Fresh fruit coolers to sip and spoon - recipes

Sunset, Sept, 1993 by Elaine Johnson

Smooth or chunky, these beverages are refreshing

CHUNKY PUNCH OR liquid salad? Either way, these refreshing drinks, with their spoonfuls of chopped fruit, will quench your thirst on a hot day. Try them with brunch, as a light dessert, or as coolers anytime.

The first drink blends familiar flavors--lemon, mint, and strawberry. Salvadorans call the second beverage, a tropical-tasting combination of fruits and crisp iceberg lettuce, fresco de ensalada. It's rather like a sweet gazpacho.

Strawberry-Mint Lemonade

4 cups water

About 1 1/4 cups sugar

5 cups lightly packed fresh mint sprigs

1 quart hulled strawberries

1 cup lemon juice

Place 2 cups water, 1 cup sugar, and mint in a 3- to 4-quart pan. Bring to a boil over high heat; cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Pour through a fine strainer into a blender; press to extract liquid. Discard mint.

Thinly slice about 1 cup of the strawberries and set aside. Add half of remaining berries to blender and whirl until smooth; pour into a wide-mouth pitcher or a bowl (at least 2 1/2-qt. size). Smoothly puree lemon juice and remaining whole berries in blender; add to pitcher. Stir in sliced berries and remaining water. Add sugar to taste, if desired, stirring until dissolved.

Cover and chill the punch at least 3 hours or up to 2 days. To serve, stir punch and ladle into glasses. Makes 2 quarts, 8 servings.

Per cup: 134 cal. (3.9 percent from fat); 1 g protein; 0.6 g fat (0 g sat.); 34 g carbo.; 7.4 mg sodium; 0 mg chol.

Fruit Salad Drink

To simplify preparation, you can use larger quantities of fewer kinds of fruit.

6 cups water

1/2 cup orange juice

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 1/2 cups finely diced pineapple

1 medium-size (about 3/4-lb.) firm-ripe mango, peeled, pitted, and finely diced

1 medium-size (about 5-oz.) tart green apple, such as Granny Smith, cored and finely diced

3/4 cup finely chopped rinsed and crisped iceberg lettuce

1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup thinly sliced hulled strawberries

In a bowl, wide-mouth pitcher, or jar (at least 3 1/2-qt. size), stir water with orange juice, lemon juice, pineapple, mango, apple, and lettuce. Add sugar to taste and stir until dissolved. Cover and chill until very cold, at least 3 hours or up to 2 days.

To serve, gently mix strawberries with the punch, then ladle into glasses. Offer with straws for sipping and spoons for eating the fruit. Makes about 3 quarts, 12 servings.--Monique Jerreda, West Covina, California

Per cup: 70 cal. (2.7 percent from fat); 0.4 g protein; 0.2 g fat (0 g sat.); 18 g carbo.; 2.2 mg sodium; 0 mg chol.