativity in the kitchen! What can I use to replace the chicken? Can I find a gluten-based substitute for the pork? What mock-meat products on the market might make a good replacement?