26.05.2022 – 16:00

Verna, the perfect lemon for making the most refreshing drinks

Verna lemon has a juice with less acidity than other varieties, a characteristic that makes it the perfect ingredient to prepare the most refreshing and healthy drinks.

Here you will find two recipes made with Verna lemon to conquer the most demanding palates and even amaze those friends who love good cocktails.

With the approach of the good weather, this is the time of year when people tend to be much more concerned about taking care of themselves. In fact, there are those who count the number of calories consumed at each meal or look for other lighter foods, which at the same time satiate the most voracious appetite. Therefore, Verna lemon is the perfect alternative for those who are pursuing these goals, since, in addition to having all the health properties of this citrus fruit, it is a variety whose juice has less acidity.

These characteristics make Verna lemon an ideal ingredient to prepare the most refreshing drinks. It can also conquer the most demanding palates and even leave lovers of good cocktails speechless. This unique variety, with its intense yellow colour and thick skin, is the crown jewel of the lemon cultivated in Europe.

Consequently, Welcome to the Lemon Age provides two recipes made with Verna lemon. So this summer will be less hot and nobody will have to neglect their diet.

1. Lemon, spinach, ginger, apple and kiwi detox smoothie (4 pax.)

Ingredients:

• 2 Verna lemons
• 4 slices of Verna lemon
• ½ tablespoon olive oil
• 60 g spinach leaves
• 1 green apple
• 1 kiwi fruit
• 400 ml of vegetable almond or soya milk
• ½ tbsp chopped ginger
• 2 tablespoons agave
• 4 straws

Elaboration:

1. In a hot frying pan add ½ tablespoon of olive oil and the lemon slices. Brown well on both sides and set aside.
2. Peel the lemons, keeping the flesh and taking care to remove all the white part. Peel the apple and cut into quarters. Add the flesh to a blender along with the spinach, green apple, kiwi, vegetable milk, ginger and agave.
3. Blend for approximately 45 seconds until the ingredients are well blended.
4. Serve in glasses or pitchers and place a slice of golden lemon on the surface and stick a straw in the center.

2. Roasted lemon and yellow tea mocktail (4 pax.)

Ingredients:

• 4 Verna lemons
• 2 sachets of yellow tea
• 600 ml water
• 1 ice cube tray
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 800 ml pear juice
• 4 cinnamon sticks

Elaboration:

1. Boil water and add the tea. Let it cool and put the infusion in ice cube trays for about five hours to obtain tea ice.
2. Cut the lemons in slices and coat them in sugar. In a frying pan we brown them on all sides of the slices. Set aside.
3. In the glasses add two or three ice cubes, the roasted lemons and the pear juice. Stir with a spoon to mix the flavors and serve with a cinnamon stick.

Verna is a lemon native and representative of the European lemon produced in Spain, since it is an autochthonous variety unique in the world, which gives it a special touch. Specifically, it is grown in the fields of Vega del Segura (between Murcia and Alicante) and Malaga (Andalusia).

These and other attributes of European lemons are promoted by the Asociación Interprofesional de Limón y Pomelo (AILIMPO) in the Welcome to the Lemon Age campaign, which has the backing of the European Union, with the aim of encouraging consumption in the United States and Canada; and those differentiating properties are valued and appreciated, for example, its quality, freshness, sustainability, traceability and food safety compared to lemons from the southern hemisphere.

About AILIMPO

AILIMPO is a Spanish interprofessional, based in Murcia, officially recognized by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the European Commission, which represents the economic interests of producers, cooperatives, exporters and industrialists of lemon and grapefruit. A sector in which Spain is the world leader in fresh exports and ranks second as a processing country, with an annual turnover of more than 700 million euros, generating 23,000 direct jobs and transferring more than 250 million euros to its environment.