Driveway Drinks: Spring Greens
:::whispers::::
I think it's actually, finally Spring. Tip toe over to your liquor cabinet, grab the gin-- lets make a bright green ring-in-spring kinda cocktail!
This cocktail I think was subliminally influenced by scrolling through instagram, but I tried to look and find where I saw the original bright green cocktail and came up short, so trust me on this one. Throwing veggies into cocktails when it's not a bloody mary can be risky, but I think we're gonna come out on top here.
This cocktail is an ode to the (ahem---a little late to the party this year) early days of spring. My favorite is when you suddenly can see just a "mist" of green in the low lying branches and bushes while you drive through town. Everything is starting to pop but there's enough tree branches that are still bare that you kind of find yourself holding your breath hoping those little baby leaves can make it before a cold snap hits (is that just me? holding my breath for baby leaves?).
Suddenly, a week later the grass is as bright green as you can ever remember it being. Yellow dandelions pop up seemingly overnight and yesterday I saw a couple of bumble bees....bumbling around. Everything is green and growing and it only seems fitting to make your cocktail as green as the grass.
Even though it looks like something that came out of a juicer, this drink is refreshing, sweet, and herbal. Naturally sweet sugar snap peas are blanced then pureed, and combined with a mint simple syrup, a little lemon juice, and of course- -gin. The result is a perfect cocktail for happy hour or brunch-- or really anytime you need an excuse to drink your veggies.
Spring Greens
Makes 1 cocktail
Ingredients:
1 oz fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 oz gin
1/2 oz minty simple syrup (recipe below)
2 oz sugar snap pea puree (recipe below)
Fresh mint for garnish
Method
To make the sugar snap pea puree:
Ingredients
8 oz sugar snap peas
Water
Method:
Fill medium sized bowl full of ice water. Bring about 1 qt of water to boil in a medium saucepan. Add sugar snap peas and allow to boil for 1 minute and immediately transfer them to ice water. Add shocked peas to food processor and process until a rough puree forms. Add ice water, one tablespoon at a time, until puree becomes smooth (about 2-3 Tbsp). Strain puree through fine mesh strainer, pushing with a spatula to get all the good green juice into a liquid measuring cup. You should get about 1/2 C.
To make the Minty Simple Syrup:
Combine 1/3 C sugar with 1/3 C water and 1/4 C (or so) fresh mint leaves and stems. Bring to a boil and stir until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and allow mint to steep in liquid for 20 min. Strain into container and set aside to cool.
To make the cocktail:
In a cocktail shaker filled with ice combine lemon juice, gin, minty simple syrup, and pea juice. Shake vigorously and strain into ice filled glass. Garnish with fresh mint. Enjoy outside in a grassy field......or your Driveway.
