Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Late Summer Sangria for Two

Or Four. But most likely just two.

My friend Eva came over for lunch today under the pretense of discussing the upcoming year of Cadette girl scouts for our daughters, but really we mostly chatted about our summers, our families and ourselves. :) We had rosemary ham, roasted turkey on little whole wheat rolls, vegetable chips {potato, sweet potato, yucca, parsnip and beet! From Trader Joe's but just like the Terra brand chips. omg SO good!}, a spinach and lettuce salad with shredded cabbage, apples, dried cranberries and pecans. Sounds delicious, right? To bring a little pizzaz to our little lunch on this glorious late summer day, I decided to make us some seasonally inspired sangria. This was my first time making sangria at home and it won't be my last. It's so easy, delicious and a wonderful way to showcase the season's best fruit. I can't wait to make it again!

Special thanks to Mariana for reminding me how much I love sangria. ;)

Late Summer Sangria for Two
Late Summer Sangria for Two 
Keep a pack of juice boxes on hand for this recipe.

1 small apple
1 small plum
1 cup seedless grapes
          {I used red, black and green grapes}
1/2 cup fruity red wine
1 cup ice cubes
1/2 cup natural grape or berry juice
          {I used a berry juice box}

Core apple and cut into thin slices. Cut plum into thin slices, removing the pit. If serving two people, put 1/4 of the apple slices, 1/4 of the plum slices and 1/4 of the grapes into each of two large wine glasses. Save the remaining fruit for round two of sangria OR use it to serve two more lucky people.

Add the wine and ice cubes to a martini shaker and shake vigorously for a minute or so to get wine icy cold and diluted a bit from the ice.

Pour the wine over the fruit in each wine glass until the wine fills the glass halfway. Top with some grape or berry juice.

Store in refrigerator until ready to serve. Sangria tastes best when fruit and wine have had time to meld, anywhere from 15 minutes to several hours to overnight.

Simply add more fruit and wine mixture to your glass for round two. There should be enough fruit and wine mixture to make about four glasses of sangria.

Cheers!

17 comments:

  1. Hey! Will need to try this one... looks good :)

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  2. I love sangria, for book club at my home this past June I made 2 delicious ones, a strawberry and a peach raspberry. They were delicious!

    Paula

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  3. Mariana, thanks again for the inspiration to want sangria!

    Paula, it's so yummy, isn't it? I would love to try strawberry and peach-raspberry sangria. I love berries! I actually wanted to put blackberries in this recipe instead of the grapes, but they didn't have any in the store!

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  4. Sounds very good :) Although I don't drink alcohol :P

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  5. nath, I was trying to think of a way to suggest an alcohol free version of sangria, but really you can't. The wine is just too crucial to this drink. HOWEVER, you could make a simple spritzer with the cut up fruit, juice and then top with seltzer. It would still be kind of festive, you know?

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  6. This looks delicious. I love the idea of using plums (or other seasonally available fruit). Thanks for sharing!

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  7. I didn't know about needing to let the flavours meld. Thanks for that tip. Hope you are having a great weekend.

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  8. Another bookmark. Looks so refreshing.

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  9. But if I make it for two...that will be enough for me, but what about someone else? Lol

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  10. This is such as easy recipe and perfect for afternoon sipping. I love the idea of using a juice box.

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  11. Yum, yum, yum! I love sangria but didn't realize it would be easy to make. I'm saving this recipe for next summer so thanks for sharing!!

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  12. Your luncheon menu sounds fabulous, and I love sangria too. Thanks for tip on Trader's Joe's vegetable chips, I'm heading there tomorrow and will add them to my list.

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  13. Thank you all for checking out my Sangria recipe. It's really such an easy drink to make because you can't really mess up fruit, wine and a little bit of juice. No need to buy those expensive mixes at the liquor store with all kinds of added sugars and preservatives. Hope you all give it a try sometime.

    caite: Technically it's enough for four... but I say serves TWO because two glasses of this stuff is niiicce. :)

    Beth F : I love keeping juice boxes and tiny cans of vegetable juice or pineapple juice on hand for times like this when you just need a few ounces of juice for a recipe.

    Diane: Hope you find the root vegetable chips at Trader Joe's. They're so yummy! I buy them for special lunches.. they make a regular lunch a little bit more gourmet. :)

    Oh and I made a mistake naming the root vegetables that are in this bag of chips. It should be sweet potato, sweet potato colored red with beet juice, taro, batata and parsnip!

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  14. I know I've been saying that autumn is more than welcome to arrive... but I wouldn't mind a sip of sangria before it starts cooling down :) Yum, I like the idea of veggie crisps. Wondering whether it's easy to make at home...

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  15. You're making me very sad I can't drink alcohol.

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  16. mmm... sangria! We are talking about doing a tapas night with white sangria in a month or so! I hadn't thought about just trying to make small amounts!

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