Immune boosting turmeric smoothie by Irina Verwer

Immune boosting turmeric smoothie by Irina Verwer

On, rainy, kind of chilly but beautiful nonetheless Autumn days like these, giving your immune system an extra boost is a pretty good idea.Especially if you’re feeling under the weather, this smoothie is your friend. It contains a decent but still very yummy amount of turmeric and other immune boosting ingredients.

Turmeric is one of the foods with the highest antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties. Curcumin, the active ingredient in turmeric, is anti-viral, anti-fungal and can help protect against cancer. It may also help prevent the pain of arthritis, bursitis, and tendonitis, plus it increases the production of enzymes that digest fats and sugars, and stop cholesterol from forming gallstones. When you mix turmeric with black pepper, you increase your body’s absorption significantly.

If you’re not a banana fan (it’s possible! two of my dearest friends won’t touch these lovely babies), you might want to substitute them for extra pears, a few fresh figs or blueberries plus ½ an avocado, or a mango. Tastes amazing as well!

Ingredients smoothie

3 bananas
1 pear
1 – 2 cups of water (depending on how juicy your pear is and/or how thick you’d like your smoothie to be)
about 3 cm fresh ginger
¼ lemon
2 fresh turmeric roots or 1 tbs turmeric powder
¼ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp cinnamon
pinch of cardamom
pinch of nutmeg

Preparation

Put all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Or use an immersion blender, works just as good.

Text: Irina Verwer
Image: Irina Verwer