Blood Orange Smoothie

Hi everyone! My name is Cassie, and I blog over at the healthy eating and lifestyle blog Back to Her Roots. If you’ve never visited my blog before, I share a lot of healthy recipes, craft projects, gardening tips, and the occasional story about our silly flock of chickens. I live on a small hobby farm in Southern Indiana with my husband and daughter, and we love growing food, cooking it, and of course, eating it!

While Lauren is out recovering from her emergency surgery (get well soon, Lauren!), I’m stepping in today to bring you an awesome seasonal smoothie recipe. Lauren and I see eye-to-eye on all things food related. We both believe that nourishing, whole foods can change your life (they did mine!), and we both believe that life is too short to not enjoy the occasional treat.

It might seem like the grocery store is a bleak place right now with the pink, flavorless greenhouse tomatoes and the cauliflower that costs more than a tank of gas, but there is one bright shining star in the produce section this time of year—citrus fruit! Oranges, clementines, grapefruits, lemons, and limes are all at their peak freshness and flavor right now. It’s a much welcome bright spot in my winter kitchen that has been filled with hearty soups and heavy casseroles.

One of my favorites of these in-season citrus fruits is the beautiful blood orange. It’s tart and sweet, and has a gloriously vibrant bright pink color that makes my heart dance a little bit.

If you’ve never worked with blood oranges before, this smoothie is a great place to start. Combine the peeled blood oranges with frozen strawberries (we pick strawberries from our farm in early June, and then freeze them by the bagful to use in smoothies all year ’round), you get a light and fresh smoothie taste that is packed with all kinds of healthy nutrients. Make sure you sweeten to taste, some folks prefer a sweeter smoothie, some like it on the tart side—make it your own.

Big thanks to Lauren for letting me step in while she is on the mend. Everyone send Lauren a big virtual hug! If you want to see more of my recipes, you can check out my blog—Back to Her Roots!

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Blood Orange Smoothie

Course smoothie

Servings 2 large smoothies

Author Cassie Johnston, Back to Her Roots

Ingredients

• 2 blood oranges
• 1 cup frozen strawberries
• 1 frozen banana
• 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 1 cup unsweetened milk animal, nut, soy, etc.
• Maple syrup or honey to taste

Instructions

1. Zest both blood oranges using a microplane zester. Then peel then oranges and discard the peels and pith.
2. In a high-powered blender, combine the blood orange zest, orange segments, strawberries, banana, yogurt, milk, and sweetener, if using.
3. Blend on high until very smooth. Because of the membranes surrounding the blood orange segments, you’ll want to blend longer than you normally do to make sure they are really well mixed in.

Thank you SO much Cassie!  I am not sure how she knew but blood oranges are my favorite! Please go visit her blog Back to Her Roots, you will not be disappointed.  Or check her out on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram.  Have a great day!