Cherry + Almond Breakfast Smoothie

For the few weeks cherries are at their best I eat them all day long. Straight from the paper bag on the way home from the shops, baked into cakes and brownies, to top pancakes or laid over a bowl of ice for a quick dessert on a hot day. This is how I get cherries into my mornings and their cheering colour never fails to lift my spirits. Almond butter works here to give this smoothie an almost marzipan note; it works with frozen cherries, too once summer is gone.

SERVES 2

100g cherries, pitted
2 pears, cored and roughly chopped
1 orange, peeled
125ml coconut water or cool herbal tea
100ml almond milk (I use unsweetened)
1 tablespoon almond (or nut) butter

Place all the ingredients in a blender with a little ice if you’d like it really cold. Blitz until you have a thick, deep red smoothie.