Thursday March 18 , 2010

Cold and Delicious Again

Chilled juices and creams are cold, delicious and healthy. Refreshing and ideal to cool down at any time on a warm summer’s day, they are healthy because they are packed with vitamins and nutrients.

When it gets warm outside, we crave something cold -and something easy to prepare, who wants to slave at the stove when it is hot enough outside?

This does not mean to live only on salads. We bring you a selection of chilled creams and fruit juices you can enjoy any time you fancy something cold. You don’t need limit yourself to ice creams, with a little imagination you can have a balanced diet and chill out and eat healthily without breaking a sweat.

Many will have a pitcher of iced tea in the fridge. Try iced green tea, rosehips or acerola cherry for a very different cooling flavor. Otherwise, get out the blender, the juicer and get the ice ready. Try some of the recipes for chilled creams and soups we have published in previous issues, and the new ones we have just added, such as chilled avocado cream or carrot cream.

Ajo blanco (white garlic)
Apple gazpacho
Gazpacho
Lettuce cream
Melon and Serrano ham soup
Piquillo pepper cream
Vichyssoise
Curried zucchini cream
Curried zucchini vichyssoise

 For something sweet, get in the juice.

Juice a Melon

1 large ripe melon
1 pinch salt

Halve the melon and remove seeds with a spoon. Remove the skin and chop, juice or process with the blender, add a pinch of salt. Chill before serving.

Use a melon baller and cut some watermelon or melon with flesh in other color for garnishing.

Place the seeds on a strainer over a bowl to get their liquid and add it to the melon juice.

Orange and Mango Smoothie

2 medium sized ripe mangoes, peeled and diced
juice from 4 oranges
4 lime slices for decoration

Mangoes are not good for the juicer. Process the diced mango in the blender together with orange juice. Place crushed ice in four cups and pour the mango-orange juice over. Decorate with a slice of lime on the edge.

Chilled Fruit Smoothie

4 peaches, peeled and diced
3 kiwis, peeled and diced
1 kiwi, sliced

½ ripe pineapple, diced
juice from 1 orange
juice from 1 lemon

Process peaches and pineapple in the blender together with orange and lemon juice. Chill or put crushed ice into 4 tall glasses and distribute the juice among them. Place one slice of kiwi on the edge as decoration.

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