I love, love, love cherries. Sadly, in the northeast we have an extremely short window each year for good cherries. During that window (which usually starts in late June/early July and lasts about 3-4 weeks), I buy and eat an unreasonable amount of these ruby gems, and justify the price by how seldom I get to enjoy them fresh.
The rest of the year, I settle for frozen cherries, and I most often enjoy them in the form of–you guessed it!–smoothies.
Below I’m sharing my three favorite cherry-based smoothies. Enjoy them while you’re waiting for cherry season to arrive!
1) CHERRY VANILLA GREEN SMOOTHIE
This one isn’t super-thick but it tastes like vanilla ice cream. So good!
Ingredients
1 cup water
1 frozen banana
1 cup frozen cherries
2 cups fresh leafy greens (in the one pictured above I used a mix of collards and kale)
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Directions
Blend and serve!
2) CHERRY ALMOND SMOOTHIE
Though it looks dark purple, this is actually a green smoothie!
Ingredients
1 cup unsweetened almond milk
1 cup frozen cherries
1/2 cup frozen blueberries (I am currently obsessed with Wyman’s wild blueberries)
1 frozen banana
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
1.5 cups fresh leafy greens (the one in the picture contains spinach)
Directions
Blend and serve!
3) CHOCOLATE CHERRY BLISS SMOOTHIE
No greens in this one (though you could obviously add some)–it’s like having dessert for breakfast!
Ingredients
1 cup water
1 frozen banana
1 cup frozen cherries
2/3 cup frozen blueberries
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
2-3 drops pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon brewed coffee (optional–enhances the chocolate flavor)
Directions
Wait for it…
Blend and serve!
–x–
My cherry concoctions have really been helping to get me through the last throes of winter. Y’know, those days where you wake up and are immediately thankful that 1) your ice scraper is still in the car, and 2) you haven’t packed away your scarf and gloves yet.
Sigh.
P.S. – I wanted to call this post Cherry Smoothi-lee but I didn’t know how well my cheesy pun would translate into a post title so I played it safe 🙂
A.Cook in the Making 