#margaritaparty: My pomegranate margarita recipe

I love to throw TexMex dinner parties in London. Everyone raves about the food, which tends to be cheese, smothered in cheese and topped with sour cream. It also helps if you force a margarita into their hand the minute they walk through the door.

That was (kinda) the premise to the margarita party I held today with my BritMums co-founder Susanna, our BritMums Live ladies Maddy and George and a group bloggers. The other was to try out the Vitamix machine we’d been sent.

We had my famous guacamole (ahem — check out the video of how to make it here), quesadillas with roasted peppers and sweetcorn, crispy-shell tacos, and 7 layer dip (this is an uber-American staple of TexMex parties and, um, university keggers).

Then it was to the machine! The Vitamix blends, grinds, mills, pulses and, most importantly for our party, mixes. Usually for margaritas I spend an hour before a party hand squeezing limes to get enough juice. This time I used the Vitamix Whole Fruit Margarita recipe, which I can say with authority contains at least 1 of your five a day at least, as well as a minimum RDA of booze.

I took a half orange, half lemon and half lime (all peeled), 60ml tequila and 30ml Triple Sec, 3 tablespoons of sugar, maybe a couple of tablespoons of water and 21 ice cubes. Do count them out. Then you whiz it up in the Vitamix, starting at the 1 setting and turning it up to 10 before flipping the “high” switch that means the Vitamix really does go to 11. These were delicious, tangy, fruity and had a nice kick.

Some of the ladies who came along however were driving or picking up kids later and requested a virgin version. (Wait, you can make them without alcohol?) In Texas this is easy by substituting store-bought frozen limeade for the alcohol, but we don’t have that here.

We did have a bottle of Pom pomegranate juice, half a carton of orange juice and loads of limes though, so here’s a virgin version I came up with. Now I only need a name. Any suggestions? Recipe below.

• Half an orange, peeled
• Half a lemon, peeled
• Half a lime, peeled
• The juice of half a lime
• Liberal splash of orange juice
• 40ml of pomegranate juice
• 4 Tablespoons of sugar
• About 5 Tablespoons of water
• 21 ice cubes

(These instructions here are drawn from Vitamix’s instructions, with only slight tweaks.)

1. Put all ingredients into Vitamix container in the order listed and put on the lid.
2. Select Variable 1.
3. Turn machine on and slowly increase speed to Variable 10, then to High (oh yes, 11!).
4. Blend for 45 seconds, using the tamper to press the ingredients into the blades.
5. Pour drink into a glass and garnish with a slice of lime and a sprinkling of pomegranate seeds on top.

Depending on how assiduously you’ve peeled away all the pith and how long you’ve blitzed the drink, you might pour the drink through the a coarse sieve to strain out any pieces of pith. I don’t like to blend drinks too long so I’d rather take this quick step than keep it on high too long.

Pssst. You can still add tequila and Triple Sec, if you want.

Disclosure: The BritMums team received the Vitamix machine as part of a project we’re doing with Vitamix and BritMums foodie bloggers.

Jennifer Howze

I’m a journalist and blogger. Previously I was The Times’s online lifestyle editor and Alpha Mummy blogger. Now I’m co-founder of BritMums and BritMums Live! – our annual blogging conference that draws hundreds. Follow me on Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter and Google+.