Immunity Boosting Smoothie

 

Halloween is over, October is gone, and department stores and shopping malls will have you believing it’s already Christmas eve. Well, it’s not. What is fast approaching however, is the busiest shopping time of the year, and wherever there are large concentrations of people, there are bound to be large concentration of germs floating around too. 

Short of walking around in a hazmat suit, you may not be able to completely obliterate your chances of catching something in the next coming months, but you can help skew the odds in your favor. Enter the immunity boosting smoothie. Inspired by one of the graphic designers on our staff, it features a healthy serving of vitamins and antioxidants needed to reinforce your immunity shields. 

This immunity smoothie is broken up into three parts: greens, berries, and citrus. 

The greens category, spinach and kale, provide iron fiber, and vitamins C and K. The berries, cranberries and blackberries, contribute high levels of antioxidants, manganese and more vitamin C. Finally, oranges bring potassium, more fiber, and of course more vitamin C. And despite it not fitting neatly in either of the three categories mentioned above, we add ginger for its anti-inflammatory and disease-fighting properties. 

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What’s going inside:

  • ½ cup fresh baby spinach

  • ½ cup fresh kale

  • ¼  cup fresh/frozen blackberries

  • ¼  cup fresh/frozen cranberries

  • ⅕ cup orange juice (store-bought or freshly squeezed)

  • 1 tsp freshly grated ginger

  • 1 tbsp agave syrup or honey (optional)

  • ¼ ice (if not using frozen fruit)

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What you will need:

First, get yourself a blender. High-powered blenders work best (think Nutribullet or Vitamix), but any blender should do the job just fine when given extra blending time. Next, you can either measure out your ingredients according to our rough guidelines, or eyeball it and keep the ratios the same. This means, don’t go crazy, or stingy, with the liquids by adding 3x more or less than is recommended. Trust us, you will have a hard time getting your smoothie to properly blend. 

How to do it:

The idea behind this immunity boosting smoothie is that it should take no more than 10 minutes to put together—after all its creator chugs it down every morning before embarking on his long commute. 

Start by adding the solid ingredients in first: greens, berries and grated ginger. If you’re not using frozen fruit, go ahead and add in your ice now. Next, splash in the orange juice and drizzle in your sweetener of choice. We left ours unsweetened, but feel free to sweeten to taste. And finally, mix, blend, or pulse your way to the perfect consistency: chunk free! 

Transfer your delicious smoothie to a tall glass and enjoy with some of our Sunrise Energy Bars. Not only are they packed full of antioxidants on account of the dried cranberries added, but they’re also vegan friendly!

Like all of our recipes, we believe there is always room for flexibility. Experiment with different citrus and berries, or add completely different fruits altogether. Ultimately, we encourage you all to ditch the hazmat suits and give this smoothie a try and if you do, tell us how you like it on our Facebook or Instagram. 

We’ll see you there!

— Best Express Staff

 
Guest User