Ginger Pear Green Smoothie: A Seasonal Smoothie for Fall & Winter

This can be made with leftover cranberry sauce whether you are a canned cranberry jelly type person or you like to make your own. I love making my own because it is simple and give you the option of leaving the cranberries whole or making it smooth or a little of both. I secretly also just love the popping sound as the cranberries cook down and the aroma in the kitchen. After Thanksgiving, leftover cranberry sauce is great for those turkey sandwiches, but they also brightens up this smoothie along with some fresh mint.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup of cranberry sauce
• 1/2 cup of apple cider or water
• 2 small pears- I used Bosc pears from my apple share
• 3 kale leaves, greens pulled off the stems
• 1/4 inch piece of ginger, peeled and sliced
• 3-4 mint leaves, chopped

Directions

• Take out your favourite blender.
• Pour in 1/2 cup of apple cider or water.
• Add in 1/4 cup of cranberry sauce
• Core and chop pears into about 1 inch cubes.
• Pull kale leaves off of the stems and roughly chop
• peel and slice ginger into 1/8 inch thick circles
• chop mint leaves (chiffonade ideally)’
• Toss everything into the blender and blend until smooth.

The mint gives this earthier smoothie a little brightness along with the fresh ginger. If you are lucky the mint in your garden (or a nearby community garden) is still growing before the first frosts, but you can find good mint year-round at the store too.

My cranberry sauce is already seasoned with cloves and Port so I did not use any extra spices. If you are using canned cranberry sauce or your family’s recipe is less spiced, you can add cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, chai masala spices, or Chinese five spice. As for sweetness, even though I like my cranberry sauce tart it is also sweet so I added no additional sweetness to my smoothie. If you like a sweeter smoothie, add in some honey or maple syrup.