One of may all time favorite fruits are raspberries. While I was growing up, my parents had (and still have) an orchard, so we always had fresh or frozen raspberries, and house was always smelling of them. That love remained strong during the years of my childhood and adulthood, and I’m still loving them.

Their health benefits are numerous. I recently came across a fascinating news that says raspberries have potential to improve management of obesity. Although this research is in early stages, scientists know that metabolism in our fat cells can be increased by phytonutrients found in raspberries. Further: they are full of antioxidants, help in fighting inflammation, certain types of cancer, have a lot of vitamin C and manganese, fiber, copper, vitamin K. The oil from raspberries has a sun protection factor. It’s clear how many benefits they have.

Since they are highly perishable, purchase them one or two days prior to use. Choose berries that are fully ripe and firm and deep in color. You can keep them in your fridge 2-3 days, but if you want to keep them longer, put them in a freezer. Prior to this, you should wash them gently, dry them with a paper towel or let them dry on a room temperature, away from sunlight, and then put them on a flat pan, arrange in a single layer and when they are frozen, you can put them in a plastic container with a lid, they will stay separate and easy to use.

So, here I’m gonna tell you how I make one of my favorite recipes with this perfect fruit and which ingredients you need:

2 cups of frozen raspberries, leave 5-6 pieces for decoration

1 cup of frozen sour cherries

2 bananas

1 tbsp of coconut oil

chia – pudding: I soak about 3-4 spoons of chia seeds in water or semi skimmed milk, stir it well and leave it overnight to soak. In the morning, I have this beautiful, extra healthy pudding. You can use any type of milk you like – almond, coconut, or something else.

These ingredients make for two portions of smoothie.

Method:

Put raspberries, sour cherries and bananas in a blender, together with coconut oil and a little bit of water, and whizz it just to get smooth and pretty thick mass, something like frozen yoghurt.

This is three layer smoothie. My first layer in the bowl is this pink mixture, then I add a layer of chia pudding, then i add few frozen raspberries, but this is optional, and the third layer is again pink raspberry mix.

I decorate it with dried coconut flakes and some pomegranate seeds, but you can use something else.

Another one raspberry smoothie recipe J.Lo even recommends you can find on this link. We certainly hope you’ll enjoy them.