This summer we holidayed in Morocco, splitting our time between Marrakesh and Essaouira. It’s always difficult to choose but they are two of my favourite places on Earth I think. Marrakesh is hot and dusty and a glorious assault on the senses. The souks are weaving and labyrinthine, leading you past glittering lamps and pointy slippers, colourful scarves and heady spices, chameleons, carpets, butchers and bakers – like falling down the rabbit hole – until you are finally spat out onto the main square, the Jemaa el-Fnaa, a great sprawling mass of food stalls, snake charmers and poor little monkeys in fancy dress. It is intoxicating, exciting and exotic. And a world away from London.

The inescapable heat and haggling mean that regular pit-stops are also a must. A glass of sweet mint tea in a shaded courtyard can do wonders on a hot day. But we stumbled across something even better this year – chilled avocado, date, almond and milk smoothies. Wowzer. At once rich and cooling, they are the perfect pick-me-up so I recreated them as soon as we got home.

Want to know something else exciting? This smoothie contains more vitamin E than it knows what to do with. Bucketloads of the stuff. And vitamin E means sexy healthy GLOWING skin. It’s a powerful anti-oxidant that helps to protect and repair your skin from harmful free radicals that cause premature ageing and dryness (and other bad stuff). It’s a truly smoothing smoothie.

Surprisingly filling, indulgently creamy and dairy-free – this 3-ingredient smoothie is the perfect pre- or post-workout snack. Cheers to gorgeous skin!

Vitamin E avocado & almond smoothie

Ingredients:

Makes two glasses

• 6 dates, stoned and cut into chunks
• 1 ripe avocado, stoned and peeled
• 1 1/2 cups (350ml) unsweetened almond milk

Method:

Blitz the dates in a blender until as finely ground as possible. Add the avocado and almond milk and pulse until smooth.

Source: Recipe and photos by pip & little blue.