Strawberry Sangria Light

There are few things that I crave more when spring finally arrives here. One being fresh Washington grown strawberries. And two sangria. This strawberry sangria recipe brings them both together in one perfect craving quencher.

Since we have consciously been looking at ways to keep our daily diet a little more on the healthy side currently around here I was excited to experiment with a lighter version of sangria cutting the wine in half by adding soda water in it's place and omitting sugar all together. With strawberries this fresh and sweet no extra sugar is needed trust me you won't miss it.

I love how simple and free you can get with a sangria recipe. Clean and slice some of your favorite fruit combinations. For this one I went with strawberry as the main flavor component. Added some blueberries as well because I love the combo of strawberry and blueberries mixed together. Then I added one half of both a lemon and a lime because with white sangria especially I always like to add a bit of citrus. Sometimes I go with mint as a contrast but since I planted 2 basil plants recently I went with basil this time. I really like the way strawberries and basil play together.

For wine  I went with a Columbia Crest Pinot Gris. I typically use a Sauvignon Blanc or Fume' Blanc but I had this on hand. And given I was adding soda water I didn't want to splurge on the wine. 

The experiment was a hit. A light, fresh and fruity sangria perfectly refreshing.

I was a bit too anxious to give my experiment a try to let the fruit sit in the wine as long as I think it would of really needed to bring out the flavors fully. But even after 3 hours the fruit flavor was there. Pretty sure we'll continue to make lots of non-light sangria recipes in our future but when we do want to be intentional in making sangria a bit more healthy it's great to have a recipe to turn to.

Strawberry Sangria Light Recipe:

1/2 bottle of pinot gris, sauvignon blanc or fume' blanc wine

3 cups soda water

1 pint strawberries, sliced

1/2 pint blueberries

1/2 lemon, sliced

1/2 lime, sliced

several sprigs of basil

Add fruit and basil to the wine and add 3 cups soda water. Let sit for at least 3 hours in the fridge but preferably over night so fruit soaks up the wine and wine becomes infused with the fruit flavor.