The Sage and Celery gals love us some tequila and there is nothing better than a refreshing margarita! Well, scratch that…there is nothing better than a refreshing, HEALTHY margarita. So often margarita mixes are loaded with sugar and salt, they end up leaving us feeling like a balloon on a hot summer day. In our quest to find delicious summer tequila drinks, we decided to make our own version of the margarita, and let us tell you…it is so much better than any margarita you will order at a restaurant.
We took the ever so popular summer fruit, watermelon, and turned it into a delicious but healthy margarita. Despite watermelon being 92 percent water, it is packed with a ton of nutrients! It has significant levels of vitamins A, B6 and C, lots of lycopene, antioxidants and amino acids. Foods that are loaded with antioxidants and vitamins allow our bodies to function optimally. Watermelon has some of the highest levels of lycopene found in fresh produce. You may remember what lycopene is from our Summer Salad with Watermelon and Crab post (another delicious summer recipe using watermelon!). For those of you who don’t know about lycopene, it is a phytonutrient, which is a naturally occurring compound in fruits and vegetables that react with the human body to trigger healthy responses. For example, lycopene inhibits many inflammatory processes. It is linked with heart health, bone health, and prostate cancer prevention.
Since watermelon is naturally sweet there are zero added sugars in this recipe! In fact, this recipe only has four ingredients and they are all naturally grown from the earth, with the exception of the tequila of course. Well, I guess we can consider it natural since it does come from the agave plant! We like to enjoy this recipe two ways: one, blended with ice and two, over ice. Either way, it is an amazing drink!
Servings 4
Ingredients:
8 Cups watermelon, cubed
3 Limes, juiced
1 Jalapeño, sliced
5 ounces silver tequila
Instructions:
1.) In a high-power blender, blend watermelon until it becomes a puree.
2.) Place sliced jalapeños into the watermelon puree and let sit for at least an hour. If you like things super spicy, add more jalapeños and let sit longer. If you’re not a huge fan of spice, then add less and don’t let it sit as long. Be careful to wash your hands after working with jalapeños and avoid getting any juices in your eyes – this stings like crazy!
3.) Add the juice of the limes, tequila, and stir. Pour over ice and enjoy! If you want it blended with ice, strain jalapeños out of the watermelon puree and then blend all ingredients together with 2-3 large handfuls of ice.
