Healthy smoothie recipes: Aquafaba Fizz Shot, Purple Cabbage Shake

Stiff joints, creaky bones and slower metabolism are all unwelcome reminders that I am getting older. I try to ward off the inevitable through regular exercise and a sensible diet. But I do dabble in some New Age hocus-pocus.

There’s admittedly a look of witchery to my morning liquid intake ritual. The cups that line my breakfast place setting are filled with water (hydration), herbal tea (calmness), coffee — always a cortado (alertness), orange juice (antioxidants, bonus benefit: avoid scurvy) and a demitasse holding a tonic of freshly squeezed citrus juices, a couple dashes of homemade hot sauce, a fork tine of shredded horseradish and a shake of Tajin seasoning. I refer to the latter as a “zinger”; hey, I haven’t had a cold in ages.

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I’m not the only one who keeps the doctor away with drinks. Dee Dine, founder of health-minded website Green Smoothie Gourmet, shares 100 liquid concoctions in her newly published “4-Ingredient Smoothies + Juices” (Page Street Publishing Co., $17.99). Ingredients are selected for their nutritional benefit — stress or weight management, improved sleep, immunity, beauty (glowing skin!) — and then blitzed, juiced, shaken, stirred and even frozen.

Inflammation-fighting purple cabbage may seem off-putting for a smoothie, but, as Dine points out, Purple Cabbage Shake really does taste like a liquid blueberry muffin. While the recipe calls for cashew butter, Dine says any nut butter can be swapped, even sunflower seed butter for those who steer clear of nuts. I used almond butter with creamy, delicious results.

Aquafaba Fizz Shot, touted in the book as an energy drink, is a unique concoction that makes use of aquafaba. The liquid in a can of chickpeas has properties that function much like an egg white, positing aquafaba as an ideal vegan substitute for use as a binder, emulsifier and thickener. The dollop of whipped aquafaba is a terrific counter to the refreshing liquid layer below — a combination that offers all the zing of a gin fizz and none of the alcohol.