Dragon Berry Smoothie

The seasonal fairy strikes again! Dragon fruit is in season and what a fun fruit to incorporate into a cocktail. The dragon fruit is versatile because it stands aside and really enhances the other fruit flavors you put into a dish - in this case: strawberry. Of note: in the photos you’ll see that we have a small bowl of ginger. After experimenting with the recipe we decided that ginger was too strong for the delicate flavor of the two primary fruits and have left it out of the final take. I would not recommend using ginger yourself!

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As you can see, we have the aforementioned ginger in a bowl here. I would recommend leaving the ginger out!

The dragon fruit is one of the most fascinating visuals in the fruit family in my opinion.

I left out the blender in the first photo so I felt obligated to take a second with it….

The dragon fruit peels very easily!

I love the juxtaposition of colors here - the pale against the red. It’s so beautiful in its own way.

The agave can be adjusted to taste. I prefer a very tart cocktail rather than a sweet one. Don’t forget tho - the dragon fruit is an extremely light flavor. You don’t want to overpower that with agave!

New Amsterdam is an excellent vodka. Even their flavored vodkas are quite good; my personal favorite is the lemon.

Don’t worry if you don’t have fancy lime juice, any lime juice will do!

The addition of the mineral water adds a lightness to the smoothie that you otherwise wouldn’t achieve. It gives the drink a fun texture that offsets the presence of the dragon fruit seeds.

I love our blender. It’s so fun and easy to make smoothies and the cleaning process is as simple as filling it halfway with water and a touch of soap and then running it!

Pour the blended drink over ice…

I’ll admit, for aesthetic purposes we added a touch of red food dye to the drink. We wanted the final photos to really show off the color of the strawberries and our kitchen lighting wasn’t doing it any justice. Don’t worry if yours doesn’t come out quite as bright!

Ingredients and Supplies:

• ¾ cup dragon fruit, peeled and cut into cubes

• ¾ cup strawberries, cut into fourths

• 2 oz New Amsterdam 80 proof vodka

• 1 oz lime juice

• 1 tbsp raw blue agave

• Mineral water

• Pinch of salt

• Glass full of ice

• Blender

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Instructions:

1.  Peel dragon fruit

   1. This is the easiest thing you’ll do! Cut the dragon fruit in half (very simple, no pit to worry about) and then use your fingers to pull the skin away from the fruit. It’s almost like an orange peel but thinner and very, very easily removed.

2. Chop dragon fruit and strawberries into cubes and place in blender

   1. This is a loose suggestion at best. Chop the fruit in a way that suits your blender best. We have a bullet-style blender, and we have found that it works best when we chop our fruit on the slightly smaller side.

3. Add a tablespoon of agave

   1. Our favorite is the raw blue agave because it is the least bitter of all the agaves that we’ve tried and has an almost honey-like richness that is appreciated in a straightforward drink like this one.

4. Add 2 oz of vodka

   1. Our absolute favorite vodka of all time is New Amsterdam 80 proof vodka. It’s drinkable by itself, it’s light over the palate, it mixes wonderfully into any drink, and it’s very affordable. Of course you can pick whatever vodka you like as this is not a restrictive requirement.

5. Add 1 oz of lime juice

   1. We were out of the fancy lime juice! I was very sad but it’s ok, this is still very good with a generic, non-organic lime juice. Use what you have and don’t feel pressured to buy all kinds of special ingredients.

6. Top off the blender cup with mineral water

   1. This will probably end up being about 4oz of mineral water if you’re using a large blender. Too much water will make it too thin and not very tasty; you’ll lose the delicate flavor of the dragonfruit.

7. Blend all the ingredients together.

   1. Blend longer than you think you need to. This will help break up the seeds of the dragonfruit and any chunks of strawberry. 

8. Pour over ice and enjoy!