Dragon’s Blood Protein Shake

• Yield:1 serving
• Difficulty:Easy
• Time:15 minutes

The name of this protein shake conjures up images of Kung Fu masters and their students battling to the death in a small town somewhere in China. In reality, it’s actually somewhat less romantic—the dragon fruit (also called a pitaya) grows on a cactus-like tree that originally hails from the Americas. The fruits look like scaly little dragons, hence the name. After seeing hundreds of photos of a fruit that’s supposed to be red on the outside and white on the inside with black seeds, that’s what I expected when I bought one and cut into it.

The last thing I expected inside of a fruit that was a rather dull shade of red on the outside was the brightest, loudest, most fluorescent shade of magenta on the inside! It turns out I bought a red pitaya. If you end up buying a white or yellow dragon fruit, your shake may not be as ‘bloody’ as the one in the picture, but it will probably taste the same.

You know what they say about densely colored fruits and vegetables? The more fabulously colored they are, the more antioxidants they contain. If that is true, then after drinking this shake, I may just live forever! Thanks to its splendidly bright color, I half expected it to ‘taste’ magenta as well—perhaps with a tropical or tart flavor. Not even close. It had the texture of a pickled beet (thankfully, it didn’t taste like one!), and it had a mildly sweet and fragile flesh that had a very innocuously neutral flavor. It was reminiscent of a kiwi fruit, with much less ‘kiwi-ness’.

This fruit will taste like whatever you mix with it and still be very, very pink. You could even mess with someone and mix it with peanut butter. I’m sure you’d get a big laugh as watch their face while they take a sip! After this experience, I went on to make banana dragon fruit protein ice cream (but, that’s a recipe for later).

The whole fruit has only about 50 calories and contains a whole host of antioxidants, vitamin C, magnesium, iron, B2, and fiber. The edible seeds also contain some essential fatty acids and protein in small amounts. While it may not be a ‘superfood’ or taste particularly special, you can at least claim you tried something exotic (yet safe enough for the unadventurous), while taking in a bunch of antioxidants to boot!

Ingredients:

• 1 scoop of EFX Sports vanilla whey protein
• 1 dragon fruit
• ½ cup plain nonfat yogurt
• 1 packet of stevia (optional)
• ½ cup water and a few ice cubes
• 1 tsp chia seeds

Directions:

Slice the fruit first, and its flesh will easily pop right out of the skin. It’s so easy, it’s almost weird. There literally seems to be nothing holding the peel onto the fruit. Put a little water in the bottom of the blender, add the protein powder, the fruit, yogurt, and then ice. Blend until smooth. You can either: 1) put the chia seeds in with everything else, or: 2) do what I did and sprinkle them on top to impress people with your fanciness.

Nutrition: