+ purslane pitaya green smoothie +

So, I had two of my wisdom teeth pulled recently, and I had to resort to a liquid diet for quite a while. Ice cold smoothies were my go-to meals - apart from baby food - and I had to be creative. I can't even tell you how long I'd been wanting to try purslane. One of my colleagues was kind enough to bring me some from their garden and I could barely contain my excitement. I think my fascination with wild and foraged food will not die down any time soon.  

So, the surgery happened on a Friday morning. It was quite unpleasant, but I felt OK afterwards and I was convinced that I will get away with so much. In the afternoon I felt that I NEEDED to go to Lidl with a one-sided hamster cheek to check out what they have to offer during their Asian week. Am I a hardcore foodie, or what? The fresh food part was not very versatile, so I only got a champagne mango and a pitaya. (I really wish I had bought a whole case of those mangoes though, it was SO delicious, I swear it had a rum like taste.) 

Purslane is quite a curious little plant. You may just weed it out, never knowing how much value it holds. But here I am to give you an insight to its wondrous properties. If you start chewing on a leaf, it will resemble the taste of sorrel, if you ask me. 

Here's why you want to consider ditching plain old spinach every now and then:

• purslane contains more omega-3 fatty acids than any other leafy green vegetable
• a 100 g serving contains a whopping 81% of your recommended vitamin E intake
• it contains two types of pigments that function as antioxidants and have antimutagenic properties
• efficiently removes bisphenol A, an endocrine-disrupting chemical, from a hydroponic solution

Tell me that doesn't sound amazing! All you have to do is blend a handful into your smoothie and you can reap the many nutritional benefits purslane offers. Go check out the full Wikipedia page for more interesting facts. On to the recipe now: 

Ingredients: 

• 1/2 pitaya (dragon fruit), cubed
• 1 frozen banana
• 1 tsp lemon zest (organic) 
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 1,5 cups of coconut water
• a handful of purslane + a few sprigs for garnish 
• a couple of ice cubes (optional)

Instructions: 

As usual, you just have to blend all ingredients, and then garnish. Somehow it tasted like poppy seed cake, not sure why. The little specs of pitaya seeds kind of looked like them too. Here's to being only half-wise now!