Hello lovelies, we have those mornings where everyone has to leave the house at once and nobody is really hungry – and that is exactly when this carrot ginger smoothie saves us. It looks like liquid sunshine, tastes fruity and sweet with a warm kick, and it's ready in 10 minutes without a single pan getting dirty. My girls call it the "orange drink" and to this day they haven't noticed that there are two whole carrots in it.
The base is 2 medium carrots, one apple and 2 fresh oranges – it needs no more sweetness than that, the produce brings it all along by itself. Then comes freshly squeezed orange juice, so the blender has something to work with, and after that the little spice faction: 1 tsp of freshly grated ginger, half a teaspoon of turmeric and a pinch of cinnamon. The ginger doesn't make the smoothie hot, it makes it wide awake – it settles in as a warm note underneath the sweetness, and it's the reason I reach for this in the morning.
Why a teaspoon of linseed oil goes in
This is the ingredient that doesn't look like it belongs in a smoothie, and is nevertheless the most important one. Beta-carotene from the carrots and curcumin from the turmeric are fat-soluble: without a little fat, your body simply can't pull much of them out of the glass. A single teaspoon of linseed oil is plenty for that, you barely taste it between the orange and the ginger – and it turns a pretty orange drink into one that actually delivers.
One tip I wish someone had given me at the start: run the blender longer than you think you need to. Carrots are fibrous, and the first 30 seconds only give you a grainy mush – it takes a good minute before it becomes that velvety, thick orange. If the smoothie ends up too thick, I simply pour in a little water or another splash of orange juice until it drinks nicely.
It's best enjoyed right away, while it's still cool and zingy – so blend, pour, drink. If you get a taste for it, do try my green immune smoothie for the green version, the beetroot-berry smoothie with coconut water as a second vegetable-in-a-glass recipe and – if you love carrot and orange in this combination as much as I do – my crispy orange-carrot waffles.
