Ribena - fruit juice soft drinks.

Want to cause a splash at Halloween?

Why not serve up the family their favourite drink as a spooky fruit punch?

Simply choose your Ribena squash flavour then pour into a bowl and add water.  Then add chopped fruit, such as apples, oranges and strawberries to make a creepy punch, plus jellied spider sweets and candy eyeballs to add a real Halloween edge.

Make sure you serve your Ribena into bowls with a ladle for a witch’s brew effect and we’d love to see pictures of your spooky fruit punches over on our Facebook page.

Happy Halloween!

It’s breakfast time down on the Ribena farm and our stomachs are rumbling… Time to whip up a tasty Ribena-flavoured breakfast smoothie!

The Ribena Team will be sharing our love of blackcurrants with you over the coming months by bringing you lots of tips, recipes and info on our favourite little fruit.

But now, to make your breakfast smoothie you will need:

•    30g fresh or frozen blackcurrants (make sure they are thawed)
•    80ml natural yoghurt
•    75ml Ribena Blackcurrant squash
•    2 teaspoons mashed mango
•    10ml honey
•    10g mixed spelt flakes / oats (5g each type, crushed to a coarse sawdust texture)

Press the blackcurrants through a sieve and add the juice to all the other ingredients apart from the grains. Whizz together and add your oats or spelt at the end.

Finally, enjoy!

Make sure you let us how know how your recipes turn out if you give them a go, by dropping us a line in the comments section.

For some more recipe inspiration, why not visit our friends at The Blackcurrant Foundation.

The Ribena Team has been busy whizzing up some mouth-watering berry recipes in the Ribena kitchen, and this fruit smoothie from our friends at The Blackcurrant Foundation is a delicious and easy way to get some tasty red and purple berries into your daily diet.

Using a mixture of fresh and frozen berries makes this fruit smoothie refreshingly cool and thirst-quenching.

Prep time

5-10 mins

You’ll need:

• 20g frozen blackcurrants (alternatively, you can use summer fruits containing blackcurrants)
• 20g fresh blueberries
• 40g fresh raspberries
• 20g pitted fresh or frozen cherries
• 100ml grape juice

Method

Blitz or blend your ingredients together and, hey presto, your smoothie is ready to drink! We’d love to see your smoothie pictures on our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/RibenaUK.

Wrap up warm this Bonfire Night and enjoy these delicious Ribena and white chocolate blondies as you watch the fireworks.

They should go down a treat with the whole family and you can enjoy them at any time of year, washed down with your favourite Ribena drink!

Prep time
20 minutes

Serves
Makes 16 pieces

You’ll need

150g white chocolate
75g butter
150g plain flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
250g dark brown soft sugar
2 eggs
2tsp vanilla extract
20 raspberries, frozen

For the Ribena batter
150ml Original Ribena Blackcurrant Squash
100g plain flour

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 C and line an 8″ square tin with foil or greaseproof paper. Melt chocolate and butter in a bowl over boiling water on the hob.
2. In a large bowl, whisk eggs and sugar for 3 minutes, then add chocolate and stir well. Sieve in flour, baking powder and salt and add vanilla extract.
3. Put half the batter in a separate bowl and add the Ribena and extra flour.
4. Dollop bits of each type of batter into the tin until you’ve used about half of each. You can be as messy as you like with this bit!
5. Sprinkle half the raspberries in at this point.
6. Dollop the rest of the batter in.
7. Using a fork, gently swirl the batters together.
8. Put the rest of the raspberries in, gently pushing them into the batter (so they don’t get cooked on top).
9. Bake for 45 minutes then remove from oven.
10. Leave to cool completely in the tin before slicing – if you can bear to wait!

Thanks to www.laythetable.com for this fantastic recipe!

We’d love to see pictures of your blondies over on the Ribena Facebook page, and you can find many more scrumptious berry recipes right here on the Ribena blog.

This recipe is ideal as a warming starter or light meal on a chilly autumn day, but you can enjoy it any time of year.

You can tell us how your fruity soup turns out in the comments section below, and we’d love to see pictures of your fruit and berry recipes over on our Facebook page.

