One of the best thing about Bali is the abundance of awesome tropical fruits. A little trip down the winding paths of Penestanan by the paddy canal and we arrive at a little wooden shop that sells raw chocolate cakes, the best bread in town, chilled coconuts and all the colours of island fruits from rambutan to Balinese bitter oranges and right across the spectrum to our favourite, the purple dragon fruit.

The bluish hue is really beyond beautiful. An intense magenta. The fruit seems to change colour as you slice it, as it seeps juice and as it catches the light. The flavour sits somewhere around a kiwi and a pear and these darker pitaya are nowhere near as sweet at their white-freckled brothers and sisters, so you can feel really refreshed without too much heavy sweetness. It doesn’t matter how much pitaya you put in a smoothie, it will turn everything purple.

This morning, after a couple of hours writing looking out over the majestic Mount Agung, it was time for smoothie. Here’s what I made from what was in the fridge:

Ingredients
1/3 purple pitaya (dragon fruit)
1/4 small papaya
1 banana
1 slice mango
juice of 1/2 lemon

Blitz and enjoy, friends. I had mine with some wilted garlic spinach and red cabbage on toast and some tomato and sprouted mung bean on toast. It was that really nice bread from the wooden shop too.

We serve different smoothies every day on retreat. Join us at Art De Vivre, Bali.

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Images from a walk around Ubud, Bali.