This delicious, delightful Cranberry Lassi is the sixth "Christmas Smoothie" in our series of 7 Daily Christmas Smoothies.
A Lassi is an Indian drink generally made with cultured milk, either yogurt or kefir, and flavours from the 5 basic groups: salty, pungent, sour, sweet and bitter. If you are not vegan/dairy adverse, you could use either of these for the coconut milk/lime juice in following the recipe. Seeing cumin and cayenne (or chili powder) in a more or less dessert-y type smoothie is a bit of a shock, or was for me. But the combination, in concert with the bitter cranberries, is just perfect (my husband thinks so). I used a recipe for cranberry chutney for ideas of workable blends, but you will be happy to recognize that I did not include garlic or an entire chili pepper.
Cumin has been used throughout history in perfume-making, so you can attribute the lovely fragrance partly to that, and partly to the ginger (a wonderful digestion-helper) and other ingredients. I was left with a very nice after-taste and a warming feeling. This is not a drink to bolt down, but to savour over a family get-together early in the morning.
Cranberry Lassi
This makes about two (2) good-sized Adult servings.
Put the following in your Blender Carafe:
* 2 C. Coconut Dream (or similar ready-to-drink Coconut Mylk)
* 1+C. Fresh or Frozen Cranberries (Frozen berries act like ice cubes)
* 1 tsp. Chia Seed (ground in Coffee Grinder)
* 1 tsp. Cumin Seed (ground in Coffee Grinder)
* 1 Small Handful Unsweetened Coconut Shreds
* Fresh-squeezed Lime Juice (1/2 Lime)
* 1 tsp. Grated fresh Ginger
* 3 T. Coconut Palm Sugar
* 1 packet Stevia "Sweet Leaf" powder (Optional)
* Pinch of Salt (I use Celtic Sea Salt for the 82 minerals)
* Pinch of Cayenne or Chili pepper
Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!
Here are the other 6 Christmas Smoothie Recipes for you to sample!
Mandaringo-Ginger Smoothie
Christmas Cake Smoothie
Luscious Eggless Nog Smoothie
Sweet Pumpkin Pie Smoothie