Prep time
5-10 mins (plus 45 mins for roasting pumpkin)

Serves
Six people

You’ll need

•    I med pumpkin (1kg peeled chunks pumpkin flesh) plus seeds
•    2 leeks, finely chopped
•    2 cooking apples, peeled & chopped
•    2” piece of fresh ginger, peeled & grated
•    1 glass/250ml of apple juice
•    1tbsp muscovado brown sugar
•    1l vegetable stock  (or 4tsp marigold powder & 1l boiling water)
•    1 tsp mixed spice
•    1tsp cinnamon
•    1/2tsp chilli flakes (or 1/4tsp chilli powder)
•    2 tbsp olive oil
•    Knob of butter
•    Salt & pepper

Method

1.    Preheat oven to gas mark 6 (180 fan, 200 electric)
2.    Mix the chunks of pumpkin with 1tbsp olive oil, 1tsp mixed spice and salt & pepper to taste
3.    Tip this pumpkin mix onto a baking tray and leave to roast in the oven for 45 mins
4.    Meanwhile, melt butter in a saucepan and add leeks, then cook on a medium heat for around 8 mins until glossy & translucent
5.    Add peeled apples, grated ginger, 1tsp cinnamon, 1tbsp brown sugar & apple juice to the leeks and cook until reduced to a pulp
6.    Place pumpkin seeds in the bowl used for the pumpkin (don’t worry if it has some oil & spices still left in it) and add 1tsp olive oil, salt and chilli flakes
7.    Line a baking tray with foil, scatter pumpkin seeds on the tray and place in the oven. Roast for 20 mins or until dry and crunchy
8.    Once the pumpkin is cooked (it will have caramelized in places on top and be deep orange and soft)  add to the pulped apple mixture
9.    Add the vegetable stock and blend, taste and season with black pepper
10.    To serve, scatter your roasted pumpkin seeds over the top
11.    Enjoy!

Why not take a look at some more tasty fruit and berry recipes while you’re here?  If you’ve got any recipe suggestions of your own, we’d love to hear them.

This fruity Ribena jelly recipe is fantastic for birthday parties and is simple and fun to make, so you can get the children involved too!

Prep time

5 minutes

You’ll need:

Sugar free raspberry (or strawberry) flavoured jelly

100ml Ribena Blackcurrant or Strawberry squash

Strawberries or raspberries (a handful)

Method

1. In a medium pan, bring water to the boil.  Pour the jelly into the water gradually and stir until dissolved.
2. Turn off heat and keep stirring for about five minutes, until the bubbles disappear and the mixture becomes clear.
3. Once mixture is slightly cooled, add Ribena squash and stir well.
4. Place berries into a glass and pour jelly over.
5. Leave to cool then chill in fridge overnight.
6. Top with vanilla yoghurt, serve and enjoy!

You can also find a tasty Ribena jelly recipe at http://blessedhomemaker.blogspot.com/2010/01/ribena-konnyaku-jelly.html with a Japanese twist!

We’d love to hear how your recipes turn out.

Easy to make with children, this cheesecake is a deliciously indulgent dessert with a tangy Ribena twist!

You’ll need:

Base

150g digestive biscuits, finely crushed
60g butter, melted

Filling

20g (2 tablespoons) gelatine powder/granules. For a vegetarian alternative, replace gelatine with agar agar
250g cream cheese, soften at room temperature
75g caster sugar
250ml (1 cup) low fat plain yoghurt
75ml Ribena Blackcurrant, Ribena No Added Sugar Blackcurrant or Ribena Strawberry squash

Method

1.    Crush digestive biscuits and mix with melted butter in a bowl. Press the mixture onto the base of a 18-20cm round pan, lined around the sides with parchment paper (you can also use clear plastic).
2.    Leave to cool in the freezer for about an hour. This will be your cheesecake base.
3.    Sprinkle the gelatine/agar agar into a bowl of 100ml cold water and leave for ten minutes. Place the bowl over a pan of simmering water and stir. Once melted, set the bowl aside to cool to room temperature.
4.    Beat the sugar and cream cheese together then add the melted gelatine/agar agar, yoghurt and Ribena squash, beating all together until smooth.
5.    Spoon onto the chilled base and swirl with a knife or fork to get a marbled effect. You can also drizzle more Ribena and add blackcurrants/frozen berries to the top if you wish.
6.    Refrigerate for at least two hours.
7.    Enjoy!

Let us know how it turns out if you try this recipe, and we’d love to see any pictures of your Ribena recipe creations! You can share them on Twitter @ribenauk as Twitpics, or using the #ribena hashtag. You can also upload them to our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/RibenaUK.

Thank you to blessedhomemaker.blogspot.com for the inspiration for this tasty recipe.