Real raspberry-watermelon slurpees

Around here, summer means slurpee season.. and with a 7-11 between home and school, there are plenty of opportunities for my son and nephew to beg for one on the way home.

I do give in occasionally, but more often than not they are easily plied with a homemade version. Different from our typical smoothie in that it has no dairy products (like milk or yogurt) or bananas, these are refreshingly fruity, and while they contain the whole fruit, they look and taste more like commercial slurpees – only they’re not composed of sugar and food colouring.

Watermelon is my base fruit of choice; it’s mostly water, making it easily pureed, and its bright pink colour and sweet flavour mimics a classic summer slurpee. Besides, when you buy a watermelon, you buy a lot of it… I hardly ever get through an entire melon eating it straight-up. It also makes great use of a sub-par melon – one that once opened, reveals itself to be disappointingly mealy.

To this I added frozen raspberries – fresh would work too, but I wanted to mimic a chilly slurpee – and a splash of cranberry juice from the fridge. Apple or grape juice would work just as well. Puree in a blender and voila – a brilliant red slurpee in less time than it takes to stop at the store. Next time we’ll try peaches and mango, but my guess is this watermelon-raspberry version will be the beverage of choice this summer.